1 git-p4(1)
2 =========
4 NAME
5 ----
6 git-p4 - Import from and submit to Perforce repositories
9 SYNOPSIS
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>]
18 DESCRIPTION
19 -----------
20 This command provides a way to interact with p4 repositories
21 using git.
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.
32 EXAMPLE
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 ------------
41 * Clone a repository:
42 +
43 ------------
44 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
45 ------------
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 ------------
55 * Update the git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing your
56 work on top:
57 +
58 ------------
59 $ git p4 rebase
60 ------------
62 * Submit your commits back to p4:
63 +
64 ------------
65 $ git p4 submit
66 ------------
69 COMMANDS
70 --------
72 Clone
73 ~~~~~
74 Generally, 'git p4 clone' is used to create a new git directory
75 from an existing p4 repository:
76 ------------
77 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
78 ------------
79 This:
81 1. Creates an empty git repository in a subdirectory called 'project'.
82 +
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'.
85 +
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
89 the depot path:
90 ------------
91 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all
92 ------------
95 Sync
96 ~~~~
97 As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can
98 be included in the git repository using:
99 ------------
100 $ git p4 sync
101 ------------
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
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 ------------
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.
123 Rebase
124 ~~~~~~
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.
130 ------------
131 $ git p4 rebase
132 ------------
135 Submit
136 ~~~~~~
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:
145 ------------
146 $ git p4 submit
147 ------------
149 To specify a branch other than the current one, use:
150 ------------
151 $ git p4 submit topicbranch
152 ------------
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'.
163 OPTIONS
164 -------
166 General options
167 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
168 All commands except clone accept this option.
170 --git-dir <dir>::
171 Set the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable. See linkgit:git[1].
173 Sync options
174 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
175 These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in
176 subsequent 'sync' operations.
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'. If used
182 with an initial clone, no HEAD will be checked out.
183 +
184 This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing
185 git repository:
186 ----
187 $ git init
188 $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2
189 ----
191 --detect-branches::
192 Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is
193 documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".
195 --changesfile <file>::
196 Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in 'file', one per
197 line. Normally, 'git p4' inspects the current p4 repository
198 state and detects the changes it should import.
200 --silent::
201 Do not print any progress information.
203 --verbose::
204 Provide more progress information.
206 --detect-labels::
207 Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add
208 them as tags in git.
210 --import-local::
211 By default, p4 branches are stored in 'refs/remotes/p4/',
212 where they will be treated as remote-tracking branches by
213 linkgit:git-branch[1] and other commands. This option instead
214 puts p4 branches in 'refs/heads/p4/'. Note that future
215 sync operations must specify '--import-local' as well so that
216 they can find the p4 branches in refs/heads.
218 --max-changes <n>::
219 Limit the number of imported changes to 'n'. Useful to
220 limit the amount of history when using the '@all' p4 revision
221 specifier.
223 --keep-path::
224 The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to git, by
225 default, involves removing the entire depot path. With this
226 option, the full p4 depot path is retained in git. For example,
227 path '//depot/main/foo/bar.c', when imported from
228 '//depot/main/', becomes 'foo/bar.c'. With '--keep-path', the
229 git path is instead 'depot/main/foo/bar.c'.
231 --use-client-spec::
232 Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4.
233 The client spec is discovered using 'p4 client -o' which checks
234 the 'P4CLIENT' environment variable and returns a mapping of
235 depot files to workspace files.
237 Clone options
238 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
239 These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync'
240 options described above.
242 --destination <directory>::
243 Where to create the git repository. If not provided, the last
244 component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new
245 directory.
247 --bare::
248 Perform a bare clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1].
250 -/ <path>::
251 Exclude selected depot paths when cloning.
253 Submit options
254 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
255 These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior.
257 --verbose::
258 Provide more progress information.
260 --origin <commit>::
261 Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
262 p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable
263 from 'HEAD'.
265 -M[<n>]::
266 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. Renames will be
267 represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations.
269 --preserve-user::
270 Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option
271 requires p4 admin privileges.
274 DEPOT PATH SYNTAX
275 -----------------
276 The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can
277 be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional
278 p4 revision specifier on the end:
280 "//depot/my/project"::
281 Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree.
283 "//depot/my/project@all"::
284 Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path.
286 "//depot/my/project@1,6"::
287 Import only changes 1 through 6.
289 "//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all"::
290 Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single
291 repository. Only files below these directories are included.
292 There is not a subdirectory in git for each "proj1" and "proj2".
293 You must use the '--destination' option when specifying more
294 than one depot path. The revision specifier must be specified
295 identically on each depot path. If there are files in the
296 depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently
297 updated version of the file is the one that appears in git.
299 See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.
302 BRANCH DETECTION
303 ----------------
304 P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as git. Instead,
305 p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
306 different logical branches are in different locations in the tree.
307 The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between
308 different areas in the tree, and indicate related content. 'git p4'
309 can use these mappings to determine branch relationships.
311 If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
312 subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use '--detect-branches'
313 when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find
314 subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in git.
316 For example, if the P4 repository structure is:
317 ----
318 //depot/main/...
319 //depot/branch1/...
320 ----
322 And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:
323 ----
324 //depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...
325 ----
327 Then this 'git p4 clone' command:
328 ----
329 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
330 ----
331 produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main,
332 called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'.
334 However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
335 them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch
336 relationships automatically, a git configuration setting
337 'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch
338 relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
339 simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are
340 the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the
341 presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will
342 occur with:
343 ----
344 git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
345 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
346 ----
349 PERFORMANCE
350 -----------
351 The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for
352 each invocation of 'git p4 sync'. Normally, git garbage compression
353 (linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files,
354 but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance.
357 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
358 -----------------------
359 The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior.
360 They all are in the 'git-p4' section.
362 General variables
363 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
364 git-p4.user::
365 User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'.
366 The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead.
368 git-p4.password::
369 Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
370 '-P <password>'.
371 The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead.
373 git-p4.port::
374 Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
375 '-p <port>'.
376 The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead.
378 git-p4.host::
379 Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
380 '-h <host>'.
381 The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead.
383 git-p4.client::
384 Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
385 '-c <client>'. This can also be used as a way to find
386 the client spec for the 'useClientSpec' option.
387 The environment variable 'P4CLIENT' can be used instead.
389 Clone and sync variables
390 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
391 git-p4.syncFromOrigin::
392 Because importing commits from other git repositories is much faster
393 than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes
394 first in git remotes. If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4',
395 those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4. This
396 variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior.
398 git-p4.branchUser::
399 One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches
400 to find new ones to import. By default, all branches are
401 inspected. This option limits the search to just those owned
402 by the single user named in the variable.
404 git-p4.branchList::
405 List of branches to be imported when branch detection is
406 enabled. Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated
407 by a colon (:). This example declares that both branchA and
408 branchB were created from main:
409 -------------
410 git config git-p4.branchList main:branchA
411 git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
412 -------------
414 git-p4.useClientSpec::
415 Specify that the p4 client spec to be used to identify p4 depot
416 paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the option
417 '--use-client-spec'. The variable 'git-p4.client' can be used
418 to specify the name of the client.
420 Submit variables
421 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
422 git-p4.detectRenames::
423 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1].
425 git-p4.detectCopies::
426 Detect copies. See linkgit:git-diff[1].
428 git-p4.detectCopiesHarder::
429 Detect copies harder. See linkgit:git-diff[1].
431 git-p4.preserveUser::
432 On submit, re-author changes to reflect the git author,
433 regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'.
435 git-p4.allowMissingP4Users::
436 When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it
437 cannot find an author in the p4 user map. This setting
438 submits the change regardless.
440 git-p4.skipSubmitEdit::
441 The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change
442 is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing
443 step is skipped.
445 git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck::
446 After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that
447 the description really was changed by looking at the file
448 modification time. This option disables that test.
450 git-p4.allowSubmit::
451 By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4
452 submit' operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only
453 the named branches to be used as submit sources.
455 git-p4.skipUserNameCheck::
456 If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4
457 user map, 'git p4' exits. This option can be used to force
458 submission regardless.
461 IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
462 ----------------------
463 * Changesets from p4 are imported using git fast-import.
464 * Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are
465 collected using 'p4 print'.
466 * Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location
467 as the git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to
468 this p4 client and submitted from there.
469 * Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log
470 message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This
471 line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4
472 changes are new.