Are there Visual Studio solution files (.sln) any hint of the machine on which they were created?

Question

My interest primarily relates to solution files containing C # projects.

Is there anything, for example, the exact version of the .NET platform, usernames and passwords, any other information that can identify the machine on which the solution file was created?

Answer 1

No, as Patrick Hoffman already answered, the .sln file simply contains a list of the .csproj project files.

but

• The exact target version of the .NET Framework is stored in .csproj files.

• The username is not stored anywhere unless you specify it yourself, except in various places, such as assembly links, PDB files, various configuration files, if you use custom patches, such as C:\Users\yourusername\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\ConsoleApplication1 etc.

  Also note that there is such a thing as file metadata. It is not associated with Visual Studio at all, but it can store information about the creator of the file. As for me, I see the name of my computer and the domain username on the Properties tab of the file properties.

• Connection strings are stored in .config files ( App.config , Web.config , etc.). You definitely will not want to record your username and password in a public database.

Answer 2

No. Take a look at the file. It simply lists all the projects in your solution and their assembly configuration.

The places where you can find computer-specific material can be project files and a .suo file (which you usually don’t send to version control) and PDB compiled assemblies (they contain file paths, etc.).