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. 114 115 116Rebase 117~~~~~~ 118A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4 depot 119and merge them with local uncommitted changes. Often, the p4 repository 120is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase workflow makes 121sense. This command does 'git p4 sync' followed by 'git rebase' to move 122local commits on top of updated p4 changes. 123------------ 124$ git p4 rebase 125------------ 126 127 128Submit 129~~~~~~ 130Submitting changes from a git repository back to the p4 repository 131requires a separate p4 client workspace. This should be specified 132using the 'P4CLIENT' environment variable or the git configuration 133variable 'git-p4.client'. The p4 client must exist, but the client root 134will be created and populated if it does not already exist. 135 136To submit all changes that are in the current git branch but not in 137the 'p4/master' branch, use: 138------------ 139$ git p4 submit 140------------ 141 142To specify a branch other than the current one, use: 143------------ 144$ git p4 submit topicbranch 145------------ 146 147The upstream reference is generally 'refs/remotes/p4/master', but can 148be overridden using the '--origin=' command-line option. 149 150The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking 'git p4 submit'. The 151'--preserve-user' option will cause ownership to be modified 152according to the author of the git commit. This option requires admin 153privileges in p4, which can be granted using 'p4 protect'. 154 155 156OPTIONS 157------- 158 159General options 160~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 161All commands except clone accept these options. 162 163--git-dir <dir>:: 164 Set the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable. See linkgit:git[1]. 165 166--verbose, -v:: 167 Provide more progress information. 168 169Sync options 170~~~~~~~~~~~~ 171These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in 172subsequent 'sync' operations. 173 174--branch <branch>:: 175 Import changes into given branch. If the branch starts with 176 'refs/', it will be used as is. Otherwise if it does not start 177 with 'p4/', that prefix is added. The branch is assumed to 178 name a remote tracking, but this can be modified using 179 '--import-local', or by giving a full ref name. The default 180 branch is 'master'. 181+ 182This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing 183git repository: 184+ 185---- 186 $ git init 187 $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2 188---- 189 190--detect-branches:: 191 Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is 192 documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION". 193 194--changesfile <file>:: 195 Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in 'file', one per 196 line. Normally, 'git p4' inspects the current p4 repository 197 state and detects the changes it should import. 198 199--silent:: 200 Do not print any progress information. 201 202--detect-labels:: 203 Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add 204 them as tags in git. Limited usefulness as only imports labels 205 associated with new changelists. Deprecated. 206 207--import-labels:: 208 Import labels from p4 into git. 209 210--import-local:: 211 By default, p4 branches are stored in 'refs/remotes/p4/', 212 where they will be treated as remote-tracking branches by 213 linkgit:git-branch[1] and other commands. This option instead 214 puts p4 branches in 'refs/heads/p4/'. Note that future 215 sync operations must specify '--import-local' as well so that 216 they can find the p4 branches in refs/heads. 217 218--max-changes <n>:: 219 Limit the number of imported changes to 'n'. Useful to 220 limit the amount of history when using the '@all' p4 revision 221 specifier. 222 223--keep-path:: 224 The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to git, by 225 default, involves removing the entire depot path. With this 226 option, the full p4 depot path is retained in git. For example, 227 path '//depot/main/foo/bar.c', when imported from 228 '//depot/main/', becomes 'foo/bar.c'. With '--keep-path', the 229 git path is instead 'depot/main/foo/bar.c'. 230 231--use-client-spec:: 232 Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4. 233 See the "CLIENT SPEC" section below. 234 235Clone options 236~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 237These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync' 238options described above. 239 240--destination <directory>:: 241 Where to create the git repository. If not provided, the last 242 component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new 243 directory. 244 245--bare:: 246 Perform a bare clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. 247 248-/ <path>:: 249 Exclude selected depot paths when cloning. 250 251Submit options 252~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 253These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior. 254 255--origin <commit>:: 256 Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to 257 p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable 258 from 'HEAD'. 259 260-M:: 261 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. Renames will be 262 represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations. There 263 is no corresponding option to detect copies, but there are 264 variables for both moves and copies. 265 266--preserve-user:: 267 Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option 268 requires p4 admin privileges. 269 270--export-labels:: 271 Export tags from git as p4 labels. Tags found in git are applied 272 to the perforce working directory. 273 274--dry-run, -n:: 275 Show just what commits would be submitted to p4; do not change 276 state in git or p4. 277 278--prepare-p4-only:: 279 Apply a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting 280 files in p4 as for a normal submit operation. Do not issue the 281 final "p4 submit", but instead print a message about how to 282 submit manually or revert. This option always stops after the 283 first (oldest) commit. Git tags are not exported to p4. 284 285--conflict=(ask|skip|quit):: 286 Conflicts can occur when applying a commit to p4. When this 287 happens, the default behavior ("ask") is to prompt whether to 288 skip this commit and continue, or quit. This option can be used 289 to bypass the prompt, causing conflicting commits to be automatically 290 skipped, or to quit trying to apply commits, without prompting. 291 292Rebase options 293~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 294These options can be used to modify 'git p4 rebase' behavior. 295 296--import-labels:: 297 Import p4 labels. 298 299DEPOT PATH SYNTAX 300----------------- 301The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can 302be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional 303p4 revision specifier on the end: 304 305"//depot/my/project":: 306 Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree. 307 308"//depot/my/project@all":: 309 Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path. 310 311"//depot/my/project@1,6":: 312 Import only changes 1 through 6. 313 314"//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all":: 315 Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single 316 repository. Only files below these directories are included. 317 There is not a subdirectory in git for each "proj1" and "proj2". 318 You must use the '--destination' option when specifying more 319 than one depot path. The revision specifier must be specified 320 identically on each depot path. If there are files in the 321 depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently 322 updated version of the file is the one that appears in git. 323 324See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers. 325 326 327CLIENT SPEC 328----------- 329The p4 client specification is maintained with the 'p4 client' command 330and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot 331is mapped into the client repository. The 'clone' and 'sync' commands 332can consult the client spec when given the '--use-client-spec' option or 333when the useClientSpec variable is true. After 'git p4 clone', the 334useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository 335configuration file. This allows future 'git p4 submit' commands to 336work properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does 337not have a command-line option. 338 339The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in 'p4 help views'. 'Git p4' 340knows only a subset of the view syntax. It understands multi-line 341mappings, overlays with '+', exclusions with '-' and double-quotes 342around whitespace. Of the possible wildcards, 'git p4' only handles 343'...', and only when it is at the end of the path. 'Git p4' will complain 344if it encounters an unhandled wildcard. 345 346Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist. If multiple depot 347paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository, 348'git p4' can choose the wrong one. This is hard to solve without 349dedicating a client spec just for 'git p4'. 350 351The name of the client can be given to 'git p4' in multiple ways. The 352variable 'git-p4.client' takes precedence if it exists. Otherwise, 353normal p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used: environment 354variable P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name. 355 356 357BRANCH DETECTION 358---------------- 359P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as git. Instead, 360p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention 361different logical branches are in different locations in the tree. 362The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between 363different areas in the tree, and indicate related content. 'git p4' 364can use these mappings to determine branch relationships. 365 366If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as 367subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use '--detect-branches' 368when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find 369subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in git. 370 371For example, if the P4 repository structure is: 372---- 373//depot/main/... 374//depot/branch1/... 375---- 376 377And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like: 378---- 379//depot/main/... //depot/branch1/... 380---- 381 382Then this 'git p4 clone' command: 383---- 384git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all 385---- 386produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main, 387called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'. 388 389However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use 390them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch 391relationships automatically, a git configuration setting 392'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch 393relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a 394simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are 395the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the 396presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will 397occur with: 398---- 399git init depot 400cd depot 401git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1 402git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all . 403---- 404 405 406PERFORMANCE 407----------- 408The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for 409each invocation of 'git p4 sync'. Normally, git garbage compression 410(linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files, 411but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance. 412 413 414CONFIGURATION VARIABLES 415----------------------- 416The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior. 417They all are in the 'git-p4' section. 418 419General variables 420~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 421git-p4.user:: 422 User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'. 423 The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead. 424 425git-p4.password:: 426 Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 427 '-P <password>'. 428 The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead. 429 430git-p4.port:: 431 Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 432 '-p <port>'. 433 The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead. 434 435git-p4.host:: 436 Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 437 '-h <host>'. 438 The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead. 439 440git-p4.client:: 441 Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 442 '-c <client>', including the client spec. 443 444Clone and sync variables 445~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 446git-p4.syncFromOrigin:: 447 Because importing commits from other git repositories is much faster 448 than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes 449 first in git remotes. If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4', 450 those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4. This 451 variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior. 452 453git-p4.branchUser:: 454 One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches 455 to find new ones to import. By default, all branches are 456 inspected. This option limits the search to just those owned 457 by the single user named in the variable. 458 459git-p4.branchList:: 460 List of branches to be imported when branch detection is 461 enabled. Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated 462 by a colon (:). This example declares that both branchA and 463 branchB were created from main: 464+ 465------------- 466git config git-p4.branchList main:branchA 467git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB 468------------- 469 470git-p4.ignoredP4Labels:: 471 List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as 472 unimportable labels are discovered. 473 474git-p4.importLabels:: 475 Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels. 476 477git-p4.labelImportRegexp:: 478 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported. The 479 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'. 480 481git-p4.useClientSpec:: 482 Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4 483 depot paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the 484 option '--use-client-spec'. See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above. 485 This variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client. 486 487Submit variables 488~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 489git-p4.detectRenames:: 490 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. This can be true, 491 false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -M'. 492 493git-p4.detectCopies:: 494 Detect copies. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. This can be true, 495 false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -C'. 496 497git-p4.detectCopiesHarder:: 498 Detect copies harder. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. A boolean. 499 500git-p4.preserveUser:: 501 On submit, re-author changes to reflect the git author, 502 regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'. 503 504git-p4.allowMissingP4Users:: 505 When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it 506 cannot find an author in the p4 user map. This setting 507 submits the change regardless. 508 509git-p4.skipSubmitEdit:: 510 The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change 511 is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing 512 step is skipped. 513 514git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck:: 515 After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that 516 the description really was changed by looking at the file 517 modification time. This option disables that test. 518 519git-p4.allowSubmit:: 520 By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4 521 submit' operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only 522 the named branches to be used as submit sources. Branch names 523 must be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be 524 separated by commas (","), with no spaces. 525 526git-p4.skipUserNameCheck:: 527 If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4 528 user map, 'git p4' exits. This option can be used to force 529 submission regardless. 530 531git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup:: 532 If enabled, 'git p4 submit' will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords 533 ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and prevent 534 the submit going ahead. This option should be considered experimental at 535 present. 536 537git-p4.exportLabels:: 538 Export git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels. 539 540git-p4.labelExportRegexp:: 541 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported. The 542 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'. 543 544git-p4.conflict:: 545 Specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per 546 --conflict. The default behavior is 'ask'. 547 548IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS 549---------------------- 550* Changesets from p4 are imported using git fast-import. 551* Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are 552 collected using 'p4 print'. 553* Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location 554 as the git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to 555 this p4 client and submitted from there. 556* Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log 557 message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This 558 line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4 559 changes are new.