Generates a build number to be appended to your product version number, which is unique for each build and which can be read "by a human" to learn about the build time. No need for maintaining the most recent build number in your sources, incrementing it during the build and committing & pushing the new one to your sources.

Try generating your build number or parsing an existing one an print the build time online!

Note: If you use Node.js < 14.8, stay with the versions 1.x. The functionality of the command-line script and of the API is the same. Requirements on the browser didn't change.

The generated build number has the following features:

• The date and time of the build can be read "by a human" from looking at the build number. (Uses BCD notation for a year-month-day time stamp: YYMMDDCCC. "CCC" is the count of 2-minute intervals after midnight.)
• A new unique number can be generated every two minutes. (Enough for usual CI/CD builds running on a central build server after every push to the source code repository.)
• The build number has fixed number of digits. (Contains always nine digits for easier column formatting of version numbers.)
• The build number is an integer. (Can be parsed to a 32-bit integer, if it needs to be processed as a number elsewhere.)

This module offers the following functionality:

• Command-line tool to generate, validate and parse the build numbers. (Can be integrated to any build script.)
• ESM, CJS and UMD modules offering an API for programmatic usage in Node.js, Deno and a web browser. Can be integrated to JavaScript build scripts like Grunt or Gulp.
• Includes TypeScript types.
• No dependencies.
• Tiny size - 1.12 kB minified, 602 B gzipped, 530 B brotlied.

Full version:     1.0.3.180625392

Product version:  1.0.3
Build number:     180625392 (2018-06-25, 392*2 minutes after midnight)
Built at:         25 June 2018 1:04 PM

Product version marks the particular version of your product for identification and compatibility-checking purposes. The format of the version number is not fixed. Node.js modules usually comply with the semver standard.

Build number is an additional stamp to be appended to the e product version to identify, when your product package was built.

Make sure that you have Node.js >= 8 installed. Install the build-number-generator package globally using your favourite package manager to be able to generate and parse build numbers by running buildnumgen from any directory in PATH:

$ npm i -g build-number-generator
$ pnpm i -g build-number-generator
$ yarn global add build-number-generator

$ buildnumgen
180625392

$ buildnumgen 1.0.3
1.0.3.180625392

$ buildnumgen 180625392
Mon Jun 25 2018 13:04

$ buildnumgen 1.0.3.180625392
Mon Jun 25 2018 13:04

Running buildnumgen --help prints usage instructions:

$ buildnumgen -h

  Usage: buildnumgen [options] [build_number|product_version]

  Options:

    -V, --version                output the version number
    -s, --separator <separator>  separates product version from build number
    -v, --validate               only validates a build number
    -h, --help                   output usage information

  Prints a new build number if called without arguments. If called with a
  previously generated build number, it will print the time, when it was
  generated. If called with a semver number, it will append the build number
  to it and print the result. The default build number separator is dot (.).
  When validating a build number, the process exists with zero if the input
  is valid, otherwise it exists with a non-zero.

The package.json exposes module bundles for Node.js (CJS, UMD and ESM) and the browser (UMD and ESM). They exports four functions to generate build numbers, validate them, parse them to Date instances and format them to shortened readable Date strings.

import { generate, validate, parse, format } from 'build-number-generator'

// Returns '180625392'
const buildNumber = generate()
// Returns '1.0.3.180625392'
const buildNumber = generate('1.0.3')
// Returns '1.0.3.180625392'
const buildNumber = generate({ version: '1.0.3' })
// Returns '2018/06-180625392'
const buildNumber = generate({ version: '2018/06', versionSeparator: '-' })

// Returns true
const valid = validate('180625392')
// Returns true
const valid = validate('1.0.3.180625392')
// Returns false
const valid = validate('1.0.3')

// Returns Date instance with Jun 25 2018 13:04
const time = parse('180625392')
// Returns Date instance with Jun 25 2018 13:04
const time = parse('1.0.3.180625392')
// Throws an error
const time = parse('1.0.3')

// Returns 'Mon Jun 25 2018 13:04'
const buildTime = format('180625392')
// Returns 'Mon Jun 25 2018 13:04'
const buildTime = format('1.0.3.180625392')

Make sure that you use Node.js >= 8. Install the build-number-generator package locally as a development dependency using your favourite package manager:

npm i -D build-number-generator
pnpm i -D build-number-generator
yarn add -D build-number-generator

Either import methods from the API using the CJS module:

const { generate, validate, parse, format } = require('build-number-generator')
...

Or import methods from the API using the ESM module:

import { generate, validate, parse, format } from 'build-number-generator'
...

You can either pack this module to your application bundle, or load it directly to the browser. For the former, you would install this package and import methods from the API in the same way as for the Node.js usage. For the latter, you would either refer to the module installed locally, or to the module from the UNPKG CDN, for example:

./node_modules/build-number-generator/dist/index.umd.min.js
https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/index.min.mjs

The following modules are available in the dist directory:

Either import methods from the API using the ESM module:

<script type=module>
  import { generate, validate, parse, format } from
    'https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/index.min.mjs'
  ...
</script>

Or import methods from the API using the UMD module, which will set a global object buildnumgen:

<script src=https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/index.umd.min.js></script>
<script>
  (() => {
    const { generate, validate, parse, format } = buildnumgen
    ...
  })()
</script>

If an AMD module loader is detected, the UMD module will return exports es expected:

<script>
  require(['https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/dist/index.umd.min.js'],
    ({ generate, validate, parse, format }) => {
      ...
    })
</script>

In lieu of a formal styleguide, take care to maintain the existing coding style. Add unit tests for any new or changed functionality. Lint and test your code using npm test.

Copyright (c) 2018-2022 Ferdinand Prantl

Licensed under the MIT license.