Passwords and Authorization

Your P4Web Helper uses browser authentication to restrict access to a single browser. It prompts the first browser that connects to it for a username and password. If the browser-supplied username matches the P4Web startup username, P4Web binds itself to that browser. No other browser will be able to connect to a P4Web Helper that has already authenticated a browser.

Between the time you start up P4Web and make your first browser connection, P4Web is open to connections from anyone else's browser. If another user enters your username at the browser prompt, your P4Web will bind itself to their browser. You will have to kill your P4Web and restart it in order to use it with your own browser.

Rest assured, however, another user accessing your P4Web will not have access to your client workspace as long as:

• Your Perforce username has a password associated with it, and

• Your client spec has the "locked" option set

There are three ways to supply your Perforce password to a P4Web Helper:

1. When you first connect to P4Web, enter your Perforce password along with your Perforce username at your browser's authentication prompt. The password you enter is not validated by P4Web. It is used by P4Web when it communicates with the Perforce server.

2. When you start up your P4Web Helper, use the "-P" flag to tell it what password to use when communicating with the Perforce server. For information about how to start up a P4Web Helper, see How to Use P4Web.

3. Make sure the P4PASSWD configuration variable is set in the startup environment of your P4Web Helper. For more information, see Environment and Registry Variables in the Perforce Command Reference.

Incorrectly entered usernames or passwords can result in these error messages:

This P4Web is already in use by another browser or another user

You have most likely entered a username at your browser prompt that does not match the username P4Web started up with. You will also see this message if you try to connect to a single P4Web from more than one browser.

Perforce password (P4PASSWD) invalid or unset

You've entered the correct username but the password P4Web is using is not the one the Perforce server expects for your username.

Once your browser has stored a username/password authentication code for a P4Web Helper running on a particular "hostname:port" address, it will continue to use the same code every time it communicates with that P4Web. The only way to reset the P4Web authentication code for a particular address is to exit and restart your browser.

Currently, you will need to stop and restart the p4web program running on your machine if you want to:

• Switch to another Perforce username
• Change your Perforce password
• Re-enter a password entered incorrectly at the P4Web browser prompt

You don't need user authorization to use a P4Web Viewer.