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* Create an alias for 'git p4', using the full path to the 'git-p4' 35 script if needed: 36+ 37------------ 38$ git config --global alias.p4 '!git-p4' 39------------ 40 41* Clone a repository: 42+ 43------------ 44$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project 45------------ 46 47* Do some work in the newly created git repository: 48+ 49------------ 50$ cd project 51$ vi foo.h 52$ git commit -a -m "edited foo.h" 53------------ 54 55* Update the git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing your 56 work on top: 57+ 58------------ 59$ git p4 rebase 60------------ 61 62* Submit your commits back to p4: 63+ 64------------ 65$ git p4 submit 66------------ 67 68 69COMMANDS 70-------- 71 72Clone 73~~~~~ 74Generally, 'git p4 clone' is used to create a new git directory 75from an existing p4 repository: 76------------ 77$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project 78------------ 79This: 80 811. Creates an empty git repository in a subdirectory called 'project'. 82+ 832. Imports the full contents of the head revision from the given p4 84depot path into a single commit in the git branch 'refs/remotes/p4/master'. 85+ 863. Creates a local branch, 'master' from this remote and checks it out. 87 88To reproduce the entire p4 history in git, use the '@all' modifier on 89the depot path: 90------------ 91$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all 92------------ 93 94 95Sync 96~~~~ 97As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can 98be included in the git repository using: 99------------ 100$ git p4 sync 101------------ 102This command finds new changes in p4 and imports them as git commits. 103 104P4 repositories can be added to an existing git repository using 105'git p4 sync' too: 106------------ 107$ mkdir repo-git 108$ cd repo-git 109$ git init 110$ git p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot 111------------ 112This imports the specified depot into 113'refs/remotes/p4/master' in an existing git repository. The 114'--branch' option can be used to specify a different branch to 115be used for the p4 content. 116 117If a git repository includes branches 'refs/remotes/origin/p4', these 118will be fetched and consulted first during a 'git p4 sync'. Since 119importing directly from p4 is considerably slower than pulling changes 120from a git remote, this can be useful in a multi-developer environment. 121 122 123Rebase 124~~~~~~ 125A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4 depot 126and merge them with local uncommitted changes. Often, the p4 repository 127is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase workflow makes 128sense. This command does 'git p4 sync' followed by 'git rebase' to move 129local commits on top of updated p4 changes. 130------------ 131$ git p4 rebase 132------------ 133 134 135Submit 136~~~~~~ 137Submitting changes from a git repository back to the p4 repository 138requires a separate p4 client workspace. This should be specified 139using the 'P4CLIENT' environment variable or the git configuration 140variable 'git-p4.client'. The p4 client must exist, but the client root 141will be created and populated if it does not already exist. 142 143To submit all changes that are in the current git branch but not in 144the 'p4/master' branch, use: 145------------ 146$ git p4 submit 147------------ 148 149To specify a branch other than the current one, use: 150------------ 151$ git p4 submit topicbranch 152------------ 153 154The upstream reference is generally 'refs/remotes/p4/master', but can 155be overridden using the '--origin=' command-line option. 156 157The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking 'git p4 submit'. The 158'--preserve-user' option will cause ownership to be modified 159according to the author of the git commit. This option requires admin 160privileges in p4, which can be granted using 'p4 protect'. 161 162 163OPTIONS 164------- 165 166General options 167~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 168All commands except clone accept this option. 169 170--git-dir <dir>:: 171 Set the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable. See linkgit:git[1]. 172 173Sync options 174~~~~~~~~~~~~ 175These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in 176subsequent 'sync' operations. 177 178--branch <branch>:: 179 Import changes into given branch. If the branch starts with 180 'refs/', it will be used as is, otherwise the path 'refs/heads/' 181 will be prepended. The default branch is 'master'. 182 183--detect-branches:: 184 Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is 185 documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION". 186 187--changesfile <file>:: 188 Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in 'file', one per 189 line. Normally, 'git p4' inspects the current p4 repository 190 state and detects the changes it should import. 191 192--silent:: 193 Do not print any progress information. 194 195--verbose:: 196 Provide more progress information. 197 198--detect-labels:: 199 Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add 200 them as tags in git. 201 202--import-local:: 203 By default, p4 branches are stored in 'refs/remotes/p4/', 204 where they will be treated as remote-tracking branches by 205 linkgit:git-branch[1] and other commands. This option instead 206 puts p4 branches in 'refs/heads/p4/'. 207 208--max-changes <n>:: 209 Limit the number of imported changes to 'n'. Useful to 210 limit the amount of history when using the '@all' p4 revision 211 specifier. 212 213--keep-path:: 214 The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to git, by 215 default, involves removing the entire depot path. With this 216 option, the full p4 depot path is retained in git. For example, 217 path '//depot/main/foo/bar.c', when imported from 218 '//depot/main/', becomes 'foo/bar.c'. With '--keep-path', the 219 git path is instead 'depot/main/foo/bar.c'. 220 221--use-client-spec:: 222 Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4. 223 The client spec is discovered using 'p4 client -o' which checks 224 the 'P4CLIENT' environment variable and returns a mapping of 225 depot files to workspace files. 226 227Clone options 228~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 229These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync' 230options described above. 231 232--destination <directory>:: 233 Where to create the git repository. If not provided, the last 234 component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new 235 directory. 236 237--bare:: 238 Perform a bare clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1]. 239 240-/ <path>:: 241 Exclude selected depot paths when cloning. 242 243Submit options 244~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 245These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior. 246 247--verbose:: 248 Provide more progress information. 249 250--origin <commit>:: 251 Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to 252 p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable 253 from 'HEAD'. 254 255-M[<n>]:: 256 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. Renames will be 257 represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations. 258 259--preserve-user:: 260 Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option 261 requires p4 admin privileges. 262 263 264DEPOT PATH SYNTAX 265----------------- 266The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can 267be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional 268p4 revision specifier on the end: 269 270"//depot/my/project":: 271 Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree. 272 273"//depot/my/project@all":: 274 Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path. 275 276"//depot/my/project@1,6":: 277 Import only changes 1 through 6. 278 279"//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all":: 280 Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single 281 repository. Only files below these directories are included. 282 There is not a subdirectory in git for each "proj1" and "proj2". 283 You must use the '--destination' option when specifying more 284 than one depot path. The revision specifier must be specified 285 identically on each depot path. If there are files in the 286 depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently 287 updated version of the file is the one that appears in git. 288 289See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers. 290 291 292BRANCH DETECTION 293---------------- 294P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as git. Instead, 295p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention 296different logical branches are in different locations in the tree. 297The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between 298different areas in the tree, and indicate related content. 'git p4' 299can use these mappings to determine branch relationships. 300 301If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as 302subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use '--detect-branches' 303when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find 304subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in git. 305 306For example, if the P4 repository structure is: 307---- 308//depot/main/... 309//depot/branch1/... 310---- 311 312And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like: 313---- 314//depot/main/... //depot/branch1/... 315---- 316 317Then this 'git p4 clone' command: 318---- 319git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all 320---- 321produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main, 322called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'. 323 324However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use 325them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch 326relationships automatically, a git configuration setting 327'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch 328relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a 329simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are 330the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the 331presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will 332occur with: 333---- 334git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1 335git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all 336---- 337 338 339PERFORMANCE 340----------- 341The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for 342each invocation of 'git p4 sync'. Normally, git garbage compression 343(linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files, 344but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance. 345 346 347CONFIGURATION VARIABLES 348----------------------- 349The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior. 350They all are in the 'git-p4' section. 351 352General variables 353~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 354git-p4.user:: 355 User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'. 356 The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead. 357 358git-p4.password:: 359 Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 360 '-P <password>'. 361 The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead. 362 363git-p4.port:: 364 Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 365 '-p <port>'. 366 The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead. 367 368git-p4.host:: 369 Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 370 '-h <host>'. 371 The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead. 372 373git-p4.client:: 374 Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with 375 '-c <client>'. This can also be used as a way to find 376 the client spec for the 'useClientSpec' option. 377 The environment variable 'P4CLIENT' can be used instead. 378 379Clone and sync variables 380~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 381git-p4.syncFromOrigin:: 382 Because importing commits from other git repositories is much faster 383 than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes 384 first in git remotes. If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4', 385 those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4. This 386 variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior. 387 388git-p4.branchUser:: 389 One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches 390 to find new ones to import. By default, all branches are 391 inspected. This option limits the search to just those owned 392 by the single user named in the variable. 393 394git-p4.branchList:: 395 List of branches to be imported when branch detection is 396 enabled. Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated 397 by a colon (:). This example declares that both branchA and 398 branchB were created from main: 399------------- 400git config git-p4.branchList main:branchA 401git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB 402------------- 403 404git-p4.useClientSpec:: 405 Specify that the p4 client spec to be used to identify p4 depot 406 paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the option 407 '--use-client-spec'. The variable 'git-p4.client' can be used 408 to specify the name of the client. 409 410Submit variables 411~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 412git-p4.detectRenames:: 413 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. 414 415git-p4.detectCopies:: 416 Detect copies. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. 417 418git-p4.detectCopiesHarder:: 419 Detect copies harder. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. 420 421git-p4.preserveUser:: 422 On submit, re-author changes to reflect the git author, 423 regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'. 424 425git-p4.allowMissingP4Users:: 426 When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it 427 cannot find an author in the p4 user map. This setting 428 submits the change regardless. 429 430git-p4.skipSubmitEdit:: 431 The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change 432 is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing 433 step is skipped. 434 435git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck:: 436 After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that 437 the description really was changed by looking at the file 438 modification time. This option disables that test. 439 440git-p4.allowSubmit:: 441 By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4 442 submit' operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only 443 the named branches to be used as submit sources. 444 445git-p4.skipUserNameCheck:: 446 If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4 447 user map, 'git p4' exits. This option can be used to force 448 submission regardless. 449 450 451IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS 452---------------------- 453* Changesets from p4 are imported using git fast-import. 454* Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are 455 collected using 'p4 print'. 456* Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location 457 as the git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to 458 this p4 client and submitted from there. 459* Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log 460 message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This 461 line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4 462 changes are new.