In slicer3 a version file was generated in the build tree which also was copied into the installation.

This script generated the file:

http://viewvc.slicer.org/viewvc.cgi/Slicer3/trunk/Scripts/versioner.tcl?revision=16989&view=markup

Which was accessed in slicer3 with the following application methods:

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------
const char* vtkSlicerApplication::GetSvnRevision()
{
if (strlen(this->SvnRevision) == 0)
{
this->InitializeSlicer3Version();
}
return this->SvnRevision;
}

//----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void vtkSlicerApplication::InitializeSlicer3Version()
{
std::string txtfile(this->GetBinDir());
txtfile += "/../";
txtfile += Slicer3_INSTALL_LIB_DIR;
txtfile += "/";
txtfile += "Slicer3Version.txt";

std::string platform("");
std::string build_date("");
std::string svnurl("");
std::string svnrevision("");

std::ifstream ifs(txtfile.c_str());

std::string line;
while (std::getline(ifs, line, '\n')) {
if (line.find("build ") == 0) {
platform = line.substr(6);
} else if (line.find("buildDate ") == 0) {
build_date = line.substr(10);
} else if (line.find("svnurl ") == 0) {
svnurl = line.substr(7);
int pos = svnurl.find_last_of("/");
svnurl = svnurl.substr(pos + 1 );
} else if (line.find("svnrevision ") == 0) {
svnrevision = line.substr(12);
}
}

ifs.close();

strcpy(this->Platform, platform.c_str());
strcpy(this->BuildDate, build_date.c_str());
strcpy(this->SvnUrl, svnurl.c_str());
strcpy(this->SvnRevision, svnrevision.c_str());
}