Perforce 2002.1 Command Reference
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File Types


Synopsis

Perforce supports five base file types:

File type modifiers are then applied to the base types allowing for support of RCS keyword expansion, file compression on the server, and more.

When a file is opened for add, Perforce attempts to determine the type of the file automatically. If the file is a regular file or a symbolic link, its type is set accordingly. Perforce then examines the first 1024 bytes 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.

Perforce administrators can use the type mapping feature (p4 typemap) to override Perforce's default file type detection mechanism. This feature is useful for binary file formats (such as Adobe PDF, or Rich Text Format) where files can start with 1024 or more characters of ASCII text, and might otherwise be mistaken for text files.

The base Perforce file types are:

Keyword
Description
Comments
Server Storage Type

text

Text file

Treated as text on the client. Line-ending translations are performed automatically on Windows and Macintosh clients.

delta

binary

Non-text file

Accessed as binary files on the client. Stored compressed within the depot.

full file,
compressed

symlink

Symbolic link

UNIX clients (and the BeOS client) access these as symbolic links. Non-UNIX clients treat them as (small) text files.

delta

apple

Multi-forked Macintosh file

AppleSingle storage of Mac data fork, resource fork, file type and file creator. New to Perforce 99.2.

For full details, please see the Mac client release notes.

full file,
compressed, AppleSingle format.

resource

Macintosh resource fork

The only file type for Mac resource forks in Perforce 99.1 and before. Still supported, but we recommend using the new apple file type instead.

For full details, please see the Mac client release notes.

full file,
compressed

unicode

Unicode file

Perforce servers operating in internationalized mode support a Unicode file type. These files are translated into the local character set.

For details, see the System Administrator's Guide.

Stored as UTF-8

The file type modifiers are:

Modifier
Description
Comments

+w

File is always writable on client

+x

Execute bit set on client

Used for executable files.

+ko

Old-style keyword expansion

Expands only the $Id$ and $Header$ keywords:

This pair of modifiers exists primarily for backwards compatibility with versions of Perforce prior to 2000.1, and corresponds to the +k (ktext) modifier in earlier versions of Perforce.

+k

RCS keyword expansion

Expands RCS (Revision Control System) keywords.

RCS keywords are case-sensitive.

When using keywords in files, a colon after the keyword (for instance, $Id:$) is optional.

Supported keywords are:

  • $Id$
  • $Header$
  • $Date$
  • $DateTime$
  • $Change$
  • $File$
  • $Revision$
  • $Author$

+l

Exclusive open (locking)

If set, only one user at a time will be able to open a file for editing.

Useful for binary file types (such as graphics) where merging of changes from multiple authors is meaningless.

+C

Server stores the full compressed version of each file revision

Default server storage mechanism for binary files.

+D

Server stores deltas in RCS format

Default server storage mechanism for text files.

+F

Server stores full file per revision

Useful for long ASCII files that aren't read by users as text, such as PostScript files.

+S

Only the head revision is stored on the server

Older revisions are overwritten within the depot. Useful for executable or .obj files.

+m

Preserve original modtime

The file's timestamp on the local filesystem is preserved upon submission and restored upon sync. Useful for third-party DLLs in Windows environments.

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:

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.

Keyword Expansion

RCS keywords are expanded as follows:

Keyword
Expands To
Example

$Id$

File name and revision number in depot syntax

$Id: //depot/path/file.txt#3 $

$Header$

Synonymous with $Id$

$Header: //depot/path/file.txt#3 $

$Date$

Date of last submission in format YYYY/MM/DD

$Date: 2000/08/18 $

$DateTime$

Date and time of last submission in format YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss

Date and time are as of the local time on the Perforce server at time of submission.

$DateTime: 2000/08/18 23:17:02 $

$Change$

Perforce changelist number under which file was submitted

$Change: 439 $

$File$

File name only, in depot syntax (without revision number)

$File: //depot/path/file.txt $

$Revision$

Perforce revision number

$Revision: #3 $

$Author$

Perforce user submitting the file

$Author: edk $

Usage Notes

The most common case where this is useful is development involving the third-party DLLs often encountered in Windows environments. Because the timestamps on such files are often used as proxies for versioning information (both within the development environment and also by the operating system), it is sometimes necessary to preserve the files' original timestamps regardless of a Perforce user's client settings.

The +m modifier on a file allows this to happen; if set, Perforce will ignore the modtime ("file's timestamp at time of submission") or nomodtime ("date and time on the client at time of sync") option setting of the client workspace when syncing the file, and always restore the file's original timestamp at the time of submit.


Perforce 2002.1 Command Reference
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Last updated: 04/03/02