[mh254]

Summary

betterdesk-server --version and the startup banner print built unknown for every released server asset. Cause: .github/workflows/release-server.yml builds with -ldflags="-s -w -X main.Version=${VERSION}" only, so BuildDate in betterdesk-server/main.go keeps its compile-time default "unknown". The repository's own documented build command (.github/go-server-context.md → "Build Commands") does pass -X main.BuildDate, and init() already resolves Version at runtime via productversion.Product() when the flag is missing — this PR does the same for the build date.

Changes:

• .github/workflows/release-server.yml: pass -X main.BuildDate=<UTC timestamp> in the release build.
• betterdesk-server/main.go: if BuildDate is empty or "unknown", fall back to the vcs.time setting Go stamps into binaries built from a Git checkout (buildvcs, on by default). Installer, Docker and local builds therefore report a real date too.

Before: betterdesk-server 3.5.221 (built unknown)
After: betterdesk-server 3.5.221 (built 2026-11-09T08:58:12Z)

The change only affects the printed string; no code path, flag or protocol behaviour changes.

Target branch

• This pull request targets dev, unless it is an explicitly approved dev → main release.

Security and provenance

• No credentials, private keys, deployment-specific hostnames, IPs, paths, or private configuration are included.
• I did not add a workflow that executes fork-controlled code with repository secrets. (Only one -ldflags value is added to an existing build step; no new workflow, no new secret, no pull_request_target.)
• External code, generated artifacts, protocol compatibility code, and upstream-derived material have documented provenance. (Not applicable — standard library only: runtime/debug.)
• Security-sensitive changes explain the trust boundary, authorization behavior, limits, and failure mode. (Not applicable — the diff adds a build stamp and a read-only lookup in the binary's own build info.)

Deployment and compatibility

• The change is deployable through the panel updater, installer scripts, or the documented Docker image path. (No deployment files touched. Release builds get the date from the new flag; installer/local builds get it from the vcs.time fallback. Nothing to migrate.)
• Database changes are additive and safe on both SQLite and PostgreSQL, or the manual migration step is documented. (No database changes.)
• .env changes append missing keys without overwriting operator secrets. (No .env changes.)
• Update/restart and rollback behavior was checked when deployment files or the Go server changed. (Behaviour unchanged apart from the banner string; rollback is a plain revert of this commit.)

Tests

Run locally against dev (94757a1) with Go 1.26.10, matching go.mod's toolchain go1.26.10.

• Commands:

# 1) fallback path: build like the installer does (no -X main.BuildDate)
go build -trimpath -ldflags="-s -w -X main.Version=3.5.221" -o /tmp/bd-fallback .
/tmp/bd-fallback -version

# 2) release path: build exactly like release-server.yml
VERSION="$(tr -d '\r\n' < ../VERSION)"
BUILD_DATE="$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"
go build -trimpath -ldflags="-s -w -X main.Version=${VERSION} -X main.BuildDate=${BUILD_DATE}" -o /tmp/bd-ldflags .
/tmp/bd-ldflags -version

go vet ./...
go test -count=1 .

• Results:

  1. Installer-style build (no -X main.BuildDate): betterdesk-server 3.5.221 (built 2026-11-09T07:53:00Z) — the vcs.time fallback replaces unknown.
  2. Release-style build (flags identical to release-server.yml): betterdesk-server 3.5.221 (built 2026-11-09T07:56:53Z) — matches the injected BUILD_DATE.
  3. go vet ./... → clean, no findings.
  4. go test -count=1 . → ok github.com/unitronix/betterdesk-server 2.702s.

  Note: only the main package was tested locally; the full go test -race ./... sweep is left to CI.

Console translations

• No user-visible strings changed. (CLI --version output and the server log banner only; nothing under web-nodejs/lang/.)
• All new or changed keys exist in every web-nodejs/lang/*.json locale with proper translations.

Attribution

• Contributions and design/reporting sources are credited accurately. (Reported from operating a RustDesk-compatible BetterDesk deployment; no external code reused.)
• If code was directly reused, author/licence attribution is preserved. (No code reused.)