699fcc8f8a6253e0f27bb21372297cd38ac0ffb3
   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
 152To specify a single commit or a range of commits, use:
 153------------
 154$ git p4 submit --commit <sha1>
 155$ git p4 submit --commit <sha1..sha1>
 156------------
 157
 158The upstream reference is generally 'refs/remotes/p4/master', but can
 159be overridden using the `--origin=` command-line option.
 160
 161The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking 'git p4 submit'. The
 162`--preserve-user` option will cause ownership to be modified
 163according to the author of the Git commit.  This option requires admin
 164privileges in p4, which can be granted using 'p4 protect'.
 165
 166To shelve changes instead of submitting, use `--shelve` and `--update-shelve`:
 167
 168----
 169$ git p4 submit --shelve
 170$ git p4 submit --update-shelve 1234 --update-shelve 2345
 171----
 172
 173OPTIONS
 174-------
 175
 176General options
 177~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 178All commands except clone accept these options.
 179
 180--git-dir <dir>::
 181        Set the `GIT_DIR` environment variable.  See linkgit:git[1].
 182
 183-v::
 184--verbose::
 185        Provide more progress information.
 186
 187Sync options
 188~~~~~~~~~~~~
 189These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in
 190subsequent 'sync' operations.
 191
 192--branch <ref>::
 193        Import changes into <ref> instead of refs/remotes/p4/master.
 194        If <ref> starts with refs/, it is used as is.  Otherwise, if
 195        it does not start with p4/, that prefix is added.
 196+
 197By default a <ref> not starting with refs/ is treated as the
 198name of a remote-tracking branch (under refs/remotes/).  This
 199behavior can be modified using the --import-local option.
 200+
 201The default <ref> is "master".
 202+
 203This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing
 204Git repository:
 205+
 206----
 207    $ git init
 208    $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2
 209----
 210
 211--detect-branches::
 212        Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4.  It is
 213        documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".
 214
 215--changesfile <file>::
 216        Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in 'file', one per
 217        line.  Normally, 'git p4' inspects the current p4 repository
 218        state and detects the changes it should import.
 219
 220--silent::
 221        Do not print any progress information.
 222
 223--detect-labels::
 224        Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add
 225        them as tags in Git. Limited usefulness as only imports labels
 226        associated with new changelists. Deprecated.
 227
 228--import-labels::
 229        Import labels from p4 into Git.
 230
 231--import-local::
 232        By default, p4 branches are stored in 'refs/remotes/p4/',
 233        where they will be treated as remote-tracking branches by
 234        linkgit:git-branch[1] and other commands.  This option instead
 235        puts p4 branches in 'refs/heads/p4/'.  Note that future
 236        sync operations must specify `--import-local` as well so that
 237        they can find the p4 branches in refs/heads.
 238
 239--max-changes <n>::
 240        Import at most 'n' changes, rather than the entire range of
 241        changes included in the given revision specifier. A typical
 242        usage would be use '@all' as the revision specifier, but then
 243        to use '--max-changes 1000' to import only the last 1000
 244        revisions rather than the entire revision history.
 245
 246--changes-block-size <n>::
 247        The internal block size to use when converting a revision
 248        specifier such as '@all' into a list of specific change
 249        numbers. Instead of using a single call to 'p4 changes' to
 250        find the full list of changes for the conversion, there are a
 251        sequence of calls to 'p4 changes -m', each of which requests
 252        one block of changes of the given size. The default block size
 253        is 500, which should usually be suitable.
 254
 255--keep-path::
 256        The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to Git, by
 257        default, involves removing the entire depot path.  With this
 258        option, the full p4 depot path is retained in Git.  For example,
 259        path '//depot/main/foo/bar.c', when imported from
 260        '//depot/main/', becomes 'foo/bar.c'.  With `--keep-path`, the
 261        Git path is instead 'depot/main/foo/bar.c'.
 262
 263--use-client-spec::
 264        Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4.
 265        See the "CLIENT SPEC" section below.
 266
 267-/ <path>::
 268        Exclude selected depot paths when cloning or syncing.
 269
 270Clone options
 271~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 272These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync'
 273options described above.
 274
 275--destination <directory>::
 276        Where to create the Git repository.  If not provided, the last
 277        component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new
 278        directory.
 279
 280--bare::
 281        Perform a bare clone.  See linkgit:git-clone[1].
 282
 283Submit options
 284~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 285These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior.
 286
 287--origin <commit>::
 288        Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
 289        p4.  By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable
 290        from `HEAD`.
 291
 292-M::
 293        Detect renames.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  Renames will be
 294        represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations.  There
 295        is no corresponding option to detect copies, but there are
 296        variables for both moves and copies.
 297
 298--preserve-user::
 299        Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4.  This option
 300        requires p4 admin privileges.
 301
 302--export-labels::
 303        Export tags from Git as p4 labels. Tags found in Git are applied
 304        to the perforce working directory.
 305
 306-n::
 307--dry-run::
 308        Show just what commits would be submitted to p4; do not change
 309        state in Git or p4.
 310
 311--prepare-p4-only::
 312        Apply a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting
 313        files in p4 as for a normal submit operation.  Do not issue the
 314        final "p4 submit", but instead print a message about how to
 315        submit manually or revert.  This option always stops after the
 316        first (oldest) commit.  Git tags are not exported to p4.
 317
 318--shelve::
 319        Instead of submitting create a series of shelved changelists.
 320        After creating each shelve, the relevant files are reverted/deleted.
 321        If you have multiple commits pending multiple shelves will be created.
 322
 323--update-shelve CHANGELIST::
 324        Update an existing shelved changelist with this commit. Implies
 325        --shelve. Repeat for multiple shelved changelists.
 326
 327--conflict=(ask|skip|quit)::
 328        Conflicts can occur when applying a commit to p4.  When this
 329        happens, the default behavior ("ask") is to prompt whether to
 330        skip this commit and continue, or quit.  This option can be used
 331        to bypass the prompt, causing conflicting commits to be automatically
 332        skipped, or to quit trying to apply commits, without prompting.
 333
 334--branch <branch>::
 335        After submitting, sync this named branch instead of the default
 336        p4/master.  See the "Sync options" section above for more
 337        information.
 338
 339--commit <sha1>|<sha1..sha1>::
 340    Submit only the specified commit or range of commits, instead of the full
 341    list of changes that are in the current Git branch.
 342
 343--disable-rebase::
 344    Disable the automatic rebase after all commits have been successfully
 345    submitted. Can also be set with git-p4.disableRebase.
 346
 347Rebase options
 348~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 349These options can be used to modify 'git p4 rebase' behavior.
 350
 351--import-labels::
 352        Import p4 labels.
 353
 354DEPOT PATH SYNTAX
 355-----------------
 356The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can
 357be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional
 358p4 revision specifier on the end:
 359
 360"//depot/my/project"::
 361    Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree.
 362
 363"//depot/my/project@all"::
 364    Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path.
 365
 366"//depot/my/project@1,6"::
 367    Import only changes 1 through 6.
 368
 369"//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all"::
 370    Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single
 371    repository.  Only files below these directories are included.
 372    There is not a subdirectory in Git for each "proj1" and "proj2".
 373    You must use the `--destination` option when specifying more
 374    than one depot path.  The revision specifier must be specified
 375    identically on each depot path.  If there are files in the
 376    depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently
 377    updated version of the file is the one that appears in Git.
 378
 379See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.
 380
 381
 382CLIENT SPEC
 383-----------
 384The p4 client specification is maintained with the 'p4 client' command
 385and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot
 386is mapped into the client repository.  The 'clone' and 'sync' commands
 387can consult the client spec when given the `--use-client-spec` option or
 388when the useClientSpec variable is true.  After 'git p4 clone', the
 389useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository
 390configuration file.  This allows future 'git p4 submit' commands to
 391work properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does
 392not have a command-line option.
 393
 394The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in 'p4 help views'.  'git p4'
 395knows only a subset of the view syntax.  It understands multi-line
 396mappings, overlays with '+', exclusions with '-' and double-quotes
 397around whitespace.  Of the possible wildcards, 'git p4' only handles
 398'...', and only when it is at the end of the path.  'git p4' will complain
 399if it encounters an unhandled wildcard.
 400
 401Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist.  If multiple depot
 402paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository,
 403'git p4' can choose the wrong one.  This is hard to solve without
 404dedicating a client spec just for 'git p4'.
 405
 406The name of the client can be given to 'git p4' in multiple ways.  The
 407variable 'git-p4.client' takes precedence if it exists.  Otherwise,
 408normal p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used:  environment
 409variable P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name.
 410
 411
 412BRANCH DETECTION
 413----------------
 414P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as Git.  Instead,
 415p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
 416different logical branches are in different locations in the tree.
 417The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between
 418different areas in the tree, and indicate related content.  'git p4'
 419can use these mappings to determine branch relationships.
 420
 421If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
 422subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use `--detect-branches`
 423when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find
 424subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in Git.
 425
 426For example, if the P4 repository structure is:
 427----
 428//depot/main/...
 429//depot/branch1/...
 430----
 431
 432And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:
 433----
 434//depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...
 435----
 436
 437Then this 'git p4 clone' command:
 438----
 439git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
 440----
 441produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main,
 442called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'.
 443
 444However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
 445them like branches.  Because it is difficult to infer branch
 446relationships automatically, a Git configuration setting
 447'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch
 448relationships.  It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
 449simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are
 450the path elements in the p4 repository.  The example above relied on the
 451presence of the p4 branch.  Without p4 branches, the same result will
 452occur with:
 453----
 454git init depot
 455cd depot
 456git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
 457git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all .
 458----
 459
 460
 461PERFORMANCE
 462-----------
 463The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for
 464each invocation of 'git p4 sync'.  Normally, Git garbage compression
 465(linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files,
 466but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance.
 467
 468
 469CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
 470-----------------------
 471The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior.
 472They all are in the 'git-p4' section.
 473
 474General variables
 475~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 476git-p4.user::
 477        User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'.
 478        The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead.
 479
 480git-p4.password::
 481        Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 482        '-P <password>'.
 483        The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead.
 484
 485git-p4.port::
 486        Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 487        '-p <port>'.
 488        The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead.
 489
 490git-p4.host::
 491        Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 492        '-h <host>'.
 493        The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead.
 494
 495git-p4.client::
 496        Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
 497        '-c <client>', including the client spec.
 498
 499git-p4.retries::
 500        Specifies the number of times to retry a p4 command (notably,
 501        'p4 sync') if the network times out. The default value is 3.
 502        Set the value to 0 to disable retries or if your p4 version
 503        does not support retries (pre 2012.2).
 504
 505Clone and sync variables
 506~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 507git-p4.syncFromOrigin::
 508        Because importing commits from other Git repositories is much faster
 509        than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes
 510        first in Git remotes.  If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4',
 511        those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4.  This
 512        variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior.
 513
 514git-p4.branchUser::
 515        One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches
 516        to find new ones to import.  By default, all branches are
 517        inspected.  This option limits the search to just those owned
 518        by the single user named in the variable.
 519
 520git-p4.branchList::
 521        List of branches to be imported when branch detection is
 522        enabled.  Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated
 523        by a colon (:).  This example declares that both branchA and
 524        branchB were created from main:
 525+
 526-------------
 527git config       git-p4.branchList main:branchA
 528git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
 529-------------
 530
 531git-p4.ignoredP4Labels::
 532        List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as
 533        unimportable labels are discovered.
 534
 535git-p4.importLabels::
 536        Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels.
 537
 538git-p4.labelImportRegexp::
 539        Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported. The
 540        default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
 541
 542git-p4.useClientSpec::
 543        Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4
 544        depot paths of interest.  This is equivalent to specifying the
 545        option `--use-client-spec`.  See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above.
 546        This variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client.
 547
 548git-p4.pathEncoding::
 549        Perforce keeps the encoding of a path as given by the originating OS.
 550        Git expects paths encoded as UTF-8. Use this config to tell git-p4
 551        what encoding Perforce had used for the paths. This encoding is used
 552        to transcode the paths to UTF-8. As an example, Perforce on Windows
 553        often uses "cp1252" to encode path names.
 554
 555git-p4.largeFileSystem::
 556        Specify the system that is used for large (binary) files. Please note
 557        that large file systems do not support the 'git p4 submit' command.
 558        Only Git LFS is implemented right now (see https://git-lfs.github.com/
 559        for more information). Download and install the Git LFS command line
 560        extension to use this option and configure it like this:
 561+
 562-------------
 563git config       git-p4.largeFileSystem GitLFS
 564-------------
 565
 566git-p4.largeFileExtensions::
 567        All files matching a file extension in the list will be processed
 568        by the large file system. Do not prefix the extensions with '.'.
 569
 570git-p4.largeFileThreshold::
 571        All files with an uncompressed size exceeding the threshold will be
 572        processed by the large file system. By default the threshold is
 573        defined in bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
 574
 575git-p4.largeFileCompressedThreshold::
 576        All files with a compressed size exceeding the threshold will be
 577        processed by the large file system. This option might slow down
 578        your clone/sync process. By default the threshold is defined in
 579        bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
 580
 581git-p4.largeFilePush::
 582        Boolean variable which defines if large files are automatically
 583        pushed to a server.
 584
 585git-p4.keepEmptyCommits::
 586        A changelist that contains only excluded files will be imported
 587        as an empty commit if this boolean option is set to true.
 588
 589git-p4.mapUser::
 590        Map a P4 user to a name and email address in Git. Use a string
 591        with the following format to create a mapping:
 592+
 593-------------
 594git config --add git-p4.mapUser "p4user = First Last <mail@address.com>"
 595-------------
 596+
 597A mapping will override any user information from P4. Mappings for
 598multiple P4 user can be defined.
 599
 600Submit variables
 601~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 602git-p4.detectRenames::
 603        Detect renames.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  This can be true,
 604        false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -M'.
 605
 606git-p4.detectCopies::
 607        Detect copies.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  This can be true,
 608        false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -C'.
 609
 610git-p4.detectCopiesHarder::
 611        Detect copies harder.  See linkgit:git-diff[1].  A boolean.
 612
 613git-p4.preserveUser::
 614        On submit, re-author changes to reflect the Git author,
 615        regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'.
 616
 617git-p4.allowMissingP4Users::
 618        When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it
 619        cannot find an author in the p4 user map.  This setting
 620        submits the change regardless.
 621
 622git-p4.skipSubmitEdit::
 623        The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change
 624        is submitted.  If this setting is true, though, the editing
 625        step is skipped.
 626
 627git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck::
 628        After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that
 629        the description really was changed by looking at the file
 630        modification time.  This option disables that test.
 631
 632git-p4.allowSubmit::
 633        By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4
 634        submit' operation.  This configuration variable, if set, permits only
 635        the named branches to be used as submit sources.  Branch names
 636        must be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be
 637        separated by commas (","), with no spaces.
 638
 639git-p4.skipUserNameCheck::
 640        If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4
 641        user map, 'git p4' exits.  This option can be used to force
 642        submission regardless.
 643
 644git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup::
 645        If enabled, 'git p4 submit' will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords
 646        ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and prevent
 647        the submit going ahead. This option should be considered experimental at
 648        present.
 649
 650git-p4.exportLabels::
 651        Export Git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels.
 652
 653git-p4.labelExportRegexp::
 654        Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported. The
 655        default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
 656
 657git-p4.conflict::
 658        Specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per
 659        --conflict.  The default behavior is 'ask'.
 660
 661git-p4.disableRebase::
 662    Do not rebase the tree against p4/master following a submit.
 663
 664IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
 665----------------------
 666* Changesets from p4 are imported using Git fast-import.
 667* Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are
 668  collected using 'p4 print'.
 669* Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location
 670  as the Git repository.  Patches are applied, one at a time, to
 671  this p4 client and submitted from there.
 672* Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log
 673  message indicating the p4 depot location and change number.  This
 674  line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4
 675  changes are new.