Preface
About This Manual

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The Example Set

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Chapter 1
Perforce Concepts

Perforce Architecture

Moving Files Between the Clients and the Server

File Conflicts

Labeling Groups of Files

Branching Files

Job Tracking

Change Review and Daemons

Protections

Chapter 2
Connecting to the Perforce Server

Verifying the Connection to the p4d Server

Telling p4 Where p4d is

Chapter 3
Perforce Basics: Quick Start

Underlying Concepts

   File Configurations Used in the Examples

Setting Up a Client Workspace

   Naming the Client Workspace

   Describing the Client workspace to the Perforce Server

   Editing an Existing Client Specification

   Deleting an Existing Client Specification

Copying Files from the Workspace to the Depot

   Adding Files to the Depot

   Updating Depot Files

   Deleting Files From the Depot

   Submitting with Multiple Operations

Retrieving Files from the Depot into a Workspace

Reverting Files to their Unopened States

Basic Reporting Commands

Chapter 4
Perforce Basics: The Details

Description of the Client Workspace

Wildcards

   Wildcards and `p4 add'

Mapping the Depot to the Client Workspace

   Using Views

   Wildcards in Views

   Types of Mappings

Referring to Files on Command Lines

   Local Syntax

   Perforce Syntax

   Providing Files as Arguments to Commands

   Wildcards and Perforce Syntax

Name and String Limitations

   File Names

   Name and Description Lengths

Specifying Older File Revisions

   Using Revision Specifications without Filenames

Revision Ranges

File Types

Forms and Perforce Commands

General Reporting Commands

Chapter 5
Perforce Basics: Resolving File Conflicts

RCS Format: How Perforce Stores File Revisions

   Only the Differences Between Revisions are Stored

   Use of `diff' to Determine File Revision Differences

Scheduling Resolves of Conflicting Files

   Why `p4 sync' to Schedule a Resolve?

   How Do I Know When a Resolve is Needed?

Performing Resolves of Conflicting Files

   File Revisions Used and Generated by `p4 resolve'

   Types of Conflicts Between File Revisions

   How the Merge File is Generated

   The `p4 resolve' Options

   Using Flags with Resolve to Non-Interactively Accept Particular Revisions

   Binary Files and `p4 resolve'

Locking Files to Minimize File Conflicts

   Preventing Multiple Resolves with File Locking

Resolves and Branching

Resolve Reporting

Chapter 6
Perforce Basics: Miscellaneous Topics

Reconfiguring the Perforce Environment with $P4CONFIG

Perforce Passwords

Command-Line Flags Common to All Perforce Commands

Working Detached

   Finding Changed Files with `p4 diff'

   Using `p4 diff' to Update the Depot

Refreshing files

Recommendations for Organizing the Depot

Renaming Files

Reading Forms from Standard Input; Writing Forms to Standard Output

Chapter 7
Working with Changelists

Working with the Default Changelist

Creating Numbered Changelists Manually

Working With Numbered Changelists

Automatic Creation and Renumbering of Changelists

   When Submit of the Default Changelist Fails,the Changelist is Assigned a Number

   Perforce May Renumber a Changelist upon Submission

Deleting Changelists

Changelist Reporting

Chapter 8
Labels

Why Not Just Use Change Numbers?

Creating a Label

Adding and Changing Files Listed in a Label

   Previewing Labelsync's Results

Preventing Accidental Overwrites of a Label's Contents

Retrieving a Label's Contents into a Client Workspace

Deleting Labels

Label Reporting

Chapter 9
Branching

What is Branching?

When to Create a Branch

Perforce's Branching Mechanisms:Introduction

Branching and Merging, Method 1:Branching with File Specifications

   Creating Branched Files

   Propagating Changes Between Branched Files

   Propagating Changes from Branched Files to the Original Files

Branching and Merging, Method 2:Branching with Branch Specifications

Branch Specification Usage Notes

Integration Usage Notes

Deleting Branches

Advanced Integration Functions

   Integrating Specific File Revisions

   Re-Integrating and Re-Resolving Files

How Integrate Works

   p4 integrate's Definitions of yours, theirs, and base

   The Integration Algorithm

   Integrate's Actions

Integration Reporting

For More Information

Chapter 10
Job Tracking

Job Usage Overview

Creating and Editing Jobsusing the Default Job Specification

Creating and Editing Jobswith Custom Job Specifications

Viewing Jobs by Content with Jobviews

   Finding Jobs Containing Particular Words

   Finding Jobs by Field Values

   Using Dates in Jobviews

   Comparison Operators and Field Types

Linking Jobs to Changelists

   Automatically Linking Jobs to Changelistswith the p4 user Form

   Automatically Performed Functions

   Manually Associating Jobs with Changelists

   What if There's No Status Field?

Deleting Jobs

Integrating to External Defect Tracking Systems

Job Reporting

Chapter 11
Scripting Perforce:
Daemons & Triggers

Using Triggers

Using Daemons

Perforce's Review Daemon

Daemon Commands

Creating Other Daemons

Chapter 12
Reporting and Data Mining

Files

   File Metadata

   Relationships Between Client and Depot Files

   File Contents

Changelists

   Changelists that Meet Particular Criteria

   Files and JobsAffected by Changelists

Labels

Branch and Integration Reporting

Job Reporting

   Jobs, Fixes, and Changelists

Reporting for Daemons

System Configuration

Special Reporting Flags

Reporting with Scripting

   Comparing the Change Content of Two File Sets

   Changelists Submitted by Particular Users

   Listing Subdirectories of the Depot

Chapter 13
Installation and Administration

Installation of p4d and p4

Creating a p4d Root Directory

Setting p4d's Port

Telling p4 Where The p4d Server Is

Starting p4d: The Basics

Logging Errors

Protections

Checkpointing, Journaling, and Recovery

   Making a Checkpoint

   Turning Journaling On and Off

   Recovering

Managing Disk Space

License File

Release and License Information

Chapter 14
System Administration:
Protections

When Should Protections Be Set?

Setting Protections with p4 protect

   The Permission Lines' Five Fields

   Access Levels

   Default Protections

   Interpreting Multiple Permission Lines

   Exclusionary Protections

Granting Access to Groups of Users

   Creating and Editing Groups

   Groups and Protections

   Deleting Groups

Access Levels Required by Perforce Commands

How Protections are Implemented

Other Perforce Security Measures

Chapter 15
System Administration:
Editing Job Specifications

The Default Perforce Job Format

The Job Format's Fields

   The Fields: Field

   The Default-fieldname : Fields

   The Values-fieldname: Fields

   The Required: Field

   The Readonly: Field

   The Comments Field

Perforce's Own Altered Template

How Perforce Stores and IndexesJob Data

Caveats, Warnings and Recommendations

Chapter 16
Superuser Commands and Flags

File Verification by Signature

File Obliteration

Changelist Deletion & Description Editing

Distributed Depots

   Defining New Depots

   Accessing Files In Other Depots

   Integrating Files From Other Depots

   Deleting Depots

   Depot Reporting Commands

Forcing Operations with the -f Flag

Appendix A
Environment Variables

Appendix B
Glossary

Index