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

Question

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

Answer 1

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... ]