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Perforce 2009.1: System Administrator's Guide



Preface About This Manual
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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
Licensing and upgrades
Upgrading the server
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
Enable server process monitoring
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 automatic creation of users
Deleting obsolete users
Adding new licensed 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
Managing Unicode Installations
Overview
Configuring the Perforce Server
Configuring Client Machines
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
P4DTG, The Perforce Defect Tracking Gateway
P4DTI, Perforce Defect Tracking Integration
Building your own integration
Chapter 6 Scripting Perforce: Triggers and Daemons
Triggers
The trigger table
Triggering on changelists
Triggering on fixes
Triggering on forms
Using triggers for external authentication
Archive triggers for external data sources
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
Monitoring disk space usage
Network
CPU
Diagnosing slow response times
Hostname vs. IP address
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
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
Reducing server CPU usage by disabling file compression
Network topologies versus P4P
Preloading the cache directory for optimal initial performance
Distributing disk space consumption
Appendix A Perforce Server (p4d) Reference
Synopsis
Syntax
Description
Exit Status
Options
Usage Notes
Related Commands
Index


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Perforce 2009.1: System Administrator's Guide
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