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P4 CLI Documentation | 2025.2

# P4 Server file types

P4 Server supports a set of file types that enable it to determine how files are stored by the P4 Server and whether the file can be diffed. When you add a file, P4 Server attempts to determine the type of the file automatically:

- P4 Server first determines whether the file is a regular file or a symbolic link, and then

- P4 Server 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 P4 Server file type detection and Unicode.

To determine the type of a file under P4 Server control, issue the p4 opened or p4 files command.

To change the P4 Server file type, specify the `-t filetype` option.

For details about changing file type, see p4 add, p4 edit, and p4 reopen.

P4 Server supports the following file types:

Keyword | Description | Comments | Default storage
--- | --- | --- | ---
`binary` | Non-text file | Synced as binary files in the workspace. Stored compressed within the depot. | full file, compressed
`text` | Text file | Synced as text in the workspace. Line-ending translations are performed automatically. | full file, compressed
`symlink` | Symbolic link | P4 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. On Windows, you require `admin` privileges or an appropriate group policy must be set, otherwise, you get text files. | full file, compressed
`unicode` | Unicode file | Services operating in unicode mode support the `unicode` file type. These files are translated into the local character set specified by `P4CHARSET`. Line-ending translations are performed automatically. Services not in unicode mode do not support the `unicode` file type. For details, see the Internationalization Notes. | full file in UTF-8 format, compressed
`utf8` | Unicode file | Synced in the client workspace with the UTF-8 BOM (byte order mark). Whether the service is in unicode mode or not, files are transferred as UTF-8 in the client workspace. Line-ending translations are performed automatically. For details, see the Internationalization Notes. | full file in UTF-8 format, compressed without the UTF-8 BOM (byte order mark)
`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 machine) in the client workspace. Line-ending translations are performed automatically. For details, see the Internationalization Notes. | full file in UTF-8 format, compressed
apple |  | A legacy format of Apple Inc. |
resource |  | For resource forks on legacy Apple computers, which are no longer supported by Apple Inc. |

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