Command line tool to dump Windows DLL version

Question

I need a command line tool to dump standard Windows DLL version info so I can process it by means of a bash script  Cygwin    As a Java developer I am not very used to Microsoft development tools  though I have a little bit of experience with Microsoft Visual Embedded C   4 0 and Microsoft Visual Basic 6 0    The appropriate tool seems to be mt exe  as stated on SO  However the only chance I have found to get this little application is to download a 1 29 GB ISO of the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and  NET Framework  I can not believe this is the only way to do it   I have also found a little application on the Internet called PEView  but it displays too much  and useless in my case  information and it is not a command line application   Standard objdump bundled inside Cygwin can also dump some information about the DLL files  but I can not see the option to dump DLL version  Note that MajorImageVersion  MinorImageVersion and other fields dumped by this tool  with -p option  are not related to own DLL version   Any alternatives about what to do  Maybe I missed some important objdump option  Is mt exe my only choice  If this is the case  is it possible to get it separately from Windows SDK

User · Answer

C   gt wmic datafile where name  C   Windows  System32  kernel32 dll  get version Version 6 1 7601 18229

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You can also look at filever exe  which can be downloaded as part of the Windows XP SP2 Support Tools package - only 4 7MB of download

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You can write a VBScript script to get the file version info   VersionInfo vbs  set args   WScript Arguments Set fso   CreateObject  Scripting FileSystemObject   WScript Echo fso GetFileVersion args 0   Wscript Quit   You can call this from the command line like this   cscript   nologo VersionInfo vbs C  Path To MyFile dll

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You can use PowerShell to get the information you want    Get-Item C  Path To MyFile dll  VersionInfo   By default this will display ProductVersion and FileVersion But the full VERSIONINFO is available  I e  to return Comments   Get-Item C  Path To MyFile dll  VersionInfo Comments

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or you can build one yourself  Open VS  create a new console application  Create a simple project with no ATL or MFC support  leave the stdafx option checked but do not check  empty project  and call it VersionInfo   You ll get a simple project with 2 files  VersionInfo cpp and VersionInfo h  Open the cpp file and paste the following into it  then compile  You ll be able to run it  first argument is the full filename  it ll print out  Product  5 6 7 8 File  1 2 3 4  based on the Version resource block  If there s no version resource it ll return -1  otherwise 0   Compiles to an 8k binary using the dll CRT  60k with everything linked statically  set in the C   options  change  Code Generation page  Runtime options  to   MT    HTH   PS  If you don t want to use Visual Studio  it ll still compile using any c   compiler  fingers crossed   but you ll almost certainly have to change the  pragma - just specify that lib in the linker settings instead  the pragma s just a shorthand to automatically link with that library        VersionInfo cpp   Defines the entry point for the console application       include  stdafx h   include  lt windows h gt    pragma comment lib   version lib    int  tmain int argc   TCHAR  argv          DWORD handle   0      DWORD size   GetFileVersionInfoSize argv 1    amp handle       BYTE  versionInfo   new BYTE size       if   GetFileVersionInfo argv 1   handle  size  versionInfo                 delete   versionInfo          return -1               we have version information     UINT    len   0      VS FIXEDFILEINFO    vsfi   NULL      VerQueryValue versionInfo  L       void    amp vsfi   amp len        WORD fVersion 4   pVersion 4       fVersion 0    HIWORD vsfi- gt dwFileVersionMS       fVersion 1    LOWORD vsfi- gt dwFileVersionMS       fVersion 2    HIWORD vsfi- gt dwFileVersionLS       fVersion 3    LOWORD vsfi- gt dwFileVersionLS       pVersion 0    HIWORD vsfi- gt dwProductVersionMS       pVersion 1    LOWORD vsfi- gt dwProductVersionMS       pVersion 2    HIWORD vsfi- gt dwProductVersionLS       pVersion 3    LOWORD vsfi- gt dwProductVersionLS        printf  Product   d  d  d  d File   d  d  d  d n            pVersion 0   pVersion 1            pVersion 2   pVersion 3            fVersion 0   fVersion 1            fVersion 2   fVersion 3        delete   versionInfo       return 0

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For some DLLs I found version info manually with objdump in  rsrc  With objdump -s -j  rsrc zlib1 dll    zlib1 dll      file format pei-x86-64  Contents of section  rsrc   62e9e000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000100                    62e9e010 10000000 18000080 00000000 00000000                    62e9e020 00000000 00000100 01000000 30000080              0     62e9e030 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000100                    62e9e040 09040000 48000000 58e00100 34030000      H   X   4     62e9e050 00000000 00000000 34033400 00005600          4 4   V   62e9e060 53005f00 56004500 52005300 49004f00  S   V E R S I O   62e9e070 4e005f00 49004e00 46004f00 00000000  N   I N F O       62e9e080 bd04effe 00000100 02000100 00000b00                    62e9e090 02000100 00000b00 3f000000 00000000                    62e9e0a0 04000000 02000000 00000000 00000000                    62e9e0b0 00000000 94020000 01005300 74007200            S t r   62e9e0c0 69006e00 67004600 69006c00 65004900  i n g F i l e I   62e9e0d0 6e006600 6f000000 70020000 01003000  n f o   p     0   62e9e0e0 34003000 39003000 34004500 34000000  4 0 9 0 4 E 4     62e9e0f0 64001e00 01004600 69006c00 65004400  d     F i l e D   62e9e100 65007300 63007200 69007000 74006900  e s c r i p t i   62e9e110 6f006e00 00000000 7a006c00 69006200  o n     z l i b   62e9e120 20006400 61007400 61002000 63006f00    d a t a   c o   62e9e130 6d007000 72006500 73007300 69006f00  m p r e s s i o   62e9e140 6e002000 6c006900 62007200 61007200  n   l i b r a r   62e9e150 79000000 2e000700 01004600 69006c00  y         F i l   62e9e160 65005600 65007200 73006900 6f006e00  e V e r s i o n   62e9e170 00000000 31002e00 32002e00 31003100      1   2   1 1   62e9e180 00000000 34000a00 01004900 6e007400      4     I n t   62e9e190 65007200 6e006100 6c004e00 61006d00  e r n a l N a m   62e9e1a0 65000000 7a006c00 69006200 31002e00  e   z l i b 1     62e9e1b0 64006c00 6c000000 7c002c00 01004c00  d l l         L   62e9e1c0 65006700 61006c00 43006f00 70007900  e g a l C o p y   62e9e1d0 72006900 67006800 74000000 28004300  r i g h t     C   62e9e1e0 29002000 31003900 39003500 2d003200      1 9 9 5 - 2   62e9e1f0 30003100 37002000 4a006500 61006e00  0 1 7   J e a n   62e9e200 2d006c00 6f007500 70002000 47006100  - l o u p   G a   62e9e210 69006c00 6c007900 20002600 20004d00  i l l y    amp    M   62e9e220 61007200 6b002000 41006400 6c006500  a r k   A d l e   62e9e230 72000000 3c000a00 01004f00 72006900  r    lt      O r i   62e9e240 67006900 6e006100 6c004600 69006c00  g i n a l F i l   62e9e250 65006e00 61006d00 65000000 7a006c00  e n a m e   z l   62e9e260 69006200 31002e00 64006c00 6c000000  i b 1   d l l     62e9e270 2a000500 01005000 72006f00 64007500        P r o d u   62e9e280 63007400 4e006100 6d006500 00000000  c t N a m e       62e9e290 7a006c00 69006200 00000000 32000700  z l i b     2     62e9e2a0 01005000 72006f00 64007500 63007400    P r o d u c t   62e9e2b0 56006500 72007300 69006f00 6e000000  V e r s i o n     62e9e2c0 31002e00 32002e00 31003100 00000000  1   2   1 1       62e9e2d0 78003000 01004300 6f006d00 6d006500  x 0   C o m m e   62e9e2e0 6e007400 73000000 46006f00 72002000  n t s   F o r     62e9e2f0 6d006f00 72006500 20006900 6e006600  m o r e   i n f   62e9e300 6f007200 6d006100 74006900 6f006e00  o r m a t i o n   62e9e310 20007600 69007300 69007400 20006800    v i s i t   h   62e9e320 74007400 70003a00 2f002f00 77007700  t t p       w w   62e9e330 77002e00 7a006c00 69006200 2e006e00  w   z l i b   n   62e9e340 65007400 2f000000 44000000 01005600  e t     D     V   62e9e350 61007200 46006900 6c006500 49006e00  a r F i l e I n   62e9e360 66006f00 00000000 24000400 00005400  f o           T   62e9e370 72006100 6e007300 6c006100 74006900  r a n s l a t i   62e9e380 6f006e00 00000000 0904e404 00000000  o n

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The listdlls tools from Systernals might do the job  http   technet microsoft com en-us sysinternals bb896656 aspx  listdlls -v -d mylib dll

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Use Microsoft Sysinternals Sigcheck  This sample outputs just the version   sigcheck -q -n foo dll   Unpacked sigcheck exe is only 228 KB

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There is an command line application called  ShowVer  at CodeProject   ShowVer exe command-line VERSIONINFO display program  As usual the application comes with an exe and the source code  VisualC   6    Out outputs all the meta data available   On a German Win7 system the output for user32 dll is like this   VERSIONINFO for file  C  Windows system32 user32 dll     type 0    Signature        feef04bd   StrucVersion     1 0   FileVersion      6 1 7601 17514   ProductVersion   6 1 7601 17514   FileFlagsMask    0x3f   FileFlags        0   FileOS           VOS NT WINDOWS32   FileType         VFT DLL   FileDate         0 0  LangID  040704B0   CompanyName         Microsoft Corporation   FileDescription     Multi-User Windows USER API Client DLL   FileVersion         6 1 7601 17514  win7sp1 rtm 101119-1850    InternalName        user32   LegalCopyright         Microsoft Corporation  Alle Rechte vorbehalten    OriginalFilename    user32   ProductName         Betriebssystem Microsoft   Windows     ProductVersion      6 1 7601 17514  Translation  040704b0

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and one way with makecab      echo off   goto  end help   setlocal DsiableDelayedExpansion             fileinf  l list of full file paths separated with       fileinf  f text file with a list of files to be processed   one on each line       fileinf    prints the help        end help    REM Creating a Newline variable  the two blank lines are required     set NLM       set NL     NLM  NLM   NLM  NLM    if    1  equ      type    f0    find         find  v  find   amp  amp  exit  b 0   if    2  equ    type    f0    find         find  v  find   amp  amp  exit  b 0   setlocal enableDelayedExpansion   if    1  equ   l       set   files   2     echo   files    NL   gt   TEMP  file paths     set  process file   TEMP  file paths     goto  get info        if    1  equ   f  if exist    2       set  process file    2     goto  get info        echo incorect parameters  amp  exit  b 1    get info   set  file info      makecab  d InfFileName  TEMP  file inf  d  DiskDirectory1  TEMP    f    f0    f   process file   v0 gt nul    for  f  usebackq skip 4 delims     f in    TEMP  file inf   do      set  file info   f     echo  file info    nl          endlocal  endlocal   del  q  f  TEMP  file inf 2 gt nul   del  q  f  TEMP  file path 2 gt nul   exit  b 0   set DoNotCopyFiles on  set DestinationDir    set RptFileName nul  set InfFooter    set InfHeader    Set ChecksumWidth 8  Set InfDiskLineFormat    Set Cabinet off  Set Compress off  Set GenerateInf ON  Set InfDiskHeader    Set InfFileHeader    set InfCabinetHeader    Set InfFileLineFormat   file  file  date  date  size  size  csum  csum  time  time  vern  ver  vers  vers  lang  lang     example output  it has a string version which is a small addition to wmic method        c  gt  fileinfo bat  l C  install exe     file install exe     date 11 07 07     size 562688     csum 380ef239     time 07 03 18a     vern 9 0 21022 8     vers 9 0 21022 8 built by  RTM     lang 1033   and one more  Using shell application and hybrid batch jscript Here s tooptipInfo bat     if   X     Y   end    JScript comment      echo off      rem    the first argument is the script name as it will be used for proper help message     cscript   E JScript   nologo    f0          exit  b  errorlevel    if   X     Y   end JScript comment             FSOObj   new ActiveXObject  Scripting FileSystemObject    var ARGS   WScript Arguments  if  ARGS Length  lt  1      WScript Echo  No file passed     WScript Quit 1     var filename ARGS Item 0   var objShell new ActiveXObject  Shell Application              fso ExistsItem   function  path        return FSOObj FolderExists path   FSOObj FileExists path      getFullPath   function  path        return FSOObj GetAbsolutePathName path           paths getParent   function path       var splitted path split            var result         for  var s 0 s lt splitted length-1 s             if  s  0                result splitted s             else               result result      splitted s                       return result      getName   function path       var splitted path split            return splitted splitted length-1         function main        if   ExistsItem filename             WScript Echo filename     does not exist            WScript Quit 2             var fullFilename getFullPath filename       var namespace getParent fullFilename       var name getName fullFilename       var objFolder objShell NameSpace namespace       var objItem objFolder ParseName name         https   msdn microsoft com en-us library windows desktop bb787870 v vs 85  aspx     WScript Echo fullFilename               WScript Echo objFolder GetDetailsOf objItem -1        main      used against cmd exe    C  Windows System32 cmd exe   File description  Windows Command Processor Company  Microsoft Corporation File version  6 3 9600 16384 Date created   22- Aug- 13   13 03 Size  347 KB

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This function returns the ntfs Windows file details for any file using Cygwin bash  actual r-click-properties-info  to the term  Pass the files path to finfo    can be unix path  dos path  relative or absolute  The file is converted into an absolute nix path  then checked to see if it is in-fact a regular existing file  Then converted into an absolute windows path and sent to  wmic   Then magic  you have windows file details right in the terminal  Uses  cygwin  cygpath  sed  and awk  Needs Windows WMI  wmic exe  to be operational  The output is corrected for easy       finfo notepad exe   finfo  C  windows system32 notepad exe     finfo  cygdrive c Windows System32 notepad exe    finfo   cygdrive c Program Files notepad exe    finfo    notepad exe  finfo            -e    cygpath -wa                echo  bad-file   return 1        echo    wmic datafile where name      echo    cygpath -wa          sed  s         g      get  value          sed  s  r  g s  M        d    awk -F      print  1     033 1m  2  033 0m

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Using Powershell it is possible to get just the Version string  i e  2 3 4 from any dll or exe with the following command   Get-Item  C  program files OpenVPN bin openvpn exe   VersionInfo ProductVersion   Tested on Windows 10

[dll] Command line tool to dump Windows DLL version?

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