6 git-p4 - Import from and submit to Perforce repositories
12 'git p4 clone' [<sync options>] [<clone options>] <p4 depot path>...
13 'git p4 sync' [<sync options>] [<p4 depot path>...]
15 'git p4 submit' [<submit options>] [<master branch name>]
20 This command provides a way to interact with p4 repositories
23 Create a new git repository from an existing p4 repository using
24 'git p4 clone', giving it one or more p4 depot paths. Incorporate
25 new commits from p4 changes with 'git p4 sync'. The 'sync' command
26 is also used to include new branches from other p4 depot paths.
27 Submit git changes back to p4 using 'git p4 submit'. The command
28 'git p4 rebase' does a sync plus rebases the current branch onto
29 the updated p4 remote branch.
34 * Create an alias for 'git p4', using the full path to the 'git-p4'
38 $ git config --global alias.p4 '!git-p4'
44 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
47 * Do some work in the newly created git repository:
52 $ git commit -a -m "edited foo.h"
55 * Update the git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing your
62 * Submit your commits back to p4:
74 Generally, 'git p4 clone' is used to create a new git directory
75 from an existing p4 repository:
77 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
81 1. Creates an empty git repository in a subdirectory called 'project'.
83 2. Imports the full contents of the head revision from the given p4
84 depot path into a single commit in the git branch 'refs/remotes/p4/master'.
86 3. Creates a local branch, 'master' from this remote and checks it out.
88 To reproduce the entire p4 history in git, use the '@all' modifier on
91 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all
97 As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can
98 be included in the git repository using:
102 This command finds new changes in p4 and imports them as git commits.
104 P4 repositories can be added to an existing git repository using
110 $ git p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot
112 This 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
115 be used for the p4 content.
117 If a git repository includes branches 'refs/remotes/origin/p4', these
118 will be fetched and consulted first during a 'git p4 sync'. Since
119 importing directly from p4 is considerably slower than pulling changes
120 from a git remote, this can be useful in a multi-developer environment.
125 A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4 depot
126 and merge them with local uncommitted changes. Often, the p4 repository
127 is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase workflow makes
128 sense. This command does 'git p4 sync' followed by 'git rebase' to move
129 local commits on top of updated p4 changes.
137 Submitting changes from a git repository back to the p4 repository
138 requires a separate p4 client workspace. This should be specified
139 using the 'P4CLIENT' environment variable or the git configuration
140 variable 'git-p4.client'. The p4 client must exist, but the client root
141 will be created and populated if it does not already exist.
143 To submit all changes that are in the current git branch but not in
144 the 'p4/master' branch, use:
149 To specify a branch other than the current one, use:
151 $ git p4 submit topicbranch
154 The upstream reference is generally 'refs/remotes/p4/master', but can
155 be overridden using the '--origin=' command-line option.
157 The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking 'git p4 submit'. The
158 '--preserve-user' option will cause ownership to be modified
159 according to the author of the git commit. This option requires admin
160 privileges in p4, which can be granted using 'p4 protect'.
168 All commands except clone accept this option.
171 Set the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable. See linkgit:git[1].
175 These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in
176 subsequent 'sync' operations.
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'.
184 Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is
185 documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".
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.
193 Do not print any progress information.
196 Provide more progress information.
199 Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add
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/'.
209 Limit the number of imported changes to 'n'. Useful to
210 limit the amount of history when using the '@all' p4 revision
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'.
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.
229 These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync'
230 options described above.
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
238 Perform a bare clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1].
241 Exclude selected depot paths when cloning.
245 These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior.
248 Provide more progress information.
251 Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
252 p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable
256 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. Renames will be
257 represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations.
260 Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option
261 requires p4 admin privileges.
266 The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can
267 be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional
268 p4 revision specifier on the end:
270 "//depot/my/project"::
271 Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree.
273 "//depot/my/project@all"::
274 Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path.
276 "//depot/my/project@1,6"::
277 Import only changes 1 through 6.
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.
289 See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.
294 P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as git. Instead,
295 p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
296 different logical branches are in different locations in the tree.
297 The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between
298 different areas in the tree, and indicate related content. 'git p4'
299 can use these mappings to determine branch relationships.
301 If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
302 subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use '--detect-branches'
303 when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find
304 subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in git.
306 For example, if the P4 repository structure is:
312 And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:
314 //depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...
317 Then this 'git p4 clone' command:
319 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
321 produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main,
322 called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'.
324 However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
325 them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch
326 relationships automatically, a git configuration setting
327 'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch
328 relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
329 simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are
330 the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the
331 presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will
334 git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
335 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
341 The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for
342 each invocation of 'git p4 sync'. Normally, git garbage compression
343 (linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files,
344 but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance.
347 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
348 -----------------------
349 The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior.
350 They all are in the 'git-p4' section.
355 User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'.
356 The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead.
359 Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
361 The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead.
364 Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
366 The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead.
369 Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
371 The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead.
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.
379 Clone and sync variables
380 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
381 git-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.
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.
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:
400 git config git-p4.branchList main:branchA
401 git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
404 git-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.
412 git-p4.detectRenames::
413 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1].
415 git-p4.detectCopies::
416 Detect copies. See linkgit:git-diff[1].
418 git-p4.detectCopiesHarder::
419 Detect copies harder. See linkgit:git-diff[1].
421 git-p4.preserveUser::
422 On submit, re-author changes to reflect the git author,
423 regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'.
425 git-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.
430 git-p4.skipSubmitEdit::
431 The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change
432 is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing
435 git-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.
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.
445 git-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.
451 IMPLEMENTATION 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