Documentation / git-p4.txton commit vcs-svn: use error_errno() (1c8ead9)
   1git-p4(1)
   2=========
   3
   4NAME
   5----
   6git-p4 - Import from and submit to Perforce repositories
   7
   8
   9SYNOPSIS
  10--------
  11[verse]
  12'git p4 clone' [<sync options>] [<clone options>] <p4 depot path>...
  13'git p4 sync' [<sync options>] [<p4 depot path>...]
  14'git p4 rebase'
  15'git p4 submit' [<submit options>] [<master branch name>]
  16
  17
  18DESCRIPTION
  19-----------
  20This command provides a way to interact with p4 repositories
  21using Git.
  22
  23Create a new Git repository from an existing p4 repository using
  24'git p4 clone', giving it one or more p4 depot paths.  Incorporate
  25new commits from p4 changes with 'git p4 sync'.  The 'sync' command
  26is also used to include new branches from other p4 depot paths.
  27Submit Git changes back to p4 using 'git p4 submit'.  The command
  28'git p4 rebase' does a sync plus rebases the current branch onto
  29the updated p4 remote branch.
  30
  31
  32EXAMPLE
  33-------
  34* Clone a repository:
  35+
  36------------
  37$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
  38------------
  39
  40* Do some work in the newly created Git repository:
  41+
  42------------
  43$ cd project
  44$ vi foo.h
  45$ git commit -a -m "edited foo.h"
  46------------
  47
  48* Update the Git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing your
  49  work on top:
  50+
  51------------
  52$ git p4 rebase
  53------------
  54
  55* Submit your commits back to p4:
  56+
  57------------
  58$ git p4 submit
  59------------
  60
  61
  62COMMANDS
  63--------
  64
  65Clone
  66~~~~~
  67Generally, 'git p4 clone' is used to create a new Git directory
  68from an existing p4 repository:
  69------------
  70$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
  71------------
  72This:
  73
  741.   Creates an empty Git repository in a subdirectory called 'project'.
  75+
  762.   Imports the full contents of the head revision from the given p4
  77depot path into a single commit in the Git branch 'refs/remotes/p4/master'.
  78+
  793.   Creates a local branch, 'master' from this remote and checks it out.
  80
  81To reproduce the entire p4 history in Git, use the '@all' modifier on
  82the depot path:
  83------------
  84$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all
  85------------
  86
  87
  88Sync
  89~~~~
  90As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can
  91be included in the Git repository using:
  92------------
  93$ git p4 sync
  94------------
  95This command finds new changes in p4 and imports them as Git commits.
  96
  97P4 repositories can be added to an existing Git repository using
  98'git p4 sync' too:
  99------------
 100$ mkdir repo-git
 101$ cd repo-git
 102$ git init
 103$ git p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot
 104------------
 105This imports the specified depot into
 106'refs/remotes/p4/master' in an existing Git repository.  The
 107'--branch' option can be used to specify a different branch to
 108be used for the p4 content.
 109
 110If a Git repository includes branches 'refs/remotes/origin/p4', these
 111will be fetched and consulted first during a 'git p4 sync'.  Since
 112importing directly from p4 is considerably slower than pulling changes
 113from a Git remote, this can be useful in a multi-developer environment.
 114
 115If there are multiple branches, doing 'git p4 sync' will automatically
 116use the "BRANCH DETECTION" algorithm to try to partition new changes
 117into the right branch.  This can be overridden with the '--branch'
 118option to specify just a single branch to update.
 119
 120
 121Rebase
 122~~~~~~
 123A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4 depot
 124and merge them with local uncommitted changes.  Often, the p4 repository
 125is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase workflow makes
 126sense.  This command does 'git p4 sync' followed by 'git rebase' to move
 127local commits on top of updated p4 changes.
 128------------
 129$ git p4 rebase
 130------------
 131
 132
 133Submit
 134~~~~~~
 135Submitting changes from a Git repository back to the p4 repository
 136requires a separate p4 client workspace.  This should be specified
 137using the 'P4CLIENT' environment variable or the Git configuration
 138variable 'git-p4.client'.  The p4 client must exist, but the client root
 139will be created and populated if it does not already exist.
 140
 141To submit all changes that are in the current Git branch but not in
 142the 'p4/master' branch, use:
 143------------
 144$ git p4 submit
 145------------
 146
 147To specify a branch other than the current one, use:
 148------------
 149$ git p4 submit topicbranch
 150------------
 151
 152The upstream reference is generally 'refs/remotes/p4/master', but can
 153be overridden using the '--origin=' command-line option.
 154
 155The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking 'git p4 submit'. The
 156'--preserve-user' option will cause ownership to be modified
 157according to the author of the Git commit.  This option requires admin
 158privileges in p4, which can be granted using 'p4 protect'.
 159
 160
 161OPTIONS
 162-------
 163
 164General options
 165~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 166All commands except clone accept these options.
 167
 168--git-dir <dir>::
 169        Set the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable.  See linkgit:git[1].
 170
 171-v::
 172--verbose::
 173        Provide more progress information.
 174
 175Sync options
 176~~~~~~~~~~~~
 177These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in
 178subsequent 'sync' operations.
 179
 180--branch <ref>::
 181        Import changes into <ref> instead of refs/remotes/p4/master.
 182        If <ref> starts with refs/, it is used as is.  Otherwise, if
 183        it does not start with p4/, that prefix is added.
 184+
 185By default a <ref> not starting with refs/ is treated as the
 186name of a remote-tracking branch (under refs/remotes/).  This
 187behavior can be modified using the --import-local option.
 188+
 189The default <ref> is "master".
 190+
 191This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing
 192Git repository:
 193+
 194----
 195    $ git init
 196    $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2
 197----
 198
 199--detect-branches::
 200        Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4.  It is
 201        documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".
 202
 203--changesfile <file>::
 204        Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in 'file', one per
 205        line.  Normally, 'git p4' inspects the current p4 repository
 206        state and detects the changes it should import.
 207
 208--silent::
 209        Do not print any progress information.
 210
 211--detect-labels::
 212        Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add
 213        them as tags in Git. Limited usefulness as only imports labels
 214        associated with new changelists. Deprecated.
 215
 216--import-labels::
 217        Import labels from p4 into Git.
 218
 219--import-local::
 220        By default, p4 branches are stored in 'refs/remotes/p4/',
 221        where they will be treated as remote-tracking branches by
 222        linkgit:git-branch[1] and other commands.  This option instead
 223        puts p4 branches in 'refs/heads/p4/'.  Note that future
 224        sync operations must specify '--import-local' as well so that
 225        they can find the p4 branches in refs/heads.
 226
 227--max-changes <n>::
 228        Import at most 'n' changes, rather than the entire range of
 229        changes included in the given revision specifier. A typical
 230        usage would be use '@all' as the revision specifier, but then
 231        to use '--max-changes 1000' to import only the last 1000
 232        revisions rather than the entire revision history.
 233
 234--changes-block-size <n>::
 235        The internal block size to use when converting a revision
 236        specifier such as '@all' into a list of specific change
 237        numbers. Instead of using a single call to 'p4 changes' to
 238        find the full list of changes for the conversion, there are a
 239        sequence of calls to 'p4 changes -m', each of which requests
 240        one block of changes of the given size. The default block size
 241        is 500, which should usually be suitable.
 242
 243--keep-path::
 244        The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to Git, by
 245        default, involves removing the entire depot path.  With this
 246        option, the full p4 depot path is retained in Git.  For example,
 247        path '//depot/main/foo/bar.c', when imported from
 248        '//depot/main/', becomes 'foo/bar.c'.  With '--keep-path', the
 249        Git path is instead 'depot/main/foo/bar.c'.
 250
 251--use-client-spec::
 252        Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4.
 253        See the "CLIENT SPEC" section below.
 254
 255-/ <path>::
 256        Exclude selected depot paths when cloning or syncing.
 257
 258Clone options
 259~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 260These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync'
 261options described above.
 262
 263--destination <directory>::
 264        Where to create the Git repository.  If not provided, the last
 265        component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new
 266        directory.
 267
 268--bare::
 269        Perform a bare clone.  See linkgit:git-clone[1].
 270
 271Submit options
 272~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 273These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior.
 274
 275--origin <commit>::
 276        Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
 277        p4.  By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable
 278        from 'HEAD'.
 279
 280-M::
 281        Detect renames.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  Renames will be
 282        represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations.  There
 283        is no corresponding option to detect copies, but there are
 284        variables for both moves and copies.
 285
 286--preserve-user::
 287        Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4.  This option
 288        requires p4 admin privileges.
 289
 290--export-labels::
 291        Export tags from Git as p4 labels. Tags found in Git are applied
 292        to the perforce working directory.
 293
 294-n::
 295--dry-run::
 296        Show just what commits would be submitted to p4; do not change
 297        state in Git or p4.
 298
 299--prepare-p4-only::
 300        Apply a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting
 301        files in p4 as for a normal submit operation.  Do not issue the
 302        final "p4 submit", but instead print a message about how to
 303        submit manually or revert.  This option always stops after the
 304        first (oldest) commit.  Git tags are not exported to p4.
 305
 306--conflict=(ask|skip|quit)::
 307        Conflicts can occur when applying a commit to p4.  When this
 308        happens, the default behavior ("ask") is to prompt whether to
 309        skip this commit and continue, or quit.  This option can be used
 310        to bypass the prompt, causing conflicting commits to be automatically
 311        skipped, or to quit trying to apply commits, without prompting.
 312
 313--branch <branch>::
 314        After submitting, sync this named branch instead of the default
 315        p4/master.  See the "Sync options" section above for more
 316        information.
 317
 318Rebase options
 319~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 320These options can be used to modify 'git p4 rebase' behavior.
 321
 322--import-labels::
 323        Import p4 labels.
 324
 325DEPOT PATH SYNTAX
 326-----------------
 327The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can
 328be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional
 329p4 revision specifier on the end:
 330
 331"//depot/my/project"::
 332    Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree.
 333
 334"//depot/my/project@all"::
 335    Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path.
 336
 337"//depot/my/project@1,6"::
 338    Import only changes 1 through 6.
 339
 340"//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all"::
 341    Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single
 342    repository.  Only files below these directories are included.
 343    There is not a subdirectory in Git for each "proj1" and "proj2".
 344    You must use the '--destination' option when specifying more
 345    than one depot path.  The revision specifier must be specified
 346    identically on each depot path.  If there are files in the
 347    depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently
 348    updated version of the file is the one that appears in Git.
 349
 350See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.
 351
 352
 353CLIENT SPEC
 354-----------
 355The p4 client specification is maintained with the 'p4 client' command
 356and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot
 357is mapped into the client repository.  The 'clone' and 'sync' commands
 358can consult the client spec when given the '--use-client-spec' option or
 359when the useClientSpec variable is true.  After 'git p4 clone', the
 360useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository
 361configuration file.  This allows future 'git p4 submit' commands to
 362work properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does
 363not have a command-line option.
 364
 365The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in 'p4 help views'.  'git p4'
 366knows only a subset of the view syntax.  It understands multi-line
 367mappings, overlays with '+', exclusions with '-' and double-quotes
 368around whitespace.  Of the possible wildcards, 'git p4' only handles
 369'...', and only when it is at the end of the path.  'git p4' will complain
 370if it encounters an unhandled wildcard.
 371
 372Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist.  If multiple depot
 373paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository,
 374'git p4' can choose the wrong one.  This is hard to solve without
 375dedicating a client spec just for 'git p4'.
 376
 377The name of the client can be given to 'git p4' in multiple ways.  The
 378variable 'git-p4.client' takes precedence if it exists.  Otherwise,
 379normal p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used:  environment
 380variable P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name.
 381
 382
 383BRANCH DETECTION
 384----------------
 385P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as Git.  Instead,
 386p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
 387different logical branches are in different locations in the tree.
 388The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between
 389different areas in the tree, and indicate related content.  'git p4'
 390can use these mappings to determine branch relationships.
 391
 392If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
 393subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use '--detect-branches'
 394when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find
 395subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in Git.
 396
 397For example, if the P4 repository structure is:
 398----
 399//depot/main/...
 400//depot/branch1/...
 401----
 402
 403And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:
 404----
 405//depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...
 406----
 407
 408Then this 'git p4 clone' command:
 409----
 410git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
 411----
 412produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main,
 413called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'.
 414
 415However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
 416them like branches.  Because it is difficult to infer branch
 417relationships automatically, a Git configuration setting
 418'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch
 419relationships.  It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
 420simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are
 421the path elements in the p4 repository.  The example above relied on the
 422presence of the p4 branch.  Without p4 branches, the same result will
 423occur with:
 424----
 425git init depot
 426cd depot
 427git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
 428git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all .
 429----
 430
 431
 432PERFORMANCE
 433-----------
 434The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for
 435each invocation of 'git p4 sync'.  Normally, Git garbage compression
 436(linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files,
 437but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance.
 438
 439
 440CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 441-----------------------
 442The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior.
 443They all are in the 'git-p4' section.
 444
 445General variables
 446~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 447git-p4.user::
 448        User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'.
 449        The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead.
 450
 451git-p4.password::
 452        Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 453        '-P <password>'.
 454        The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead.
 455
 456git-p4.port::
 457        Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 458        '-p <port>'.
 459        The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead.
 460
 461git-p4.host::
 462        Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 463        '-h <host>'.
 464        The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead.
 465
 466git-p4.client::
 467        Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 468        '-c <client>', including the client spec.
 469
 470Clone and sync variables
 471~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 472git-p4.syncFromOrigin::
 473        Because importing commits from other Git repositories is much faster
 474        than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes
 475        first in Git remotes.  If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4',
 476        those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4.  This
 477        variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior.
 478
 479git-p4.branchUser::
 480        One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches
 481        to find new ones to import.  By default, all branches are
 482        inspected.  This option limits the search to just those owned
 483        by the single user named in the variable.
 484
 485git-p4.branchList::
 486        List of branches to be imported when branch detection is
 487        enabled.  Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated
 488        by a colon (:).  This example declares that both branchA and
 489        branchB were created from main:
 490+
 491-------------
 492git config       git-p4.branchList main:branchA
 493git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
 494-------------
 495
 496git-p4.ignoredP4Labels::
 497        List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as
 498        unimportable labels are discovered.
 499
 500git-p4.importLabels::
 501        Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels.
 502
 503git-p4.labelImportRegexp::
 504        Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported. The
 505        default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
 506
 507git-p4.useClientSpec::
 508        Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4
 509        depot paths of interest.  This is equivalent to specifying the
 510        option '--use-client-spec'.  See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above.
 511        This variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client.
 512
 513git-p4.pathEncoding::
 514        Perforce keeps the encoding of a path as given by the originating OS.
 515        Git expects paths encoded as UTF-8. Use this config to tell git-p4
 516        what encoding Perforce had used for the paths. This encoding is used
 517        to transcode the paths to UTF-8. As an example, Perforce on Windows
 518        often uses "cp1252" to encode path names.
 519
 520git-p4.largeFileSystem::
 521        Specify the system that is used for large (binary) files. Please note
 522        that large file systems do not support the 'git p4 submit' command.
 523        Only Git LFS is implemented right now (see https://git-lfs.github.com/
 524        for more information). Download and install the Git LFS command line
 525        extension to use this option and configure it like this:
 526+
 527-------------
 528git config       git-p4.largeFileSystem GitLFS
 529-------------
 530
 531git-p4.largeFileExtensions::
 532        All files matching a file extension in the list will be processed
 533        by the large file system. Do not prefix the extensions with '.'.
 534
 535git-p4.largeFileThreshold::
 536        All files with an uncompressed size exceeding the threshold will be
 537        processed by the large file system. By default the threshold is
 538        defined in bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
 539
 540git-p4.largeFileCompressedThreshold::
 541        All files with a compressed size exceeding the threshold will be
 542        processed by the large file system. This option might slow down
 543        your clone/sync process. By default the threshold is defined in
 544        bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
 545
 546git-p4.largeFilePush::
 547        Boolean variable which defines if large files are automatically
 548        pushed to a server.
 549
 550git-p4.keepEmptyCommits::
 551        A changelist that contains only excluded files will be imported
 552        as an empty commit if this boolean option is set to true.
 553
 554Submit variables
 555~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 556git-p4.detectRenames::
 557        Detect renames.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  This can be true,
 558        false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -M'.
 559
 560git-p4.detectCopies::
 561        Detect copies.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  This can be true,
 562        false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -C'.
 563
 564git-p4.detectCopiesHarder::
 565        Detect copies harder.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  A boolean.
 566
 567git-p4.preserveUser::
 568        On submit, re-author changes to reflect the Git author,
 569        regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'.
 570
 571git-p4.allowMissingP4Users::
 572        When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it
 573        cannot find an author in the p4 user map.  This setting
 574        submits the change regardless.
 575
 576git-p4.skipSubmitEdit::
 577        The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change
 578        is submitted.  If this setting is true, though, the editing
 579        step is skipped.
 580
 581git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck::
 582        After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that
 583        the description really was changed by looking at the file
 584        modification time.  This option disables that test.
 585
 586git-p4.allowSubmit::
 587        By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4
 588        submit' operation.  This configuration variable, if set, permits only
 589        the named branches to be used as submit sources.  Branch names
 590        must be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be
 591        separated by commas (","), with no spaces.
 592
 593git-p4.skipUserNameCheck::
 594        If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4
 595        user map, 'git p4' exits.  This option can be used to force
 596        submission regardless.
 597
 598git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup::
 599        If enabled, 'git p4 submit' will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords
 600        ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and prevent
 601        the submit going ahead. This option should be considered experimental at
 602        present.
 603
 604git-p4.exportLabels::
 605        Export Git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels.
 606
 607git-p4.labelExportRegexp::
 608        Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported. The
 609        default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
 610
 611git-p4.conflict::
 612        Specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per
 613        --conflict.  The default behavior is 'ask'.
 614
 615IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
 616----------------------
 617* Changesets from p4 are imported using Git fast-import.
 618* Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are
 619  collected using 'p4 print'.
 620* Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location
 621  as the Git repository.  Patches are applied, one at a time, to
 622  this p4 client and submitted from there.
 623* Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log
 624  message indicating the p4 depot location and change number.  This
 625  line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4
 626  changes are new.