Rebuilding historical builds through TFS with version numbers

I have automatic build numbering setup, based on build date/name, using approach propos开发者_运维知识库ed by John Robbins from Wintellect described here. So the version/resource file is automatically created on build time but not checked-in.

I wonder how to approach a problem of rebuilding historical versions (based on labels) and having the original build number/name in them. Is it possible to detect 'GetVersion' parameter of MSBuild and try to recreate the original build name from it?

Is it a sane approach anyway? What alternatives do you see?

It's not easy to build a specific changeset (though possible, if you pass the changeset number into your build script and modify the "Get Latest" portion of the build).

However, one easier way of handling this is to create a branch of your code. You can branch at a specific date or changeset, which will create a copy of code from that point in time. Your build scripts can then be pointed at this code.

With respect to your versioning problem: you may find that the only sensible way to do this is to hardcode the required version number. My understanding of your version numbering strategy is that it doesn't relate to anything you can derive from the source (such as the changeset number, date, or file content), and it isn't checked in - so re-calculating it will be pretty complicated!

You ask question Rebuilding historical builds but it actually Rebuilding historical change Set or label, I know what you mean but I am trying to tell you what I need to say, so I don't see that we need to build a label with the specific name the label or change set can has many build as needed and since we use the date and time in the build number it will more realistic to has the current time and date the build was taken instead of old one

Thanks

M.Radwan