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P4 for Eclipse Documentation | 2025.2

# Displaying file status and history

You can display the following types of information about files:

- File status: the current state of the file as managed by P4 Server, indicated by label decorations
- File properties: location, number of revisions, and so on. Displayed on the Perforce Properties dialog.
- Revision history: the changes that have been checked into the depot, including a description of the change, date, user, and so on.
- Submitted changelists: previously-submitted changelists The changes to files or stream specifications along with metadata, such as the list of changed files, their version numbers, the submitter of the changelist, and the submitter's description of the changes. A changelist is the unit of versioned work., including a list of files submitted.

You can also search the contents of files under Perforce control using a grep-style search.

## File status

To view the status of open files, examine the file icons in the P4 Pending Changelists view. The label decorations displayed on the icons indicate the status of the file.

For example, the following screen shows files open for edit (red check mark), delete (red x), and add (red +).

## File properties

To display file properties:

1. Right-click the file in the Navigator view and choose Properties.
2. Click Perforce. File properties are displayed as shown in the Properties dialog.

The head revision is the revision most recently checked in, and the have revision is the one last synced to your workspace.

## Revision history

To display the revision history of a file, right-click the file and choose Revision History.

The History view lists the following details about the revisions of a file that have been submitted to the P4 Server depot:

- Revision: the revision number of the file. Every time you (successfully) submit the file, its revision number is incremented.
- File Name: the file path and file name of the file.
- Changelist: the changelist number associated with the file revision when it was submitted to the depot. This number is assigned by the P4 Server and is used to group related files when submitting them. For example, if you change several files in the process of fixing a bug or adding a feature, the changelist number identifies the point at which the change was submitted. You can use the changelist number to sync the files to your workspace as a group.
- Date: the date the changelist was submitted.
- User: the Perforce user name of the user who submitted the changelist
- Action: the action carried out on the file when it was submitted, for example, add, edit, or delete.
- Description: details about the changelist, entered by the user who submitted the changelist.

To compare two revisions to see what changes have been made, select the desired revisions, then right-click and choose Diff Two Revisions. The Diff Two Revisions dialog is displayed, highlighting the differences between the files, as shown in the following screen. Double click on a change in the top panel to display the diff for the change in the lower panel.

## Submitted changelists

To display a list of previously-submitted changelists, click the P4 Submitted Changeliststab. To display details for a submitted changelist, click the desired changelist. Details are displayed in the pane below the list.

## Searching file content

To search the contents of files in a P4 Server depot:

1. Click the toolbar Search button in the Eclipse toolbar. The Search dialog is displayed.
2. Click the P4 Grep tab.
3. Specify the text you are looking for, the files to be searched, and any search options.
4. Click Search. Results are displayed in a Search results tab.
5. To display the contents of file that contains the search text, double-click it in the Search results tab. To locate an instance of the search text in the file, expand the results for the file and double-click the line that displays details about the instance.

You can also search file text from the P4 Submitted Changelists view.

Your search for returned results