Finding version of Microsoft C++ compiler from command-line (for makefiles)

I must be missing something really obvious, but for some reason, the command-line version of the Microsoft C++ compiler (cl.exe) does not seem to support reporting just its version when run. We need this to write makefiles that check the compiler version a user of our tool has installed (they get makefiles with code they are to compile themselves locally, so we have no control over their compiler version).

In gcc, you just give the option -v or --version to get a nice version string printed.

In cl.exe, you get an error for -v.

I have read the MSDN docs and compiler online help, and I cannot find the switch to just print the compiler version. Annoyingly, you always get the version when the compiler starts... but you seem not to be able to start the compiler just to get the version out of it.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/801279/finding-compiler-vendor-version-using-qmake seemed similar, but only deals with the simple case of gcc.

I am trying this with VC++ Express 2005, if that matters. I hoped it would not, as detecting the compiler version is best done in a compiler-version-independent way :)

Update, after replies:

• Running cl.exe without any arguments prints its version and some help text.
• This looks like the most portable way to get at the version, across vc versions.
• You then have to parse a multi-line output, but that is not too difficult.
• We did this in the end, and it works.

Are you sure you can't just run cl.exe without any input for it to report its version?

I've just tested running cl.exe in the command prompt for VS 2008, 2005, and .NET 2003 and they all reported its version.

For 2008:

> d:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC>cl > > Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 15.00.30729.01 for 80x86

For 2005, SP 1 (added Safe Standard C++ classes):

> C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC>cl > > Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 14.00.50727.762 for 80x86

For 2005:

> C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC>cl > > Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 14.00.50727.42 for 80x86

For .NET 2003:

> Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 13.10.6030 for 80x86

EDIT

For 2010, it will be along the line of:

> Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 16.XX.YYYYY.ZZ for 80x86

or depending on targeted platform

> Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 16.XX.YYYYY.ZZ for x64

For 2012:

> Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 17.XX.YYYYY.ZZ for $$$

where $$$ is the targeted platform (e.g. x86, x64, ARM), and XX, YYYYY, and ZZ are minor version numbers.

For 2013:

> Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 18.XX.YYYYY.ZZ for $$$

where $$$ is the targeted platform (e.g. x86, x64, ARM), and XX, YYYYY, and ZZ are minor version numbers.

For 2015:

> Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.XX.YYYYY for $$$

where $$$ is the targeted platform (e.g. x86, x64, ARM), and XX and YYYYY are minor version numbers.

I had the same problem today. I needed to set a flag in a nmake Makefile if the cl compiler version is 15. Here is the hack I came up with:

!IF ([cl /? 2>&1 | findstr /C:"Version 15" > nul] == 0)
FLAG = "cl version 15"
!ENDIF

Note that cl /? prints the version information to the standard error stream and the help text to the standard output. To be able to check the version with the findstr command one must first redirect stderr to stdout using 2>&1.

The above idea can be used to write a Windows batch file that checks if the cl compiler version is <= a given number. Here is the code of cl_version_LE.bat:

@echo off
FOR /L %%G IN (10,1,%1) DO cl /? 2>&1 | findstr /C:"Version %%G" > nul && goto FOUND
EXIT /B 0
:FOUND
EXIT /B 1

Now if you want to set a flag in your nmake Makefile if the cl version <= 15, you can use:

!IF [cl_version_LE.bat 15]
FLAG = "cl version <= 15"
!ENDIF

Create a .c file containing just the line:

_MSC_VER

or

CompilerVersion=_MSC_VER

then pre-process with

cl /nologo /EP <filename>.c

It is easy to parse the output.

Just run it without options.

P:\>cl.exe
Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 12.00.8168 for 80x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1984-1998. All rights reserved.

usage: cl [ option... ] filename... [ /link linkoption... ]

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.29.30133\bin\Hostx64\x64>cl

Have a look at C++11 Features (Modern C++)

and section "Quick Reference Guide to Visual C++ Version Numbers" ...

Try:

cl /v

Actually, any time I give cl an argument, it prints out the version number on the first line.

You could just feed it a garbage argument and then parse the first line of the output, which contains the verison number.