Perforce 2005.1 User's Guide
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Chapter 6
Perforce Basics:
Miscellaneous Topics

So far, this manual has provided an introduction to the basic functionality provided by Perforce. Subsequent chapters cover the more advanced features. Included here is information on the following miscellaneous topics likely to be encountered while working with Perforce:

Perforce Passwords

Without passwords, any user can assume the identity of any other Perforce user by setting the value of P4USER to a different username, either by using the -u flag with the p4 command, or by setting P4USER in a P4CONFIG configuration file. To improve security and accountability, use passwords.

Setting passwords

To prevent someone else from impersonating you within Perforce, set a password with the p4 passwd command. No one, including the user who set the password, will be able to use any Perforce commands under your username without providing the password to Perforce.

Your system administrator may have configured your Perforce server to require "strong" passwords. A password is considered strong if it is at least eight characters long, and at least two of the following are true:

For example, the passwords a1b2c3d4, A1B2C3D4, aBcDeFgH are considered strong.

Be careful when setting passwords. If you forget your password after having set it, a Perforce superuser will have to reset or remove your password for you.

If you need to have your password reset, contact your Perforce administrator. If you are a Perforce administrator, see the Perforce System Administrator's Guide for information on resetting passwords and other user management tasks.

Perforce passwords and authentication

To authenticate to a Perforce server with a password, set your password with p4 passwd, and use the password with every Perforce command you run. To use the password you have set, either:

If you are using ticket-based authentication, changing your password automatically logs out all of your existing tickets.

Perforce tickets: logging in and out

In addition to password-based authentication, Perforce supports ticket-based authentication. Because ticket-based authentication does not rely on environment variables or command-line flags, it is more secure than password-based authentication, and your system administrator may have configured your server to require its use.

By default, tickets are stored in a file in your home directory. To specify a different ticket file, set the P4TICKETS environment variable to the location of your ticket file.

After you have logged in, your ticket is valid for a limited period of time (by default, 12 hours). Your administrator may have changed this setting. By default, your ticket is valid only for the IP address of the workstation from which you logged in, but you can create tickets that are valid for any IP address if you are working from more than one machine and using a shared ticket file.

To use ticket-based authentication, set a password with p4 passwd, and log in by getting a ticket from the Perforce server by using the p4 login command.

Enter your password at the prompt. If you log in successfully, a ticket is created for you in your ticket file, and you are not prompted to log in again until either your ticket expires (by default, in 12 hours), or until you log out of Perforce.

To extend a ticket's lifespan, run p4 login while already logged in. Running p4 login while already logged in extends your ticket's lifespan by 1/3 of its initial timeout period, subject to a maximum of its initial timeout period.

If you are in an environment where you are using Perforce from more than one machine while sharing the same ticket file (for example, many UNIX environments with shared home directories), log in with:

Using p4 login -a creates a ticket in your ticket file that is valid from all IP addresses, enabling you to remain logged in to Perforce from more than one workstation.

To see if your ticket is still valid, use:

If your ticket is valid, the length of time for which it will remain valid is displayed.

To log out of Perforce by deleting your ticket, use:

If you are logged in from more than one machine at once, you can log out from all machines simultaneously by invalidating your ticket with:

For more information, see the Command Reference.

Reconfiguring the Perforce Environment with $P4CONFIG

Some Perforce users have multiple client workspaces, each of which can connect to a different Perforce server. There are three ways you can change your Perforce environment on the fly:

P4CONFIG specifies a file (for example, .p4env) that is used to store variable settings. Whenever a Perforce command is executed, the current working directory and its parent directories are searched for a file with the name stored in P4CONFIG. If a file with that name is found, the values of P4PORT, P4CLIENT, P4TICKETS, and so on, are read from that file. If no file of the given name is found, the current values of the Perforce environment variables are used.

Each variable setting in the file stands alone on a line and must be in the form:

Values that can be stored in the P4CONFIG file are:

P4CLIENT

P4DIFF

P4EDITOR

P4USER

P4CHARSET

P4HOST

P4PORT

P4MERGE

P4PASSWD

P4TICKETS

P4LANGUAGE

The values found in the file specified by P4CONFIG override any environment or registry variables you may have set. Command-line flags (discussed in the next section) override the values found in the P4CONFIG file.

The P4CONFIG variable is particularly useful if you use multiple client workspaces on the same workstation, because it automates the process of changing the Perforce environment variables whenever you switch your current working directory from one client workspace directory to another.

Command-Line Flags Common to All Perforce Commands

Some flags are available for use with all Perforce commands. These flags are given between the system command p4 and the command argument taken by p4. The flags are as follows:

Flag
Meaning
Example

-c clientname

Runs the command on the specified client. Overrides the P4CLIENT environment variable.

p4 -c joe edit //depot/file.c

Opens file file.c for editing under client workspace joe.

-C charset

For servers in unicode mode, override the P4CHARSET variable.

p4 -C utf8 print //depot/file

-d directory

Specifies the current directory, overriding the environment variable PWD.

p4 -d ~elm/src edit one two

Opens files one and two for edit; these files are found relative to ~elm/src.

-G

Cause all output (and batch input for form commands using the -i option) to be formatted as marshalled Python dictionary objects

p4 -G info

-H host

Specify the host name, overriding the environment variable P4HOST.

p4 -H host print //depot/file

-L language

For servers with non-English error messages, override the P4LANGUAGE variable.

Reserved for system integrators.

-p server

Gives the Perforce server's listening address, overriding P4PORT.

p4 -p mama:1818 clients

Reports a list of clients on the server on host mama, port 1818.

-P password

Supplies a Perforce password, overriding the value of P4PASSWD. Usually used in combination with the -u user flag.

p4 -u ida -P idas_pw job

Create a new job as user ida, using ida's Perforce password.

-s

Prepend a tag to each line of output so as to make output more amenable to scripting.

p4 -s info

-u username

Specifies a Perforce user, overriding the P4USER environment variable.

The user can run only those commands to which he or she has access.

p4 -u bill user

Presents the p4 user form to edit the specification for user bill. The command works without the -P flag only if bill has not set a Perforce password.

-x filename

Instructs p4 to read arguments, one per line, from the named file.

See "Working Detached" on page 84.

-V

Displays the version of the p4 executable.

p4 -V

All Perforce commands can take these flags, even commands for which these flag usages are useless (for instance, p4 -u bill -d /usr/joe help). Other flags are available as well; these additional flags are command dependent. See the Perforce Command Reference or use p4 help commandname to see the flags for each command.

Working Detached

Under normal circumstances, you work in your client workspace with a functioning network connection to a Perforce server. As you edit files, you announce your intentions to the server with p4 edit, and the server responds by noting the edit in the depot's metadata, and by making the file writable in your client workspace.

If you expect not to have network connectivity to the server for a prolonged period of time, you will need to work detached from the server. To work detached, use the following techniques:

  1. Work on files without using Perforce commands. Instead, use native OS commands to manually change the permissions on files, and then edit or delete the files.

  2. If you did not edit the files within a client workspace, copy the files to your client workspace when the network connection is reestablished.

  3. Use p4 diff -se and p4 diff -sd to find files in your workspace that have changed without Perforce's knowledge (that is, without the use of Perforce commands). Use the information provided by the p4 diff -se and p4 diff -sd commands to bring the depot in sync with the client workspace.

Finding changed files

Use the p4 diff reporting command to compare a file in the client workspace with the corresponding file in the depot. The behavior of p4 diff can be modified with two flags:

"p4 diff" Variation
Meaning

p4 diff -se

Tells the names of unopened files that are present on the client, but whose contents are different than the files last taken by the client with p4 sync. These files are candidates for p4 edit.

p4 diff -sd

Reports the names of unopened files missing from the client. These files are candidates for p4 delete.

Note

You can use p4 edit on any file, even files you don't want to edit; this command gives the local file write permissions, but does not otherwise alter it.

Updating the depot with changed files

You can use the -x flag in combination with the output of the p4 diff -se and -sd commands to bring the state of the depot in sync with the changes you made to your workspace while disconnected.

To open changed files for edit after working detached, use:

p4 diff -se > CHANGED_FILES
p4 -x CHANGED_FILES edit

To delete files from the depot that you removed from your client workspace, use:

p4 diff -sd > DEL_FILES
p4 -x DEL_FILES delete

As always, your edit and delete requests are stored in changelists, which Perforce does not process until you type p4 submit.

Refreshing files

If you accidentally use the local OS file deletion or permission modification command, the Perforce server can lose track of the state of your client workspace. For example, suppose you accidentally delete a file in your workspace with the UNIX rm command. Even after you submit the changelist, p4 have still lists the file as being present in the workspace.

In such a situation, you can use p4 sync -f files to bring the client workspace in sync with the files the Perforce server thinks you have. Using p4 sync -f is mostly a recovery tool for bringing the client workspace back into sync with the depot after accidentally removing or changing files managed by Perforce.

Renaming Files

To rename files, use p4 integrate to copy the file from one location in the depot to another, delete the file from the original location, and then submit the changelist that includes the integrate and the delete. The process is as follows:

p4 integrate from_files to_files
p4 delete from_files
p4 submit

The from_file is moved to the directory and renamed according to the to_file specifier. For example, if from_file is d1/one and to_file is d2/two, then one is moved to the d2 directory, and is renamed two. The from_file and to_file specifiers can include wildcards, as long as they are matched on both sides.

Revision histories and renamed files

When you rename a file (or move it from one directory to another) with p4 integrate, you create the new file by creating an integration record that links the file to its deleted predecessor.

As a result, if you run p4 changes newfile, you'll see only changes to newfile. Only changes that have taken place after the renaming will be listed:

$ p4 changes newfile.c
Change 4 on 2000/10/24 by user@client 'Latest bugfix'
Change 3 on 2000/10/23 by user@client 'Renamed file'

In order to see the full history of changes to the file (including changes made before the file was renamed or moved), you must specify the -i (include changes from integrations) flag to p4 changes, as follows:

$ p4 changes -i newfile.c
Change 4 on 2000/10/24 by user@client 'Latest bugfix'
Change 3 on 2000/10/23 by user@client 'Renamed file'
Change 2 on 2000/10/21 by user@client 'second version'
change 1 on 2000/10/20 by user@client 'initial check-in'

Specifying the -i flag tells p4 changes to trace back through the integration records and retrieve all change information, regardless of how many times the file (or the directory in which it lives) has been renamed or moved.

Recommendations for Organizing the Depot

The default view brought up by p4 client maps the entire depot to the entire client workspace. If the client workspace is named eds_elm, the default view looks like this:

This is the easiest mapping, and can be used for the most simple Perforce depots, but mapping the entire depot to the workspace can lead to problems later on. Suppose your server currently stores files for only one project, but another project is added later: everyone who has a client workspace mapped as above will wind up receiving all the files from both projects into their workspaces. Additionally, the default workspace view does not facilitate branch creation.

The safest way to organize the depot, even from the start, is to create one subdirectory per project within the depot. For example, if your company is working on three projects named zeus, athena, and apollo, three subtrees might be created within the depot: //depot/zeus, //depot/athena, and //depot/apollo. If Joe is working on the zeus project, his mapping might look like this:

//depot/zeus/...    //joe/...

And Sarah, who's working on the athena and apollo projects, might set up her client workspace as:

//depot/athena/...    //sarah/athena/...
//depot/apollo/...   //sarah/apollo/...

This sort of organization can be easily extended to as many projects and branches as are needed.

Another way of solving the same problem is to have the Perforce system administrator create one depot for each project or branch. See the Perforce System Administrator's Guide for details about setting up multiple depots.


Perforce 2005.1 User's Guide
<< Previous Chapter
Perforce Basics:
Resolving File Conflicts

Table of Contents
Index
Perforce on the Web
Next Chapter >>
Changelists
Please send comments and questions about this manual to [email protected].
Copyright 1997-2005 Perforce Software. All rights reserved.
Last updated: 05/12/05