Perforce 2006.1 System Administrator's Guide
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Table of Contents


Preface: About This Manual

Using Perforce?

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Chapter 1: Welcome to Perforce: Installing and Upgrading

Getting Perforce

UNIX installation
Downloading the files and making them executable
Creating a Perforce server root directory
Telling Perforce servers which port to listen on
Telling Perforce client programs which port to connect to
Starting the Perforce server
Stopping the Perforce server

Windows installation
Windows services and servers
Starting and stopping Perforce

Upgrading a Perforce server
Using old client programs with a new server
Important notes for 2005.1 and later
Important notes for 2001.1 and later
UNIX upgrades
Windows upgrades

Installation and administration tips
Release and license information
Observe proper backup procedures
Use separate physical drives for server root and journal
Use protections and passwords
Allocate sufficient disk space for anticipated growth
Managing disk space after installation
Large filesystem support
UNIX and NFS support
Windows: Username and password required for network drives
UNIX: Run p4d as a nonprivileged user
Logging errors
Logging file access
Case sensitivity issues
Tune for performance

Chapter 2: Supporting Perforce: Backup and Recovery

Backup and recovery concepts
Checkpoint files
Journal files
Versioned files

Backup procedures

Recovery procedures
Database corruption, versioned files unaffected
Both database and versioned files lost or damaged
Ensuring system integrity after any restoration

Chapter 3: Administering Perforce: Superuser Tasks

Basic Perforce Administration
Authentication methods: passwords and tickets
Server security levels
Password strength
Resetting user passwords
Creating users
Preventing creation of users
Deleting obsolete users
Reverting files left open by obsolete users
Reclaiming disk space by obliterating files
Deleting changelists and editing changelist descriptions
Verifying files by signature
Defining filetypes with p4 typemap
Implementing sitewide pessimistic locking with p4 typemap
Forcing operations with the -f flag

Advanced Perforce administration
Running Perforce through a firewall
Specifying IP addresses in P4PORT
Running from inetd on UNIX
Case sensitivity and multiplatform development
Monitoring server activity
Perforce server trace and tracking flags
Auditing user file access

Moving a Perforce server to a new machine
Moving between machines of the same architecture
Moving between different architectures that use the same text format
Moving between Windows and UNIX
Changing the IP address of your server
Changing the hostname of your server

Using multiple depots
Naming depots
Defining new local depots
Enabling versioned specifications with the spec depot
Listing depots
Deleting depots

Remote depots and distributed development
When to use remote depots
How remote depots work
Using remote depots for code drops

Chapter 4: Administering Perforce: Protections

When should protections be set?

Setting protections with p4 protect
The permission lines' five fields
Access levels
Which users should receive which permissions?
Default protections
Interpreting multiple permission lines
Exclusionary protections
Which lines apply to which users or files?

Granting access to groups of users
Creating and editing groups
Groups and protections
Deleting groups

How protections are implemented

Access Levels Required by Perforce Commands

Chapter 5: Customizing Perforce: Job Specifications

The default Perforce job template

The job template's fields
The Fields: field
The Values: fields
The Presets: field
The Comments: field

Caveats, warnings, and recommendations

Example: a custom template

Working with third-party defect tracking systems
Using P4DTI - Perforce Defect Tracking Integration
Building your own integration
Getting more information

Chapter 6: Scripting Perforce: Triggers and Daemons

Triggers
The trigger table
Triggering on changelists
Triggering on forms
Using triggers for external authentication
Using multiple triggers
Writing triggers to support multiple Perforce servers
Triggers and security
Triggers and Windows

Daemons
Perforce's change review daemon
Creating other daemons
Commands used by daemons
Daemons and counters
Scripting and buffering

Chapter 7: Tuning Perforce for Performance

Tuning for performance
Memory
Filesystem performance
Disk space allocation
Network
CPU

Diagnosing slow response times
Hostname vs. IP address
Try p4 info vs. P4Win
Windows wildcards
DNS lookups and the hosts file
Location of the p4 executable

Preventing server swamp
Using tight views
Assigning protections
Limiting database queries
Scripting efficiently
Using compression efficiently

Checkpoints for database tree rebalancing

Chapter 8: Perforce and Windows

Using the Perforce installer
Upgrade notes
Installation options
Scripted deployment and unattended installation

Windows services vs. Windows servers
Starting and stopping the Perforce service
Starting and stopping the Perforce server
Installing the Perforce service on a network drive

Multiple Perforce services under Windows

Windows configuration parameter precedence

Resolving Windows-related instabilities

Users having trouble with P4EDITOR or P4DIFF

Chapter 9: Perforce Proxy

System requirements

Installing P4P
UNIX
Windows

Running P4P
Running P4P as a Windows service

P4P flags

Administering P4P
No backups required
Stopping P4P
Managing disk space consumption
Determining if your Perforce client is using the proxy
P4P and protections
Determining if specific files are being delivered from the proxy

Maximizing performance improvement
Network topologies versus P4P
Preloading the cache directory for optimal initial performance
Distributing disk space consumption
Reducing server CPU usage by disabling file compression

Appendix A: Perforce Server (p4d) Reference

Synopsis
Syntax
Description
Exit Status
Options
Usage Notes
Related Commands

Index


This manual copyright 1999-2006 Perforce Software.

All rights reserved.

Perforce software and documentation is available from http://www.perforce.com. You may download and use Perforce programs, but you may not sell or redistribute them. You may download, print, copy, edit, and redistribute the documentation, but you may not sell it, or sell any documentation derived from it. You may not modify or attempt to reverse engineer the programs.

Perforce programs and documents are available from our Web site as is. No warranty or support is provided. Warranties and support, along with higher capacity servers, are sold by Perforce Software.

Perforce Software assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book.

By downloading and using our programs and documents you agree to these terms.

Perforce and Inter-File Branching are trademarks of Perforce Software. Perforce software includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.

All other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or organizations.


Perforce 2006.1 System Administrator's Guide
Table of Contents
Index
Perforce on the Web
Next Chapter >>
About This Manual
Please send comments and questions about this manual to [email protected].
Copyright 1999-2006 Perforce Software. All rights reserved.
Last updated: 06/23/06