File Types

Synopsis

Perforce supports four base file types: text files, compressed binary files, Macintosh resource forks, and symbolic links. File type modifiers are then applied to the base types allowing for support of RCS keyword expansion, file compression, and more.

Perforce attempts to determine the type of the file automatically: when a file is opened with p4 add, Perforce first decides if the file is a regular file or a symbolic link, and then examines the first part of the file to determine whether it is text or binary. If any non-text characters are found, the file is assumed to be binary; otherwise, the file is assumed to be text.

The base Perforce file types are:

The file type modifiers are:

A file's type is normally preserved between revisions, but can be overridden or changed with the -t flag during add, edit, or reopen operations:

• p4 add -t filetype filespec will add the files as the specified type.
• p4 edit -t filetype filespec will open the file for edit. Only when the file is submitted will its type will be changed to that specified when opened for editing.
• p4 reopen -t filetype filespec can be used to change the type of a file already open for add or edit.

The filetype argument is specified as basetype+modifiers. For example, to change file foo's type to executable text with RCS keyword expansion, use p4 edit -t text+kx foo.

Usage Notes

• The type of an existing file can be determined with p4 opened or p4 files.
• Delta storage (the default mode with text files) is a method whereby only the differences (or deltas) between revisions of files are stored. Full file storage (the default mode with binary files) involves the storage of the entire file. The file's type determines whether full file or delta storage will be used. When delta storage is used, file merges and file compares can be performed. Files that are stored in their full form can neither be merged nor compared. Perforce uses RCS format for delta storage.
• Some of the file types are compressed to gzip format for storage in the depot. The compression occurs during the submission process, and decompression happens while syncing. The process is transparent to the user; client workspace will always contain the file as it was submitted.
• Symbolic links on non-UNIX clients will appear as small text files containing a relative path to the linked file. Editing these files on a non-UNIX client should be done with caution, as submitting them to the depot may result in a symbolic link pointing to a nonexistent file on the UNIX client.
• Versions of Perforce prior to 99.1 used a set of keywords to specify file types. These keywords are still supported, but have been made redundant. The following table lists the old keywords alongside their current base file types and modifiers:
  

  Old Keyword	Description	Base Filetype	Modifiers
  text	Text file	text	none
  xtext	Executable text file	text	+x
  ktext	Text file with RCS keyword expansion	text	+k
  kxtext	Executable text file with RCS keyword expansion	text	+kx
  binary	Non-text file	binary	none
  xbinary	Executable binary file	binary	+x
  ctext	Compressed text file	text	+C
  cxtext	Compressed executable text file	text	+Cx
  symlink	Symbolic link	symlink	none
  resource	Macintosh resource fork	resource	none
  ltext	Long text file	text	+F
  xltext	Executable long text file	text	+Fx
  ubinary	Uncompressed binary file	binary	+F
  tempobj	Temporary object	binary	+S
  tempxobj	Temporary executable object	binary	+Sx