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