Changing a File Type

Published by Marco on in Perforce

Each file in Perforce has a type, which includes the type of contents and special flags for handling the file on the server. The content types are usually binary or text (OS X users will notice the apple type being used for binary files with resource forks). The flags control things like compression, header expansion (+k) or which revisions are stored on a server. See Setting Default File Types to find out how to control the initial file type when a file is added.

You have to check out the file in order to change its type; every action in Perforce occurs within a changelist, even changing types.

The following instructions apply to the Windows client (P4WIN) only.

  1. Open the desired file (or files) for edit (see Using Wildcards for more information).
  2. Right-click the file and select Change file type.
  3. Adjust the file type as desired.
  4. Click Ok.
  5. Submit the changelist to commit the changes to the file types.