Is there a way to generate the file 100% programmatically, for example in an automated build pipeline?  As far as I can see the only way seems to be to write code to generate the module.xml

Thanks.  We will be exporting as code to compile on the customers' version (in this specific instance it is 2017) but ideally we just would like to ensure it will run on any prior version (within reason) without having to maintain a bunch of prior versions and test compile on each. The exportversion qualifier may be useful, but it's any dependencies like updated APIs you mention that we are wanting to catch.

Hi Robert, thanks for responding. The question is no longer relevant as there is a simpler solution: a SQL server database acting as a cross-org EMPI which will be kept up to date by ADT.