[RESOLVED] How to get file versions

[Apoc]

Well, I've been searching for quite a few hours now, and I've made no progress.

I'm writing an update server for my .NET based programs. Currently, the server is running PHP5 on CentOS 5.

I've run into a really bad snag unfortunately. I need to be able to extract the file version information for a selected file (can be an .exe or .dll) to perform a check for updates.

I could easily just require the file version to be supplied when uploading the binaries, but that defeats my purpose of ease-of-use.

Anyhow, the idea is this;

I've developed a program that offers a plug-in architecture in .NET (C#). I'd like to be able to offer plug-in authors the ability to call a few simple functions to check, and actually update their plug-ins at any time they choose (or the user chooses).

I've already got 99% of the front and, and back ends finished, and working fine. For right now, I'm requiring developers to supply a file version when either uploading a new plug-in, or updating an old one on the server. I'd prefer to be able to remove that need, and dynamically look up file version info when needed. (This would drastically cut down on SQL queries, and XML file loads. Since my server isn't especially 'beefy' I need this performance increase, and resource reduction.)

I've already thought about using upload times, and file change times, but it's not really a reliable way to produce whether a file requires an update or not. (I currently provide a way to allow updates on any file version part [Major, Minor, Build, Revision]. So a developer could specify to only require updates on Minor versions, but allow beta updates on Build/Revision updates.)

In simple terms, I need something like the following pseudo-code (or a way to accomplish it at least):

$fileToCheck = $_POST['filename']; // Can be MyApp.exe, or MyPlugin.dll
$currentUserVersion = $_POST['version']; // Something like 1.0.2.6256

// Of course, I'm excluding proper file/version verification for the sake of this example
$currentFileVersion = getFileVersion("/path/to/updatable/files/".$fileToCheck);

// This is just a 'it just works' type thing. I currently explode the value and do the checks from the arrays
if ($currentFileVersion > $currentUserVersion)
{
echo "UPDATE_AVAILABLE";
}

[bpat1434]

Where is the file version actually stored? Inside the exe/dll or what? Is there a plain-text way of getting the file version?

It would be one thing if they were uploading a .deb package where it's really just tarred up. Then you can either (a) look at the headers of the file to get the version or untar it and look in a specific file for the version number.

The problem with exes is that you can't do that (I don't think). And DLL's I'm pretty sure don't show much in plain-text. I think your only option is to really ask what version of the file(s) they're uploading. Unless you can tackle how to read data from a .exe....

I just checked Firefox's .exe (and their sqlite3.dll) and searched for the string version. I didn't find anything about Firefox's version; however, that doesn't mean your exe's won't have that.

Alternatively you could require that developers tar (or zip or bz2 or gzip) their files up with a "version.txt" file. You then un-tar/zip/bzip/gzip their file, use version.txt to identify the version, then just save the included file(s) on your system. Not sure how that would work out for you, but it's an option.

[bradgrafelman]

Here's a quick-and-dirty way to do it:

$data = file_get_contents($path_to_file, FILE_BINARY);

if(preg_match('/\0F\0i\0l\0e\0V\0e\0r\0s\0i\0o\0n\0([0-9\.\0]+)/', $data, $matches)) {
    echo 'File Version: ' . str_replace("\0", "", $matches[1]);
}

Also note that "FileVersion" could be replaced with "ProductVersion".

EDIT: This approach obviously assumes that the version will consist only of numbers and periods.

[Apoc]

bradgrafelman;10905316 wrote:

Here's a quick-and-dirty way to do it:

$data = file_get_contents($path_to_file, FILE_BINARY);

if(preg_match('/\0F\0i\0l\0e\0V\0e\0r\0s\0i\0o\0n\0([0-9\.\0]+)/', $data, $matches)) {
    echo 'File Version: ' . str_replace("\0", "", $matches[1]);
}

Also note that "FileVersion" could be replaced with "ProductVersion".

EDIT: This approach obviously assumes that the version will consist only of numbers and periods.

Unfortunately, that won't work for what I'm trying to do. (As .NET doesn't require you to input a product version, or file version for that matter.) Developers would have a choice as to what version they choose to use as their 'check for updates' version. So I really needed to pull all 3 if I could. (Plus actual company names in case there were duplicate files. Though, typically, company names aren't for 'real companies', just individual developers.)

I was forced to read the PE header, and the StringFileInfo entries manually in order to get the info I needed. (I only grabbed a few things from the PE header, one being the optional CLR header [which is required by .NET] so I'm not hosting any native code.)

Just dumping all the fields from the StringFileInfo entries gives me much more (useful?) information.

E.g, a typical request for a file will output the following text for my updater implementation (this is in the actual product that I ship out):

FileType=32-bit UNICODE
FileVersion=0.1.2.2
ProductVersion=0.2.0.0
OriginalFilename=MyDLL.dll
InternalName=MyDLL.dll
FileDescription=MyDLL
LegalCopyright=Copyright © MyDLL.NET 2009
CompanyName=MyDLL.NET
Assembly Version=0.1.3.2
ProductName=MyDLL

Then I just parse this info back in the application, and do any necessary things there.

Sadly, since I couldn't figure out how to get PHP to read only certain offsets of the file, and do conversions from<->to unicode/ASCII, I had to default back to Perl. (Which I really don't like using.)

I attempted to read the PE header in full (as then I could just keep around a general Win32PE class in PHP) but quickly found out, it was not something that could easily be done in PHP. (Too much pointer arithmetic I guess.)

Thanks for the help though, if you can come up with an easier method than something similar to

if (!file_exists($path)) die("File does not exist");
$out = shell_exec("perl fileinfo.pl ".$path);
echo nl2br($out);

Please do let me know.

P.S. Below is the Perl code I'm using. (Credits in the header)

#!perl -w

# A modified version of Max Maischein's (aka Corion) script found at 
# http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=15871 on Perl Monks.

die "Specify a .exe/.dll-file to get information on.\n" unless @ARGV == 1;

my $filename = shift;
get_version($filename);

sub MakeUnicode 
{ 
	my ($S) = @_; 
	$S =~ s/(.)/$1\x00/g; 
	return $S; 
}; 

sub MakeASCII 
{ 
	my ($S) = @_; 
	$S =~ s/(.)\x00/$1/g; 
	return $S; 
}; 


sub dumpfile 
{ 
	my $filename = shift;
	my $exedata;
	my %Result;

# Regex definitions
# For files that are 32-bit
my $StringFileInfoU = 	"..\x00\x00[\x00\x01]\x00" . MakeUnicode("StringFileInfo") . "(?:\x00\x00)+" . 	# StringFileInfo header
						"((..)\x00\x00[\x00\x01]\x00(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]\x00){8}(?:\x00\x00)+)" . 			# StringTable header
						"(.*)"; # Strings

open EXE, "<$filename" or die "Cannot open $filename\n";
binmode EXE;
local $/;
undef $/;
$exedata = <EXE>;	# sluuuuurp
close EXE;

# 32bit Windows Unicode format
if ($exedata =~ /$StringFileInfoU/gms) 
{
	my ($STHeader, $Len, $Info) = ($1,$2,$3);
	undef $exedata;
	$Result{"FileType"} = "32-bit UNICODE";

	$Len = unpack( "v", $Len );
	$Len -= length( $STHeader );
	$Info = substr( $Info, 0, $Len );

	while ($Info) 
	{
		my $Sublen;
		my ($Next, $Value, $Type) = unpack("vvv", substr( $Info, 0, 6 ));
		$Sublen = $Next - 6;

		while ($Next % 4) 
		{ 
			$Next++ 
		};

		last unless $Next;
		my $Item = substr($Info, 6, $Sublen);
		my (@Info) = ();

		# Extract the key :
		$Item =~ s/^((?:..)+?)(\x00\x00)+//sm;
		my ($Key) = MakeASCII( $1 );

		while ($Item =~ s/^((?:..)+?)(\x00\x00)+//sm) 
		{
			push @Info, MakeASCII( $1 );
		}

		$Result{$Key} = $Info[0];
		shift @Info;

		if ($Next < length( $Info )) 
		{ # != ?
			$Info = substr( $Info, $Next );
		} 
		else 
		{
			$Info = "";
		}
	}
} 
else 
{
	print "[StringFileInfo not found in $filename]\n";
}
return \%Result;
}

sub get_version 
{
	my $data = dumpfile($_[0]); 
	while(my($key,$value) = each(%{$data}))
	{ 
		print "$key=$value\n";
	}
}

[Weedpacket]

bpat1434 wrote:

I just checked Firefox's .exe (and their sqlite3.dll) and searched for the string version. I didn't find anything about Firefox's version; however, that doesn't mean your exe's won't have that.

The version number on my copy of firefox.exe is 1.9.0.3257, and that of sqlite3.dll is 3.5.9.0 (have a look at the file's properties under Explorer).

I couldn't find much in Microsoft's documentation about how to find that information (except something about GetDllVersionInfo(); perhaps using the [man]win32api[/man] to ask kernel32.dll to get the information will work).

Well, here's that code ported to PHP; it's a fairly simple-minded translation.

<?php
if($argc <= 1)
	die("Specify an .exe/.dll-file to get information on.\n");
$filename = $argv[1];
get_version($filename);

function MakeUnicode($S)
{
	return join('\0', str_split($S)) . '\0';
}

function MakeASCII($S)
{
	return preg_replace('/(.)\0/s', '$1', $S);
}

function dumpfile($filename)
{

$exedata = file_get_contents($filename) or die("Cannot open $filename\n");

// 32bit Windows Unicode format
if(preg_match('/..\0\0[\0\01]\0' . MakeUnicode("StringFileInfo") . '(?:\0\0)+((..)\0\0[\0\01]\0(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]\0){8}(?:\0\0)+)(.*)/ms', $exedata, $match))
{
	list($junk, $STHeader, $Len, $Info) = $match;
	unset($exedata, $junk);
	$Result["FileType"] = "32-bit UNICODE";

	$Len = unpack("vlen", $Len);
	$Len = $Len['len'] - strlen($STHeader);
	$Info = substr($Info, 0, $Len);
	while($Info)
	{
		$array = unpack("vnext/vvalue/vtype", substr($Info, 0, 6));
		$Next = $array['next'];
		$Value = $array['value'];
		$Type = $array['type'];
		$Sublen = $Next - 6;

		while($Next % 4)
		{
			$Next++;
		}
		if(!$Next)
			break;

		$Item = substr($Info, 6, $Sublen);
		$aInfo = array();

		// Extract the key :
		// There's probably a smarter way to do this in PHP...
		preg_match('/^((?:..)+?)(\0\0)+/sm', $Item, $match, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);

		$Key = MakeASCII($match[1][0]);
		$Item = substr($Item, strlen($match[0][0]));
		while(preg_match('/^((?:..)+?)(\0\0)+/sm', $Item, $match, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE))
		{
			$aInfo[] = MakeASCII($match[1][0]);
			$Item = substr($Item, 0, $match[0][1]);
		}

		$Result[$Key] = array_shift($aInfo);

		if($Next < strlen($Info))
		{
			$Info = substr($Info, $Next);
		} else
		{
			$Info = "";
		}
	}
	return $Result;
}
print"[StringFileInfo not found in $filename]\n";
return array();
}

function get_version($filename)
{
	$data = dumpfile($filename);
	foreach($data as $key=>$value)
	{
		print"$key=$value\n";
	}
}

[Apoc]

Thank you very, very much Weedpacket. I used your code and just wrote a small class to make accessing the Win32 information a bit easier.

<?php

// Credits to Weedpacket @ PHPBuilder.com for the PHP code below. (http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showpost.php?p=10905375&postcount=5)
// Original code was in Perl. Credits for that are below.
// A modified version of Max Maischein's (aka Corion) script found at http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=15871 on Perl Monks.


// Win32PE.php is a simple class to grab version, and assembly information from Win32 files. (exe/dll)
// PHP5 or greater is required.

define( 'ROOT_PATH', dirname( __FILE__ ) ."/" );

class Win32PE
{
	// This will be 32-bit UNICODE if the file was found, and able to be opened.
	public $FileType;

// The actual FileDescription attribute on the Win32 binary.
public $FileDescription;

public $InternalName;
public $OriginalFilename;
public $ProductName;

public $Copyright;
public $CompanyName;

// These are in the form of a small Version class. (See bottom)
public $ProductVersion;
public $AssemblyVersion;
public $FileVersion;

public $FilePath;

// This is only if you want direct access to the array.
// In most cases, just using the above vars is good enough.
public $FileInfo = array();

public function __construct($fileName)
{
	if (!file_exists(ROOT_PATH.$fileName)) die("File does not exist.");
	// Get a lower case extension string
	$ext = strtolower(substr($fileName, strrpos($fileName, '.') + 1));
	if ($ext != "exe" && $ext != "dll") die("Invalid file format.");

	// Set some basic info.
	$this->FilePath = ROOT_PATH.$fileName;
	//echo $this->FilePath."<br/>";
	// Parse the file dump and populate our variables up top.		
	$this->ParseDump();
}	

private function MakeUnicode($S)
{
	return join('\0', str_split($S)) . '\0';
}

private function MakeASCII($S)
{
	return preg_replace('/(.)\0/s', '$1', $S);
}

private function GetFileInfo()
{
	// Credits to Weedpacket @ PHPBuilder.com for the PHP code below. (http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showpost.php?p=10905375&postcount=5)
	// Original code was in Perl. Credits for that are below.
	// A modified version of Max Maischein's (aka Corion) script found at http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=15871 on Perl Monks.	
	$exedata = file_get_contents($this->FilePath) or die("Cannot open $this->FilePath\n");

	if(preg_match('/..\0\0[\0\01]\0' . $this->MakeUnicode("StringFileInfo") . '(?:\0\0)+((..)\0\0[\0\01]\0(?:[0-9A-Fa-f]\0){8}(?:\0\0)+)(.*)/ms', $exedata, $match))
	{
		list($junk, $STHeader, $Len, $Info) = $match;
		unset($exedata, $junk);
		$Result["FileType"] = "32-bit UNICODE";

		$Len = unpack("vlen", $Len);
		$Len = $Len['len'] - strlen($STHeader);
		$Info = substr($Info, 0, $Len);
		while($Info)
		{
			$array = unpack("vnext/vvalue/vtype", substr($Info, 0, 6));
			$Next = $array['next'];
			$Value = $array['value'];
			$Type = $array['type'];
			$Sublen = $Next - 6;

			while($Next &#37; 4)
			{
				$Next++;
			}
			if(!$Next)
				break;

			$Item = substr($Info, 6, $Sublen);
			$aInfo = array();

			// Extract the key :
			// There's probably a smarter way to do this in PHP...
			preg_match('/^((?:..)+?)(\0\0)+/sm', $Item, $match, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE);

			$Key = $this->MakeASCII($match[1][0]);
			$Item = substr($Item, strlen($match[0][0]));
			while(preg_match('/^((?:..)+?)(\0\0)+/sm', $Item, $match, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE))
			{
				$aInfo[] = $this->MakeASCII($match[1][0]);
				$Item = substr($Item, 0, $match[0][1]);
			}

			$Result[$Key] = array_shift($aInfo);

			if($Next < strlen($Info))
			{
				$Info = substr($Info, $Next);
			} 
			else
			{
				$Info = "";
			}
		}
		return $Result;
	}
	print"[StringFileInfo not found in $this->FilePath]\n";
	return array();	
}

private function ParseDump()
{
	$FileInfo = $this->GetFileInfo();
	foreach($FileInfo as $key=>$value)
	{
		switch ($key)
		{
			case "FileType":
				$this->FileType = $value;
				break;
			case "CompanyName":
				$this->CompanyName = $value;
				break;
			case "FileDescription":
				$this->FileDescription = $value;
				break;
			case "FileVersion":
				$this->FileVersion = new Version($value);
				break;
			case "InternalName":
				$this->InternalName = $value;
				break;
			case "LegalCopyright":
				$this->Copyright = $value;
				break;
			case "OriginalFilename":
				$this->OriginalFilename = $value;
				break;
			case "ProductName":
				$this->ProductName = $value;
				break;
			case "ProductVersion":
				$this->ProductVersion = new Version($value);
				break;
			case "Assembly Version":
				$this->AssemblyVersion = new Version($value);
				break;
			default:
				// Do something extra here if we get something
				// we don't know about. Currently, this isn't needed.
				break;
		}
	}
}	

private function __toString()
{
	$tmp = array(	"File Type: ".				$this->FileType, 
					"File Description: ".		$this->FileDescription, 
					"Internal Name: ".			$this->InternalName, 
					"Original Filename: ".		$this->OriginalFilename,
					"Product Name: ".			$this->ProductName, 
					"Copyright: ".				$this->Copyright, 
					"Company Name: ".			$this->CompanyName, 
					"Product Version: ".		$this->ProductVersion,
					"Assembly Version: ".		$this->AssemblyVersion, 
					"File Version: ".			$this->FileVersion,
					//"File Path: ".		$this->FilePath // Leaving this commented out for 'security'
				);
	return nl2br(implode("\n", $tmp));
}

// Note: This must be sent out first, before sending any other headers.
// Most likely on a POST/GET request or the like for this file class.
// You're obviously more than welcome to refactor this function out of this class
// for other uses.
public function Download()
{
	if (file_exists($this->FilePath)) 
	{
		header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream');
		header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.basename($this->FilePath));
		header('Content-Length: ' . filesize($this->FilePath));
		readfile($this->FilePath);
		exit;
	} 
}
}

// Just a simple Version class to hold the Major, Minor, Build, and Revision pieces of a version string.
// This could easily just be done via Regex. But since I prefer the idea of OOP. I do it this way.
class Version
{
	// Version info works like this:
	// Major.Minor.Build.Revision
	// 0.1.5.7 : Major = 0, Minor = 1, Build = 5, Revision = 7
	public $Major;
	public $Minor;
	public $Build;
	public $Revision;

public $AsArray = array();

public function __construct($versionString)
{
	$this->AsArray = explode(".", $versionString);

	list($major, $minor, $build, $revision) = $this->AsArray;

	$this->Major = $major;
	$this->Minor = $minor;
	$this->Build = $build;
	$this->Revision = $revision;		
}

// If we really don't care about using the different version numbers
public function __toString()
{
	return implode(".", array($this->Major, $this->Minor, $this->Build, $this->Revision));
}
}

?>

I'm sure I could change the Download() function to send out zip files, but for now, it works, and I'd rather not mess with it any more than I need to.