CONFIDENTIAL

Perforce Usage
presentation by
Rajan Kodivel
December 15th 2007
Why Perforce

Perforce is a easy to use Software Configuration

Management Tool (SCM).

Available in P4web,P4win,p4(CLI),P4V(p4 Visual).

To manage the Software changes & releases effectively.

It is a fast SCM built to provide maximum control &

minimum interference with high performance.

It is a networked architecture for managing the ‘local-

files’ with ‘central-database’ through Streaming protocol.

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Concept of Perforce

Workspaces stores local copies of the

files on our computer running P4Win/P4V
which connects perforce server which
manages depots, repositories of the files
under perforce control.

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Perforce View

Jobs
Pending Branch Labels Client Users
Submitted
Change-lists Specification Specification
Change-lists

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 Display Pane Icons-Details

Stop Operation
Revision History
Revert Change Settings
Sync Bookmarks Diff with Depot
Lock Display Server Info.
Open for Edit Connection View
Unlock Launch Editor
Add

Open for
Delete Submit

Slide No 4

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Depot Pane-Files Icon

File in the local workspace is

not the latest

File in the Workspace is

most Latest Revision

File is checked out by you

locked for Submission & You have the latest file in Workspace.

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Client-Spec for creating Workspace

Owner of the Client-Spec

Machine Name hosting this

client-Spec

Client-Machine Root Directory

All file in the P4 sync overwrites

client-space is writable the unopened
writable files
Allows owner to
change/modify/delete files Preserve the time the file
was last submitted in
perforce.

Compress Data sent

between client &
Server
Specifies which Line ending
convention to be used when
synched to local client. All file in the
Options are client-space is
Loacl/unix/Mac/WIN/Share. writable

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What is ClientSpec or workspace

A Perforce client workspace is a set of directories on the client

machine where you work on file revisions that are managed by
Perforce.

Each workspace is given a name that identifies the client

workspace to the Perforce Server.

If no workspace name is specified (by setting the P4CLIENT

environment variable) the default workspace name is the name of
the client machine. To specify the effective workspace name, set
the P4CLIENT environment variable. A client machine can contain
multiple workspaces.

Perforce manages the files in a client workspace as follows:

• Files in the workspace are created, updated, and deleted as

determined by your changes.

• Write permission is enabled when you edit a file, and disabled

when you submit your changes.

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Perforce Features

General features
 Sync, Add Files, Edit Files, Diff Files ,Submit & Revert files
 Lock Files, Unlock files
 Integrate Files & Resolve files
 Book mark the files.

Special features
 Time Lapse View & Annotation.
 It enables to display all changes made to a file in a variety of ways
using change list, revision number & date for any range of revisions.
 Graph View of change-list
 It represents the multiple change-list submitted info in the graphical
pattern.
 Configure to view any Editor
 Open the files using any editor.

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Time Lapse View

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File Integration Methods.
File Integration from One Branch to another Branch can be done for
the following…
 Bunch of Change-list
 Changes between the date.
 Label
 Client
 Different Revision of Files.

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P4 commands Classification

Client Workspace Commands

File Manipulation Commands

Change-list Commands

Branching & Merging Commands

Security Commands

Administration commands

Environment Settings commands

Jobs commands

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Client Workspace Commands

P4 client/P4 workspace
 Create or edit a client workspace specification and its
view.
P4 Clients/P4 workspaces
• List all client workspaces currently known to the
system.
P4 flush

•Update a client workspace’s have list without actually

copying any files. It updates only “have List” files on the
Perforce server without copying files into client machine.

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Client Workspace Commands….Cont…

P4 sync
 Copy files from the depot into the workspace. Updates
“have list” and also copies the updated files into client
area.
P4 Where
• Show where a particular file is located, as determined
by the client view.

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File Manipulation Commands

P4 add

•Open file(s) in a client workspace for addition to the depot.

P4 Delete

•Open file(s) in a client workspace for deletion from the depot.

P4 diff

Compare a client workspace file opened for Edit to a revision in the depot.

P4 diff2

Compare Depot file revisions.

P4 dirs

List the immediate subdirectories of specified depot directories

(ex:P4 dirs //SetTopBox/Branches/…)

P4 edit

Opens file(s) in a client workspace for edit.

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File Manipulation Commands…cont…
P4 files

Provide information about files in the depot without accessing their contents.

P4 fstat

Dump file info(depot path,clientspec path,Head rev,Headchange,HeadTime etc) in the format

suitable for parsing by scripts (TCL/TK,Pl etc).

P4 lock

Lock an opened file against changelist submission.

P4 print

Print the contents of a depot file revision.

P4 rename

Renaming files under Perforce.

P4 revert

Discard changes made to open files.

P4 sizes

Display size information for files in the depot.

P4 unlock

Release the lock on a file.

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Change-list Commands
p4 change/p4 changelist

Create or edit a changelist specification.

P4 changelists

List submitted and pending changelists applicable to the clientspec.

P4 describe

Provides information about changelists and the changelists’ files.

p4 filelog

Print detailed information about files’ revisions.

p4 opened

ist files that are open in pending changelists.

P4 reopen

Move opened files between changelists or change the files’ type.

P4 review

List all submitted changelists above a provided changelist number.

P4 submit

Send changes made to open files to the depot.

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Branching & Merging Commands

P4 branch

Create or edit a branch specification and its view. p4 branch

enables you to construct a mapping between two sets of files
for use with p4 integrate.

P4 branches

List existing branch specifications.

P4 integrate

Open files for branching or merging.

P4 integrated

Show integrations that have been submitted.

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Branching & Merging commands..Cont.

P4 label

Create or edit a label specification and its view.

P4 labels

Display list of defined labels.

P4 labelsync

Synchronize a label with the contents of the current client workspace.

P4 tag

Tag files with a label. Use p4 tag to tag specified file revisions with a label

P4 resolve

Resolve conflicts between file revisions. Use p4 resolve to combine the contents of two files or file
revisions into a single file revision.

P4 resolved

Display a list of files that have been resolved but not yet submitted.

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Jobs Commands

P4 fix

Link jobs to the changelists that fix them. The p4 fix command links jobs
(descriptions of work to be done) to a changelist (a set of changes to files that does
the work described by a job).

P4 fixes

List jobs and the changelists that fix them.

P4 job

Create or edit a defect, enhancement request, or other job specification.

P4 jobs

List jobs known to the Perforce server.

P4 jobsepc

Edit the jobs template.

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Security Commands

P4 group

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

P4 groups

List groups of users.

P4 login

Log in to a Perforce server by obtaining a ticket.

p4 logout

Log out of a Perforce server by removing or invalidating a ticket.

P4 passwd

Change a user’s Perforce password on the server.

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Security Commands…Cont..

P4 protect

Control users’ access to files, directories, and commands.

P4 protects

Display protections in place for a given user, group, or path.

P4 tickets

Display all tickets granted to a user by p4 login. The p4 tickets command lists all
tickets stored in the user’s ticket file.

P4 user

Create or edit Perforce user specifications and preferences.

P4 users

Print a list of all known users of the current server.

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Administrator Commands
P4 admin

Perform administrative operations on the server.

P4 counter

Access, set, or delete a persistent variable.

P4 counters

Display list of long-term variables used by Perforce and associated scripts.

P4 depot

Create or edit a depot specification.

P4 depots

Display a list of depots known to the Perforce server.

P4 license

Update or display the license file. The p4 license command allows Perforce superusers to update or
display the Perforce license file.

P4 logger

Report changed jobs and changelists. It is meant for use in external programs that call Perforce.

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Perforce functional Area commands-
Command Line Interface-Cont..
Environment Commands:-
– p4 set, Environment and Registry Variables,
P4AUDIT,P4CHARSET, P4COMMANDCHARSET, P4CLIENT,
P4CONFIG, P4DEBUG,P4DIFF, P4DIFFUNICODE, P4EDITOR,
P4HOST, P4JOURNAL,P4LANGUAGE, P4LOG, P4MERGE,
P4MERGEUNICODE, P4PAGER,P4PASSWD, P4PCACHE,
P4PFSIZE, P4POPTIONS, P4PORT, P4ROOT,P4TARGET,
P4TICKETS, P4USER, PWD, TMP, TEMP

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Commands Usage-Backup

Commands Usage
BACKUP

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Main Features

Add Files procedure:

 Ensure that the file to be edited is available inside the
workspace directory which is known by the client-spec for the
Perforce server.
 Open the files for Add.
 From the Pending change-list “Submit” the file with the
description.

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 Sync Command

sync all the code in the client spec to tip of tree…

p4 sync

force sync all the code in the client spec to tip of tree..
p4 sync -f

Force sync grabs all the files even if it exists on the local machine

sync firmware to label SDK_M102.0_rc02

p4 sync //dtvfirmware/…@ SDK_M102.0_rc02

sync drivers to date 2006/12/04

p4 sync //SetTopBox/Branches/X260_dev/…@2006/12/04

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 Sync Command (Cont…)

sync xval_2.0 to changelist 140854 …

Cd /nfsroot/usr/src/x260_dev/validation/testapps/xval_2.0

p4 sync …@140854

sync file xval_vico.cpp and to version #79

p4 sync /nfsroot/usr/src/X260_dev/validation/testapps/xval_2.0/source/
xval_vico.cpp#79

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ClientSpec

create a clientspec for yourself using clientspec

template_hdtv2_stw_solo_X260_dev_fw as a template..

p4 client –t template_hdtv2_stw_solo_X260_dev_fw
rajan_suse_solo_X260_dev

To make your client Spec as Default Client-Spec….

Export P4CLIENT= rajan_suse_solo_X260_dev

Search for a Client Spec with Search Strings in Perfroce Client Specs…

P4 clients | grep template | grep X260 | grep dev

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Labels

Create a Label

P4 label <SDK_M28.15_rc01>

Sync the Files with the created Label

P4 labelsync –l SDK_M28.15_rc01
//SetTopBox/Branches/M28/M28_15/…

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