Get the LV version of a VI file without opening it in LV?

[Justin Goeres]

I would like to determine which version of LabVIEW a given VI was saved in, but not by opening it in LabVIEW. I just want to look at the raw hex of the file on disk to determine it. Does anyone know the key(s) to accomplishing this?

I messed around a little by saving an empty VI file in LV85, then backsaving it to LV821. The files are the same length, and are virtually identical (I think) except for some data at the end of the file (roughly the last 0x01E4 bytes). The whole thing looks vaguely like an old MacOS-style resource file (which I think should not be surprising), but nothing jumped out at me.

And while we're on the subject, any recommendations for a good graphical diff utility for binary files? I've never come across one.

[Jim Kring]

Use the Application::Get VI Version(<path>) method.

Download File:post-17-1191614935.vi

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Ah Jim, you spoiled the fun. I wanted to see how far Justin was going to get with his reverse engineering...

[Jim Kring]

QUOTE(Michael_Aivaliotis @ Oct 5 2007, 01:42 PM)

Ah Jim, you spoiled the fun. I wanted to see how far Justin was going to get with his reverse engineering...

I'm sure I won't slow him down too much, along those lines

[Justin Goeres]

QUOTE(Jim Kring @ Oct 5 2007, 01:09 PM)

Use the Application::Get VI Version(<path>) method.

Gah. I always look in the properties, but I never think to check the methods... Thanks!QUOTE(Michael_Aivaliotis @ Oct 5 2007, 01:42 PM)

Ah Jim, you spoiled the fun. I wanted to see how far Justin was going to get with his reverse engineering...

Yeah, hoo-boy, wouldn't that've been fun! :headbang:

Maybe you could've egged me on to do a whole library for the Code Repository, and then once I submitted it you could post the method node in the comments thread. That would have been AWESOME. Whee!!!

[jzoller]

QUOTE(Justin Goeres @ Oct 5 2007, 01:51 PM)

And while we're on the subject, any recommendations for a good graphical diff utility for binary files? I've never come across one.

I haven't yet used it, but Beyond Compare has a plugin for binary files:

http://scootersoftware.com/moreinfo.php?c=hexview

Given the quality of the rest of their software, I suspect it's pretty good.

Joe Z.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

QUOTE(Michael_Aivaliotis @ Oct 5 2007, 03:42 PM)

Ah Jim, you spoiled the fun. I wanted to see how far Justin was going to get with his reverse engineering...

It's not that difficult once you now how ;-)

Rolf Kalbermatter

[bpreis]

QUOTE

Gah. I always look in the properties, but I never think to check the methods... Thanks!

In LV 8.2 (maybe even earlier) you can browse VI Server properties and methods with Ctrl+Shift+B.

[Kip_K]

So, I have several test stations that have somewhere between LV7.0 and LV8.2.1. While I like to work from my desk, I have 8.6 here and needed a way to take a package and finish development on the test station. LV doesn't seem to have an option to make Save as Previous Version the default save method. So I wrote this up to down-rev everything to make the move.

Open to suggestions for improvements or better ways to do this.

Kip K