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 -t
option. For details about changing file type, refer to the descriptions
of filetype
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 |
---|---|---|---|
|
Non-text file |
Synced as binary files in the workspace. Stored compressed within the depot. |
full file, compressed |
|
Symbolic link |
Helix Server applications on UNIX, OS X, recent versions of Windows treat these files as symbolic links. On other platforms, these files appear as (small) text files. |
delta |
|
Text file |
Synced as text in the workspace. Line-ending translations are performed automatically. |
delta |
|
Unicode file |
Helix Server operating in Unicode mode support the
Helix Server not in Unicode mode do not support the
|
delta, UTF-8 |
|
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 |
delta, UTF-8 |
|
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. |
delta, UTF-8 |
See Task streams and Virtual streams.