Rob Kennedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on Mon, 31 Oct 2005 15:30:53 -0600 (CST):
> That doesn't mean that Delphi puts accurate values in those fields. Delphi does put accurate values in there though. I've been using this for the past few years and the dates always match the file dates on my own programs. When looking at exes in the Delphi bin folder, I can see when many files were compiled (not all have a timestamp), and can see where the file times were updated to be the version number for release. Any of these files also usually have several instances of the timestamp. DatedExe.exe itself contains 54 copies of its own timestamp. I suppose if it's inaccurate, it's at least very strongly reinforced. You can see this by looking at any Delphi-compiled PE file (exe, dll, bpl) in a hex viewer by finding "DVCLAL" as Unicode then looking a page or two above (assuming a 16-byte wide debug-style display). There will be a portion that is mostly null but has a repeating byte pattern in the center and on the right edge of the column, amidst other bytes. The constant byte pattern is the timestamps for each resource item linked in. I put DatedExe.exe on my website for folks to try out. The file itself is a good example of why the file timestamp is not reliable as a compile date, since web servers often don't preserve file dates. The exe file now has today's date on the outside, but the original compile date on the inside. http://www.mindspring.com/~tfiske/DatedExe.exe direct dl http://www.mindspring.com/~tfiske/delphi.html brief usage notes - Todd _______________________________________________ Delphi mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi
