How to enable build timestamp in VC ++ project?

I am converting a makefile project to a Visual Studio VC ++ project. This is actually the C source code.

One of the statements I have in my makefile:

echo char * gLibraryBuildSig ="%DATE% %TIME%"; > BuildTimestamp.c

      

        
        
        
      

    

This creates a C source file with one line in it:

char * gLibraryBuildSig ="Sun 08/23/2009 17:56:05.05"; 

      

        
        
        
      

    

Then in the makefile, I compiled all the C source code using cl.exe and after linking, I removed the BuildTimestamp.c file. This gives me a global symbol that provides the build time as a string.

How can I do the same in a VS2008 project? Mind you, this is not MSBuild.

I'm halfway there. To create a C module at build time in Visual Studio, I simply use the prebuild event.

How can I include this generated file in compilation and also exclude it from source control and project management?

Or is there a better way to do what I want?