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p4 job

Synopsis

Create or edit a defect, enhancement request, or other job specification

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] job [ -f ] [ jobName ] p4 [g-opts] job -d [ -f ] jobName p4 [g-opts] job -o [ jobName ] p4 [g-opts] job -i [ -f ]

Description

A job is a written-language description of work that needs to be performed on files in the depot. It might be a description of a bug ("the scroll mechanism isn't working correctly") or an enhancement request ("please add a flag that forces the operation to occur") or anything else. Jobs are similar to changelist descriptions in that they both describe changes to the system as arbitrary text, but whereas changelist descriptions describe completed work, jobs tell the developers what work needs to be done.

Jobs are created and edited in forms displayed by p4 job. The user enters the textual description of the job into the form, along with information such as the severity of the bug, the developer to whom the bug is assigned to, and so on. Since the Perforce superuser can change the fields in the job form with p4 jobspec, the fields that make up a job will differ from one Perforce server to another.

When p4 job is called with no arguments, a new job named jobNNNNNN is created, where NNNNNN is a sequential six-digit number. You can change the job's name within the form before quitting the editor. If p4 job is called with a jobname argument, a job of that name is created; if that job already exists, it is edited.

Once a job has been created, you can link the job to the changelist(s) that fix the job with p4 fix, p4 change, or p4 submit. When a job is linked to a changelist, under most circumstances the job's status will be set to closed. (See the Usage Notes below for more information).

Form Fields

The fields listed here are found in the default job form. Since the fields that describe a job can be changed by the Perforce superuser, the form you see at your site may be very different.


Field Name	Type	Description
`Job:`	Writable	The job's name. For a new job, this will be new. When the form is closed, this will be replaced with the name `job`NNNNNN, where `job`NNNNNN is the next six-digit number in the job numbering sequence. Alternatively, you can name the job anything at all by replacing the text in this field.
`Status:`	Writable Value	The value of this field must be `open`, `closed`, or `suspended`. When the job is linked to a changelist, the value of this field will be set to `closed` when the changelist is submitted.
`User:`	Writable	The name of the user who created the job.
`Date:`	Writable	The date the job was created.
`Description:`	Writable	An arbitrary text description of the job.

Options


`-d jobname`	Delete job jobname
`-f`	Allow superusers to edit read-only fields
`-i`	Read the job form from standard input without invoking an editor.
`-o`	Write the job form to standard output without invoking an editor.
`g_opts`	See global options section.

Usage Notes


Can File Arg Use Revision Specifier?	Can File Arg Use Revision Range?	Minimal Access Level Required
<NA>	<NA>	`open`

If the Perforce superuser has eliminated field ID# 102 with p4 jobspec, Perforce will be unable to close jobs when the changelists to which they are linked are submitted. Please see the p4 jobspec entry for more information.
After a job has been created or changed, Perforce indexes the job so that p4 jobs -e can locate the job quickly. The index keys are word, fieldname where word is a case-insensitive alphanumeric word (no punctuation or spaces). Values in date fields are stored as the number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970, 00:00:00.

Examples


`p4 job`	Create a new job; by default, its name will be `job`NNNNNN.
`p4 job job000135`	Edit job `job000135`

Related Commands


To list all jobs, or a subset of jobs	`p4 jobs`
To attach a job to an existing changelist	`p4 fix`
To view a list of connections between jobs and changelists	`p4 fixes`
To add or delete a job from a pending changelist	`p4 change`
To change the format of jobs at your site (superuser only)	`p4 jobspec`
To read information about the format of jobs at your site.	`p4 jobspec -o`

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