Escape sequence equivalence

Let’s say I’ve got a server hosting an XML file that a client can modify.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<foo>&lt;</foo>

And let’s say we’ve got a client which stores this file in a git-repo, and our server cares about this.

(Basically both sides care how the file is represented, instead of the client generating the file on-demand and throwing it away)

The client receives a commit that modifies this file, and it posts the modified version to our server.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<foo>&#60;</foo>

What’s the best practice when processing equivalent escape sequences? (I’m asking from the server’s perspective)

Should the server consider the file modified?

Should the new escape sequence be saved verbatim on the server or should it be first converted to a constant equivalent representation (e.g. hex) before saving?