p4 group

Synopsis

Add or delete users from a group, or set the maxresults, maxscanrows, maxlocktime, and timeout limits for the members of a group.

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] group [-a | -A] groupname
p4 [g-opts] group -d [-a] groupname
p4 [g-opts] group -o groupname
p4 [g-opts] group -i [-a | -A]

Description

A group is a list of Perforce users. Use groups to set access levels in the p4 protect form, to limit the maximum amount of data that can be retrieved from Perforce by particular users with a single command, to set the timeout period for p4 login tickets, and to provide information for the p4 ldapsync command.

To delete a group, use p4 group -d groupname, or call p4 group groupname and remove all the users from the resulting form.

Form Fields

Field Name	Type	Description
`Group:`	Read-only	The name of the group, as entered on the command line.
`MaxResults:`	Writable	The maximum number of results that members of this group can access from the service from a single command. The default value is `unset`. See Usage Notes for more details.
`MaxScanRows:`	Writable	The maximum number of rows that members of this group can scan from the service from a single command. The default value is `unset`. See Usage Notes for more details.
`MaxLockTime:`	Writable	The maximum length of time (in milliseconds) that any one operation can lock any database table when scanning data. The default value is `unset`. See Usage Notes for more details.
`Timeout:`	Writable	The duration (in seconds) of the validity of a session ticket created by p4 login. The default value is 43,200 seconds (12 hours). To create a ticket that does not expire, set the `Timeout:` field to `unlimited`.
`PasswordTimeout:`	Writable	The length of time (in seconds) for which passwords for users in this group remain valid. To disable password aging, use a value of `unset`.
`LdapConfig`	Writable	The LDAP configuration to use when populating's the group's user list from an LDAP query. For more information, see p4 ldapsync.
`LdapSearchQuery`	Writable	The LDAP query used to identify the members of the group. For more information, see p4 ldapsync.
`LdapUserAttribute`	Writable	The LDAP attribute that represents the user's username. For more information, see p4 ldapsync.
`Subgroups:`	Writable, multi-line	Names of other Perforce groups. To add all users in a previously defined group to the group you're presently working with, include the group name in the `Subgroups:` field of the p4 group form. Note that user and group names occupy separate namespaces, and thus, groups and users can have the same names. Every member of any previously defined group you list in the `Subgroups:` field will be a member of the group you're now defining.
`Owners:`	Writable, multi-line	Names of other Perforce users. Group owners without `super` access are permitted to administer this group, provided that they use the `-a` option. Group owners are not necessarily members of a group; if a group owner is to be a member of the group, the userid must also be added to the `Users:` field. The specified owner does not have to be a Perforce user. You might want to use an arbitrary name if the user does not yet exist, or if you have deleted the user and need a placeholder until you can assign the spec to a new user.
`Users:`	Writable, multi-line	The Perforce usernames of the group members. Each user name must be typed on its own line, and should be indented.

Options

`-a`	Allow a (non-superuser) group owner to administer the group. The user must be listed in the `Owner:` field of the group.
`-A`	Allow a user with `admin` access to add a new group. Existing groups cannot be modified when this option is used.
`-d groupname`	Delete group `groupname`. The members of the group are affected only if their access level or `maxresults` value changes as a result of the group's deletion.
`-i`	Read the form from standard input without invoking the user's editor. The new group specification replaces the previous one.
`-o`	Write the form to standard output without invoking the user's editor.
`g-opts`	See “Global Options”.

Usage Notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier?	Can File Arguments Use Revision Range?	Minimal Access Level Required
N/A	N/A	`super` (`admin` for p4 group -A) (`list` for p4 group -o or `-a`)

Referring to a (nonexistent) user in a group definition does not create the user, nor does it consume a license; use the p4 user command to create users.
Ticket Timeout and PasswordTimeout values for users who belong to multiple groups are calculated the same way as maxresults values: the largest timeout value for all the groups of which the user is a member (including unlimited, but ignoring unset). Users in no groups have the default ticket Timeout value of 43200 and PasswordTimeout value of unset. To create a ticket that does not expire, set the Timeout to unlimited.
If you are using the PasswordTimeout: field to implement password aging, a 30-day timeout is 2,592,000 seconds.
As the number of files in the depot grows, certain commands can significantly slow down the service if called with no parameters, or if called with non-restrictive arguments. For example, p4 print //depot/... will print the contents of every file in the depot on the user's screen, and p4 filelog //depot/... will attempt to retrieve data on every file in the depot at every revision.

The Perforce superuser can limit the amount of data that Perforce returns to the user by setting the MaxResults value for groups of users. The superuser can also limit the amount of data scanned (whether returned to the user or not) by setting the MaxScanRows value, and the length of time any database table can be locked in by any single operation by setting the MaxLockTime value.

If any of the MaxResults, MaxScanRows, or MaxLockTime limits are violated, the request fails and the user is asked to limit his query.

If a user belongs to multiple groups, the service computes her MaxResults value to be the maximum of the MaxResults for all the groups of which the user is a member (removing the limit if it encounters a setting of unlimited, but ignoring any settings still at the default value of unset). If a particular user is not in any groups, her MaxResults value is unset. (The user's MaxScanRows and MaxLockTime limits are computed in the same way.)

The speed of most hardware should make it unnecessary to ever set a MaxResults value below 10,000, a MaxScanRows value below 50,000, or a MaxLockTime value below 1,000.
To unload a workspace or label, a user must be able to scan all the files in the workspace's have list and/or files tagged by the label. Administrators should set MaxScanRows and MaxResults high enough that users will not need to ask for assistance with p4 unload or p4 reload operations.
To display a group's maxresults, maxscanrows, maxlocktime, and timeout limits, use p4 groups -v groupname.
Use p4 help maxresults to obtain the list of commands that are affected by any of the three limiting values.

To modify users' access levels	p4 protect
To view a list of existing groups	p4 groups
To synchronize LDAP and Perforce groups	p4 ldapsync

P4 Command Reference (2015.1)