project version/revision module

Question

I'm in search of a module (or technique) to keep track of the software/release version that a Drupal installation is running. I am not talking about the Drupal version running the site (e.g 7.12) but of the implemented site itself, exactly like any Stack Exchange site does on the footer (currently: rev 2012.4.5.2127).

I need a structured way to keep track of this data (so a plain text block on the footer will not do) because I'll need to access this information from other systems as well.

Currently I've solved it by using a persistent variable that I handle with Drush.

# Set it.
drush vset --always-set release "1.0.4"

# Get it.
drush vget release

Is there another (probably better) way of handling this?

Answer 1

As part of your build script and/or revision control checkin script, write out a version number to constant in an include file. Write a custom module that does something with this include file, such as make a block that prints it out, stuffs it into $conf expose the value via webservice, etc. You could also do this directly to settings.php, too, if you just need a variable.