How Can I Programmatically Get the Build Date of a .NET Executable?

Extracting the Build Date from .NET Executables

Determining a .NET executable's build date programmatically can be tricky, as many developers only have access to the build number. This article details a robust method for retrieving this information using C#, leveraging the PE header's embedded timestamp.

Leveraging the PE Header Timestamp

The PE (Portable Executable) header stores a timestamp reflecting the executable's link time. Joe Spivey's C# code provides a convenient way to access this:

<code class="language-csharp">public static DateTime GetLinkerTime(this Assembly assembly, TimeZoneInfo target = null)
{
    string filePath = assembly.Location;
    const int c_PeHeaderOffset = 60;
    const int c_LinkerTimestampOffset = 8;

    byte[] buffer = new byte[2048];

    using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
        stream.Read(buffer, 0, 2048);

    int offset = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, c_PeHeaderOffset);
    int secondsSince1970 = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, offset + c_LinkerTimestampOffset);
    DateTime epoch = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);

    DateTime linkTimeUtc = epoch.AddSeconds(secondsSince1970);

    TimeZoneInfo tz = target ?? TimeZoneInfo.Local;
    DateTime localTime = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeFromUtc(linkTimeUtc, tz);

    return localTime;
}</code>

Example usage:

<code class="language-csharp">DateTime buildDate = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetLinkerTime();</code>

Important Consideration: While effective for .NET Core 1.0, this approach's accuracy might be compromised in later .NET Core versions (1.1 and beyond) due to potential PE header format changes.

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