Question about programming

[Twelveguage]

Ok please dont laugh at my question:

What does a "build" number mean in programming (usually put in the program's about info or whatever)? Is it the amount of times the program has been made built into an executable file?

[kenshi]

That would be my guess. I never knew exactly what it means, just that it's for different versions.

[TaeShadow]

I believe it refers to the actual version number of the program. Sometimes, small changes are made that are not large enough to warrant a new version number, so they just up the build number to show that a change has been made.

Ok I'm not entirely sure either, but I might as well say something:

If you've ever used CVS to update your source code, you'll notice that it keeps track of your version number. The build number is the same idea except, with big projects that are done by many people (in other words, compiling multiple sources), it is sometimes useful to have a build number to keep track of what was the last working build.

That's also what they mean by "nightly builds" or "daily builds." Everyday somebody (or a task queued in the scheduler) makes a build of a working version so that they can work on it the next time without having to worry about having a faulty build.