Helix Server file types

Helix Server supports a set of file types that enable it to determine how files are stored by the Helix Server and whether the file can be diffed. When you add a file, Helix Server attempts to determine the type of the file automatically: Helix Server first determines whether the file is a regular file or a symbolic link, and then examines the first part of the file to determine whether it’s 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. (Files in Unicode environments are detected differently; see Helix Server file type detection and Unicode.

To determine the type of a file under Helix Server control, issue the p4 opened or p4 files command. To change the Helix Server file type, specify the -tfiletype option. For details about changing file type, refer to the descriptions of p4 add, p4 edit, and p4 reopen in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Reference.

Helix Server supports the following file types:

Keyword	Description	Comments	Stored as
binary	Non-text file	Synced as binary files in the workspace. Stored compressed within the depot.	full file, compressed
symlink	Symbolic link	Helix Server applications on UNIX, macOS, recent versions of Windows treat these files as symbolic links. On other platforms, these files appear as (small) text files.	delta
text	Text file	Synced as text in the workspace. Line-ending translations are performed automatically.	delta
unicode	Unicode file	Helix Server operating in Unicode mode support the unicode file type. These files are translated into the local character set specified by P4CHARSET. Helix Server not in Unicode mode do not support the unicode file type. For details, see the Internationalization Notes.	delta, UTF-8
utf8	Unicode file	Whether the service is in Unicode mode or not, files that are detected as UTF8 will be stored as UTF8 and synced as UTF8 without being translated by the P4CHARSET setting. For details, see the Internationalization Notes.	delta, UTF-8
utf16	Unicode file	Whether the service is in Unicode mode or not, files are transferred as UTF-8, and translated to UTF-16 (with byte order mark, in the byte order appropriate for the user’s computer) in the client workspace. For details, see the Internationalization Notes.	delta, UTF-8

See Task streams and Virtual streams.