Does gcc have any options to add version info in ELF binary file?

Question

I mean whether gcc can insert some source code version infor into ELF binary as section or something similar. I do not want to change my source file, but add some info with

Answer 1

Even if you don't have access to your source anymore, you can link the object with this option:

gcc -Wl,--defsym,VERSION_1_2_3=0 prog.o -o prog

You can check it with hexdump -C prog | less and look for VERSION

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Add this to your makefile and be sure to always know when a program was compiled:

BUILD = $(shell date +"%Y%m%d_%H%M%S")
LDLIBS = -Wl,--defsym,BUILD_$(BUILD)=0