p4 describe

Synopsis

Provides information about changelists and the changelists' files.

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] describe [-doptions] [-s -S -f -O -I] changelist ...

Description

p4 describe displays the details of one or more changelists. For each changelist, the output includes the changelist’s number, the changelist’s creator, the client workspace name, the date the changelist was created, and the changelist’s description.

If a changelist has been submitted, the default output also includes a list of affected files and the diffs of those files relative to the previous revision. By default, this command does not expand keywords because keyword differences tend to obscure real differences.

If a changelist is pending, it is flagged as such in the output, and the list of open files is shown. (Diffs for pending changelists are not displayed because the files have yet to be submitted to the depot.)

The p4 describe command limits its report depending on whether or not a changelist is public or restricted. Restricted submitted or shelved changes are not reported unless you either own the change or have list permission for at least one file in the change. Restricted pending (but unshelved) changes are visible only to the change owner. If you do not have permission to view a restricted changelist, the message "no permission" is displayed in place of a changelist description. Perforce administrators can override this behavior and view restricted changelists by using the -f option.

You cannot run p4 describe on the default changelist.

The p4 describe command uses p4's built-in diff subroutine. The P4DIFF variable has no effect on this command.

Options

-doptions

Runs the diff routine with one of a subset of the standard UNIX diff options. See Usage Notes for an option listing.

-f

Force the display of descriptions for restricted changelists. This option requires admin permission.

-O

If a changelist was renumbered on submit, and you know only the original changelist number, use -O and the original changelist number to describe the changelist.

-I

Specifies that the changelist number is the Identity field of a changelist.

-s

Display a shortened output that excludes the files' diffs.

-S

Display files shelved for the specified changelist, including diffs of those files against their previous depot revision.

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

read,
list for p4 describe -s

The diff options supported by p4 describe are:

Option Name

-dn

RCS output format, showing additions and deletions made to the file and associated line ranges.

-dc[num]

context output format, showing line number ranges and num lines of context around the changes.

-ds

summary output format, showing only the number of chunks and lines added, deleted, or changed.

-du[num]

unified output format, showing added and deleted lines with num lines of context, in a form compatible with the patch(1) utility.

-dl

ignore line-ending (CR/LF) convention when finding diffs

-db

ignore changes made within whitespace; this option implies -dl.

-dw

ignore whitespace altogether; this option implies -dl.

Related Commands

To view a list of changelists

p4 changes

To view a list of all opened files

p4 opened

To compare any two depot file revisions

p4 diff2

To compare a changed file in the client to a depot file revision

p4 diff