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