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---- 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[<n>]:: 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 272Rebase options 273~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 274These options can be used to modify 'git p4 rebase' behavior. 275 276--import-labels:: 277 Import p4 labels. 278 279DEPOT PATH SYNTAX 280----------------- 281The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can 282be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional 283p4 revision specifier on the end: 284 285"//depot/my/project":: 286 Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree. 287 288"//depot/my/project@all":: 289 Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path. 290 291"//depot/my/project@1,6":: 292 Import only changes 1 through 6. 293 294"//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all":: 295 Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single 296 repository. Only files below these directories are included. 297 There is not a subdirectory in git for each "proj1" and "proj2". 298 You must use the '--destination' option when specifying more 299 than one depot path. The revision specifier must be specified 300 identically on each depot path. If there are files in the 301 depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently 302 updated version of the file is the one that appears in git. 303 304See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers. 305 306 307CLIENT SPEC 308----------- 309The p4 client specification is maintained with the 'p4 client' command 310and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot 311is mapped into the client repository. The 'clone' and 'sync' commands 312can consult the client spec when given the '--use-client-spec' option or 313when the useClientSpec variable is true. After 'git p4 clone', the 314useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository 315configuration file. This allows future 'git p4 submit' commands to 316work properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does 317not have a command-line option. 318 319The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in 'p4 help views'. 'Git p4' 320knows only a subset of the view syntax. It understands multi-line 321mappings, overlays with '+', exclusions with '-' and double-quotes 322around whitespace. Of the possible wildcards, 'git p4' only handles 323'...', and only when it is at the end of the path. 'Git p4' will complain 324if it encounters an unhandled wildcard. 325 326Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist. If multiple depot 327paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository, 328'git p4' can choose the wrong one. This is hard to solve without 329dedicating a client spec just for 'git p4'. 330 331The name of the client can be given to 'git p4' in multiple ways. The 332variable 'git-p4.client' takes precedence if it exists. Otherwise, 333normal p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used: environment 334variable P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name. 335 336 337BRANCH DETECTION 338---------------- 339P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as git. Instead, 340p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention 341different logical branches are in different locations in the tree. 342The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between 343different areas in the tree, and indicate related content. 'git p4' 344can use these mappings to determine branch relationships. 345 346If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as 347subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use '--detect-branches' 348when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find 349subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in git. 350 351For example, if the P4 repository structure is: 352---- 353//depot/main/... 354//depot/branch1/... 355---- 356 357And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like: 358---- 359//depot/main/... //depot/branch1/... 360---- 361 362Then this 'git p4 clone' command: 363---- 364git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all 365---- 366produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main, 367called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'. 368 369However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use 370them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch 371relationships automatically, a git configuration setting 372'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch 373relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a 374simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are 375the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the 376presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will 377occur with: 378---- 379git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1 380git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all 381---- 382 383 384PERFORMANCE 385----------- 386The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for 387each invocation of 'git p4 sync'. Normally, git garbage compression 388(linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files, 389but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance. 390 391 392CONFIGURATION VARIABLES 393----------------------- 394The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior. 395They all are in the 'git-p4' section. 396 397General variables 398~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 399git-p4.user:: 400 User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'. 401 The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead. 402 403git-p4.password:: 404 Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 405 '-P <password>'. 406 The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead. 407 408git-p4.port:: 409 Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 410 '-p <port>'. 411 The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead. 412 413git-p4.host:: 414 Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 415 '-h <host>'. 416 The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead. 417 418git-p4.client:: 419 Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 420 '-c <client>', including the client spec. 421 422Clone and sync variables 423~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 424git-p4.syncFromOrigin:: 425 Because importing commits from other git repositories is much faster 426 than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes 427 first in git remotes. If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4', 428 those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4. This 429 variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior. 430 431git-p4.branchUser:: 432 One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches 433 to find new ones to import. By default, all branches are 434 inspected. This option limits the search to just those owned 435 by the single user named in the variable. 436 437git-p4.branchList:: 438 List of branches to be imported when branch detection is 439 enabled. Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated 440 by a colon (:). This example declares that both branchA and 441 branchB were created from main: 442+ 443------------- 444git config git-p4.branchList main:branchA 445git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB 446------------- 447 448git-p4.ignoredP4Labels:: 449 List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as 450 unimportable labels are discovered. 451 452git-p4.importLabels:: 453 Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels. 454 455git-p4.labelImportRegexp:: 456 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported. The 457 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'. 458 459git-p4.useClientSpec:: 460 Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4 461 depot paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the 462 option '--use-client-spec'. See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above. 463 This variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client. 464 465Submit variables 466~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 467git-p4.detectRenames:: 468 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. 469 470git-p4.detectCopies:: 471 Detect copies. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. 472 473git-p4.detectCopiesHarder:: 474 Detect copies harder. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. 475 476git-p4.preserveUser:: 477 On submit, re-author changes to reflect the git author, 478 regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'. 479 480git-p4.allowMissingP4Users:: 481 When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it 482 cannot find an author in the p4 user map. This setting 483 submits the change regardless. 484 485git-p4.skipSubmitEdit:: 486 The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change 487 is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing 488 step is skipped. 489 490git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck:: 491 After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that 492 the description really was changed by looking at the file 493 modification time. This option disables that test. 494 495git-p4.allowSubmit:: 496 By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4 497 submit' operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only 498 the named branches to be used as submit sources. Branch names 499 must be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be 500 separated by commas (","), with no spaces. 501 502git-p4.skipUserNameCheck:: 503 If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4 504 user map, 'git p4' exits. This option can be used to force 505 submission regardless. 506 507git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup:: 508 If enabled, 'git p4 submit' will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords 509 ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and prevent 510 the submit going ahead. This option should be considered experimental at 511 present. 512 513git-p4.exportLabels:: 514 Export git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels. 515 516git-p4.labelExportRegexp:: 517 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported. The 518 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'. 519 520IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS 521---------------------- 522* Changesets from p4 are imported using git fast-import. 523* Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are 524 collected using 'p4 print'. 525* Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location 526 as the git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to 527 this p4 client and submitted from there. 528* Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log 529 message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This 530 line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4 531 changes are new.