Perforce File Types

Perforce assigns file types to determine whether files can be diffed and how they are stored. Perforce file types are as follows:

• text


• binary


• symlink (symbolic link )


• apple (multi-forked Macintosh file )


• unicode (for storing text files containing international characters on Perforce servers operating in internationalized mode)

You can set the following file type modifiers:

• +x: Execute bit set. Use for executable files.


• +w: File is always writable in workspace. (Perforce manages the write bit, and files that are not checked out are, by default, not writable.)


• +k: Enable RCS keyword expansion -- if you submit text files containing the keywords listed below, Perforce expands them before storing them. Supported keywords are:
  • $Id$
  : File name and revision number in Perforce depot syntax.
  
  • $Header$
  : Same as $Id .
  
  • $Date$: Date of submission in format YYYY/MM/DD.
  
  
  • $DateTime$: 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.
  
  
  • $Change$: Number of Perforce changelist in which file was submitted.
  
  
  • $File$: File name in depot syntax (without revision number).
  • $Revision$: Perforce revision number of file.
    
  • $Author$: Perforce user name of submitter.
  
  


• +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, which cannot be merged.


• +C: Server stores the full compressed version of each file revision. (Binary files are always stored this way.)


• +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: Server stores only the head revision. 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.