I was having a terrible time with Perforce 2005.1 (and 2004.2) changing the line ending characters on my bash shell scripts, DOS batch files, and other text files. This was causing my scripts to fail in one way or another. Also, several of my PHP scripts were malfunctioning as well. Web pages I wrote that allowed users to download Excel spreadsheets were now generating a spreadsheet that contained nothing but garbage.

I then discovered, that in order for Perforce to leave the line ending characters alone, I needed to change the ClientSpec and add the files with

LineEnd: unix

and then change the ClientSpec back, and sync them with

LineEnd: share

To determine this, I wrote a small DOS batch file to analyse all possible combinations of LineEnd options, for both adding and syncing.
Here's the output from the program (edited slightly for clarity):

Add	Sync	file		Result
-------	-------	---------------	-------------------------------------
local	local	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
local	local	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
local	local	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
local	mac	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
local	mac	unix-lf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
local	mac	win-crlf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
local	share	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
local	share	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
local	share	win-crlf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
local	unix	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
local	unix	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
local	unix	win-crlf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
local	win	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
local	win	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
local	win	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
mac	local	mac-cr.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
mac	local	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
mac	local	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf  cr  lf   _  cr  lf  cr  lf
mac	mac	mac-cr.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
mac	mac	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
mac	mac	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf  cr  lf   _  cr  lf  cr  lf
mac	share	mac-cr.txt	_  lf   _  lf
mac	share	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
mac	share	win-crlf.txt	_  lf  lf   _  lf  lf
mac	unix	mac-cr.txt	_  lf   _  lf
mac	unix	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
mac	unix	win-crlf.txt	_  lf  lf   _  lf  lf
mac	win	mac-cr.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
mac	win	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
mac	win	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf  cr  lf   _  cr  lf  cr  lf
share	local	mac-cr.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
share	local	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
share	local	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
share	mac	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
share	mac	unix-lf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
share	mac	win-crlf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
share	share	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
share	share	unix-lf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
share	share	win-crlf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
share	unix	mac-cr.txt	_  lf   _  lf
share	unix	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
share	unix	win-crlf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
share	win	mac-cr.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
share	win	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
share	win	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
unix	local	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
unix	local	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
unix	local	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  cr  lf   _  cr  cr  lf
unix	mac	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
unix	mac	unix-lf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
unix	mac	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  cr   _  cr  cr
unix	share	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
unix	share	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
unix	share	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
unix	unix	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
unix	unix	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
unix	unix	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  cr  lf   _  cr  cr  lf
unix	win	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
unix	win	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
unix	win	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  cr  lf   _  cr  cr  lf
win	local	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
win	local	unix-lf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
win	local	win-crlf.txt	_  cr  lf   _  cr  lf
win	mac	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
win	mac	unix-lf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
win	mac	win-crlf.txt	_  cr   _  cr
win	share	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
win	share	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
win	share	win-crlf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
win	unix	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
win	unix	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
win	unix	win-crlf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
win	win	mac-cr.txt	_  cr   _  cr
win	win	unix-lf.txt	_  lf   _  lf
win	win	win-crlf.txt	_  lf   _  lf

And here is the program used to generate this report:

@echo off

path=c:\cygwin\bin;c:\perl\bin;%path%

set LINEENDS=local unix win mac share
set ECHO=c:\cygwin\bin\echo.exe
set PERL=c:\perl\bin\perl.exe
set P4=p4.exe
set OD=od.exe

attrib -r *.txt
del *.txt
del p4test.log

%P4% client -o >orig_client.p4
%P4% client -o >client.p4
for %%i in (%LINEENDS%) do (
	%PERL% -p -e "s/^LineEnd:.*/LineEnd:\t%%i/g" client.p4 >client_%%i.p4
	%P4% client -i <client_%%i.p4 || exit /b
	%ECHO% -e -n "_\r_\r" >mac-cr.txt
	%ECHO% -e -n "_\r\n_\r\n" >win-crlf.txt
	%ECHO% -e -n "_\n_\n" >unix-lf.txt
	%P4% add *.txt || exit /b
	%P4% change -o | %PERL% -e "s/enter description here/adding files with LineEnd set to %%i/" >submit_%%i.p4
	%P4% submit -i <submit_%%i.p4 || exit /b
	for %%j in (%LINEENDS%) do (
		if not "%%i" == "%%j" (
			%PERL% -p -e "s/^LineEnd:.*/LineEnd:\t%%j/g" client.p4>client_%%i_%%j.p4
			%P4% client -i <client_%%i_%%j.p4 || exit /b
		)
		attrib -r *.txt
		del *.txt
		%P4% sync -f *.txt || exit /b
		for %%k in (*.txt) do (
			%ECHO% -n -e "%%i\t%%j\t%%k\t" >>p4test.log
			%OD% -a %%k >>p4test.log
		)
	)
	%P4% delete *.txt || exit /b
	%P4% change -o | %PERL% -e "s/enter description here/deleting files with LineEnd set to %%i/" >submit_%%i_%%j.p4
	%P4% submit -i <submit_%%i_%%j.p4 || exit /b
)

%P4% client -i <orig_client.p4
type p4test.log

In order to run this script, you will need to have cygwin's echo.exe and od.exe (octal dump), and ActiveState perl installed.

Albert Malkin, a Perforce representative, has stated:

"As I said, I've already requested that feature and linked your name to this
request."

By "that feature", I'm assuming he is referring to my requesting that there be LineEnd option of 'none', which would leave text files alone when committed and checked out of Perforce.