Scriptable PE resource editor

Question

I need a tool that's commandline and which supports retrieving version information from the resources of a PE executable and also patch the binary with a new version. What I need to do is to automate incrementing the version of a PE binary.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Resource Tools library [1, 2] with COM interface. You can use it from VBScript/JScript and automate patching of version information as I already do.

Import/browse DLL type library to see COM interface syntax and below is code snippet for automation of VersionInfo patching.

WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
WScript.Echo("Current Directory: " + WshShell.CurrentDirectory);
Image = new ActiveXObject("AlaxInfo.ResourceTools.Image");
Image.Initialize(WshShell.CurrentDirectory + "\\Sample.dll");
WScript.Echo("Product Version: " + Image.VersionInfo.ProductVersionString);
WScript.Echo("File Version: " + Image.VersionInfo.FileVersionString);

VersionString = Image.VersionInfo.FileVersionString;
VersionString = VersionString.replace(" ", "");
VersionString = VersionString.replace(",", ".");
if(/([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)/i.exec(VersionString) == null)
  throw "Incorrect version string";
V1 = new Number(RegExp.$1);
V2 = new Number(RegExp.$2);
V3 = new Number(RegExp.$3);
V4 = new Number(RegExp.$4);
WScript.Echo("File Version Components: " + V1 + ", " + V2 + ", " + V3 + ", " + V4);
V4++;
VersionString = V1 + "." + V2 + "." + V3 + "." + V4;
WScript.Echo("New File Version: " + VersionString);

Image.VersionInfo.SetFileVersion(V1 * 65536 + V2, V3 * 65536 + V4);
Image.VersionInfo.SetString(0, "FileVersion", VersionString);
Image.VersionInfo.Update();
Image.EndUpdate(false);

The library is basically a wrapper over BeginUpdateResource function and friends providing you with automation interface into patching not only numbers but other version info components, strings, bitmaps.