Specifying how files are stored in P4 Server
File revisions of binary files are normally stored in full within the depot.
File revisions of text files are normally stored as changes (or deltas) made to text files since the previous revision. This approach is called delta storage, and P4 Server uses RCS format to store its deltas.
The file’s type determines whether full file or delta storage is used.
Some file types are compressed to gzip format when stored
in the depot. The compression occurs when you submit the file, and
decompression occurs when you sync, which copies the file from the depot to your
client workspace.
The client workspace always contains the file as it was submitted.
To avoid inadvertent file truncation, do not store binary files as
text. If you store a binary file as text from a Windows
computer and the file contains the Windows end-of-file character
^Z, only the part of the file up to the ^Z is
stored in the depot.