Hi Lionel, * <quote author="Lionel Elie Mamane"> > If it's based on the last time they were updated wouldn't the value > be the same if all the repositories were updated at the same time? Well, AFAIK the repositories are rarely updated (changed) at the same time. The "help" or "artwork" repositories get far fewer commits than the core (code) repository/. </quote> Ok. Then there is no need for the artificial birth date. Excellent! <quote author="Lionel Elie Mamane"> > Joe downloads the new changes (git fetch) from time 192 to 196 > Joe rebases (or merges) his changes with the new changes at time 198 > Joe successfully pushes his changes to the central repository at time 201 </quote> I didn't understand this part. If at time 198 it is included in his personal repository wouldn't it make sense to use time 201 when the changes are known to all developers? Aren't the builds uploaded to the Tinderboxes supposed to be compiled from the Central repositories only? <quote author="Lionel Elie Mamane"> In this example, your proposition is time 289, right? But then, if another person downloads the very same code at time 315, the time in the about box of his/her build will not be the same, while it is exactly the same code. In my proposition, both builds will have time 198 in the about box.</quote> Your proposal is much better than mine. But I would still suggest using as epoch the TDF's Birth date (midnight Sept 28th 2010) and to use days as unit with the point separating days from the fraction part. It is easier to refer to a 3 digit version as your email illustrates. Then the build ID (used by QA, l10n and anyone to refer to a particular master build) would be e.g. 198.67866-197.91491-198.91491-150.91491-195.91491 And the About dialog would also include the information Build assembled from:  repo  commit   date               branch  core: 4f11d0a 198.67866 master  help: adcf6d5 150.91491 master for developers to have a relation to GIT In addition, as suggested by Andras, the About box should have a Pretty printed date saying something like Extracted  from Central repositories @ 2011-12-02_22.36.35 This date would be part of the tarball (or other binary package) name e.g. master~2011-12-02_22.36.35_libodev35.msi I think this (or similar) solution would help all interested groups from developers to occasional users. Best regards, Pedro <hr align="left" width="300" /> View this message in context: <a href="http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Naming-builds-Please-tp3556898p3564139.html">Re: Naming builds. Please???</a> Sent from the <a href="http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Dev-f1639786.html">Dev mailing list archive</a> at Nabble.com.