The p4 resolve command uses the following terms during the merge process.

To specify how a conflict is to be resolved, you issue the p4 resolve command, which displays a dialog for each file scheduled for resolve. The dialog describes the differences between the file you changed and the conflicting revision. For example:

p4 resolve //depot/dev/main/jam/command.c
c:\bruno_ws\dev\main\jam\command.c - merging //depot/dev/main/jam/command.c#9

Diff chunks: 4 yours + 2 theirs + 1 both + 1 conflicting
Accept(a) Edit(e) Diff(d) Merge (m) Skip(s) Help(?) e:

The differences between each pair of files are summarized by p4 resolve. Groups of lines (chunks) in the yours, theirs, and base files can differ in various ways. Chunks can be:

In the preceding example:

Perforce's recommended choice is displayed at the end of the command line. Pressing ENTER or choosing Accept performs the recommended choice.

You can resolve conflicts in three basic ways:

The preceding options are interactive. You can also specify resolve options on the p4 resolve command line, if you know which file you want to accept. For details, see Resolve command-line options. To reresolve a resolved but unsubmitted file, specify the -f option when you issue the p4 resolve command. You cannot reresolve a file after you submit it. The following sections describe the resolve options in more detail.

To accept a file without changing it, specify one of the following options.

Accepting yours, theirs, edit, or merge overwrites changes, and the generated merge file might not be precisely what you want to submit to the depot. The most precise way to ensure that you submit only the desired changes is to use a merge program or edit the merge file.

To resolve files by editing the merge file, choose the e option. Perforce launches your default text editor, displaying the merge file. In the merge file, diffs and conflicts appear in the following format:

>>>> ORIGINAL file#n
(text from the original version)
==== THEIR file#m
(text from their file)
==== YOURS file
(text from your file)
<<<<

To locate conflicts and differences, look for the difference marker ">>>>" and edit that portion of the text. Examine the changes made to theirs to make sure that they are compatible with your changes. Make sure you remove all conflict markers before saving. After you make the desired changes, save the file. At the p4 resolve prompt, choose ae.

By default, only the conflicts between the yours and theirs files are marked. To generate difference markers for all differences, specify the -v option when you issue the p4 resolve command.

A merge program displays the differences between yours, theirs, and the base file, and enables you to select and edit changes to produce the desired result file. To configure a merge program, set P4MERGE to the desired program. To use the merge program during a resolve, choose the m option. For details about using a specific merge program, consult its online help.

After you merge, save your results and exit the merge program. At the p4 resolve prompt, choose am.

The p4 resolve command offers the following options.

Diff chunks: 0 yours + 0 theirs + 0 both + 1 conflicting
Accept(a) Edit(e) Diff(d) Merge (m) Skip(s) Help(?) e: e

Jam/MR (formerly "jam - make(1) redux")
/+\
>>>> ORIGINAL README#26
    +\ Copyright 1993, 1997 Christopher Seiwald.
==== THEIRS README#27
    +\ Copyright 1993, 1997, 2004 Christopher Seiwald.
==== YOURS README
    +\ Copyright 1993, 1997, 2005 Christopher Seiwald.
<<<<
    \+/

When a version of the file is accepted during a resolve, the file in the workspace is overwritten, and the new client file must still be submitted to the depot. New conflicts can occur if new versions of a file are submitted after you resolve but before you submit the resolved files. This problem can be prevented by locking the file before you perform the resolve. For details, see Locking files.

Beyond reconciling changes to the contents of related files after integration, you can also determine how other kinds of changes are handled. For example:

Following are simple cases describing how you can resolve non-content changes to related files. After a source file is branched to a target file, changes are made as describe below, then you integrate the source to the target. To choose the outcome, you specify the resolve options at ("Accept Theirs") or ay ("Accept Yours") as follows:

By default, the p4 resolve command resolves all types of change, content and non-content. To constrain the type of actions that you want to resolve, specify the -A option as follows:

To perform more than one type of resolve, combine the options (for example: -Abd). By default, resolving is performed file by file, interactively. To specify the same outcome for a particular action (for example, propagate all moves), and avoid the prompting, include the desired option on the command line. For example: p4 resolve -Am -at

The following p4 resolve options enable you to resolve directly instead of interactively. When you specify one of these options in the p4 resolve command, files are resolved as described in the following table.

The following reporting commands are helpful when you are resolving file conflicts.

Without file locking, there is no guarantee that the resolve process ever ends. The following scenario demonstrates the problem:

To prevent such problems, you can lock files, as follows.

To list open locked files on UNIX, issue the following command:

p4 opened | grep "*locked*"

To ensure that only one user at a time can work on the file, use the +l (exclusive-open) file type modifier. For example:

p4 reopen -t binary+l file

Although exclusive locking prevents concurrent development, for some file types (binary files), merging and resolving are not meaningful, so you can prevent conflicts by preventing multiple users from working on the file simultaneously.

Your Perforce administrator can use the p4 typemap command to ensure that all files of a specified type (for instance, //depot/.../*.gif for all .gif files) can only be opened by one user at a time. See the P4 Command Reference for details.

The difference between p4 lock and +l is that p4 lock allows anyone to open a file for edit, but only the person who locked the file can submit it. By contrast, a file of type +l prevents more than one user from opening the file.