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.
37 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
40 * Do some work in the newly created Git repository:
45 $ git commit -a -m "edited foo.h"
48 * Update the Git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing your
55 * Submit your commits back to p4:
67 Generally, 'git p4 clone' is used to create a new Git directory
68 from an existing p4 repository:
70 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
74 1. Creates an empty Git repository in a subdirectory called 'project'.
76 2. Imports the full contents of the head revision from the given p4
77 depot path into a single commit in the Git branch 'refs/remotes/p4/master'.
79 3. Creates a local branch, 'master' from this remote and checks it out.
81 To reproduce the entire p4 history in Git, use the '@all' modifier on
84 $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all
90 As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can
91 be included in the Git repository using:
95 This command finds new changes in p4 and imports them as Git commits.
97 P4 repositories can be added to an existing Git repository using
103 $ git p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot
105 This 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
108 be used for the p4 content.
110 If a Git repository includes branches 'refs/remotes/origin/p4', these
111 will be fetched and consulted first during a 'git p4 sync'. Since
112 importing directly from p4 is considerably slower than pulling changes
113 from a Git remote, this can be useful in a multi-developer environment.
115 If there are multiple branches, doing 'git p4 sync' will automatically
116 use the "BRANCH DETECTION" algorithm to try to partition new changes
117 into the right branch. This can be overridden with the `--branch`
118 option to specify just a single branch to update.
123 A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4 depot
124 and merge them with local uncommitted changes. Often, the p4 repository
125 is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase workflow makes
126 sense. This command does 'git p4 sync' followed by 'git rebase' to move
127 local commits on top of updated p4 changes.
135 Submitting changes from a Git repository back to the p4 repository
136 requires a separate p4 client workspace. This should be specified
137 using the `P4CLIENT` environment variable or the Git configuration
138 variable 'git-p4.client'. The p4 client must exist, but the client root
139 will be created and populated if it does not already exist.
141 To submit all changes that are in the current Git branch but not in
142 the 'p4/master' branch, use:
147 To specify a branch other than the current one, use:
149 $ git p4 submit topicbranch
152 To specify a single commit or a range of commits, use:
154 $ git p4 submit --commit <sha1>
155 $ git p4 submit --commit <sha1..sha1>
158 The upstream reference is generally 'refs/remotes/p4/master', but can
159 be overridden using the `--origin=` command-line option.
161 The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking 'git p4 submit'. The
162 `--preserve-user` option will cause ownership to be modified
163 according to the author of the Git commit. This option requires admin
164 privileges in p4, which can be granted using 'p4 protect'.
166 To shelve changes instead of submitting, use `--shelve` and `--update-shelve`:
169 $ git p4 submit --shelve
170 $ git p4 submit --update-shelve 1234 --update-shelve 2345
176 Unshelving will take a shelved P4 changelist, and produce the equivalent git commit
177 in the branch refs/remotes/p4-unshelved/<changelist>.
179 The git commit is created relative to the current origin revision (HEAD by default).
180 A parent commit is created based on the origin, and then the unshelve commit is
181 created based on that.
183 The origin revision can be changed with the "--origin" option.
185 If the target branch in refs/remotes/p4-unshelved already exists, the old one will
190 $ git p4 unshelve 12345
191 $ git show p4-unshelved/12345
192 <submit more changes via p4 to the same files>
193 $ git p4 unshelve 12345
194 <refuses to unshelve until git is in sync with p4 again>
203 All commands except clone accept these options.
206 Set the `GIT_DIR` environment variable. See linkgit:git[1].
210 Provide more progress information.
214 These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in
215 subsequent 'sync' operations.
218 Import changes into <ref> instead of refs/remotes/p4/master.
219 If <ref> starts with refs/, it is used as is. Otherwise, if
220 it does not start with p4/, that prefix is added.
222 By default a <ref> not starting with refs/ is treated as the
223 name of a remote-tracking branch (under refs/remotes/). This
224 behavior can be modified using the --import-local option.
226 The default <ref> is "master".
228 This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing
233 $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2
237 Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is
238 documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".
240 --changesfile <file>::
241 Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in 'file', one per
242 line. Normally, 'git p4' inspects the current p4 repository
243 state and detects the changes it should import.
246 Do not print any progress information.
249 Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add
250 them as tags in Git. Limited usefulness as only imports labels
251 associated with new changelists. Deprecated.
254 Import labels from p4 into Git.
257 By default, p4 branches are stored in 'refs/remotes/p4/',
258 where they will be treated as remote-tracking branches by
259 linkgit:git-branch[1] and other commands. This option instead
260 puts p4 branches in 'refs/heads/p4/'. Note that future
261 sync operations must specify `--import-local` as well so that
262 they can find the p4 branches in refs/heads.
265 Import at most 'n' changes, rather than the entire range of
266 changes included in the given revision specifier. A typical
267 usage would be use '@all' as the revision specifier, but then
268 to use '--max-changes 1000' to import only the last 1000
269 revisions rather than the entire revision history.
271 --changes-block-size <n>::
272 The internal block size to use when converting a revision
273 specifier such as '@all' into a list of specific change
274 numbers. Instead of using a single call to 'p4 changes' to
275 find the full list of changes for the conversion, there are a
276 sequence of calls to 'p4 changes -m', each of which requests
277 one block of changes of the given size. The default block size
278 is 500, which should usually be suitable.
281 The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to Git, by
282 default, involves removing the entire depot path. With this
283 option, the full p4 depot path is retained in Git. For example,
284 path '//depot/main/foo/bar.c', when imported from
285 '//depot/main/', becomes 'foo/bar.c'. With `--keep-path`, the
286 Git path is instead 'depot/main/foo/bar.c'.
289 Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4.
290 See the "CLIENT SPEC" section below.
293 Exclude selected depot paths when cloning or syncing.
297 These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync'
298 options described above.
300 --destination <directory>::
301 Where to create the Git repository. If not provided, the last
302 component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new
306 Perform a bare clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1].
310 These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior.
313 Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
314 p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable
318 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. Renames will be
319 represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations. There
320 is no corresponding option to detect copies, but there are
321 variables for both moves and copies.
324 Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option
325 requires p4 admin privileges.
328 Export tags from Git as p4 labels. Tags found in Git are applied
329 to the perforce working directory.
333 Show just what commits would be submitted to p4; do not change
337 Apply a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting
338 files in p4 as for a normal submit operation. Do not issue the
339 final "p4 submit", but instead print a message about how to
340 submit manually or revert. This option always stops after the
341 first (oldest) commit. Git tags are not exported to p4.
344 Instead of submitting create a series of shelved changelists.
345 After creating each shelve, the relevant files are reverted/deleted.
346 If you have multiple commits pending multiple shelves will be created.
348 --update-shelve CHANGELIST::
349 Update an existing shelved changelist with this commit. Implies
350 --shelve. Repeat for multiple shelved changelists.
352 --conflict=(ask|skip|quit)::
353 Conflicts can occur when applying a commit to p4. When this
354 happens, the default behavior ("ask") is to prompt whether to
355 skip this commit and continue, or quit. This option can be used
356 to bypass the prompt, causing conflicting commits to be automatically
357 skipped, or to quit trying to apply commits, without prompting.
360 After submitting, sync this named branch instead of the default
361 p4/master. See the "Sync options" section above for more
364 --commit (<sha1>|<sha1>..<sha1>)::
365 Submit only the specified commit or range of commits, instead of the full
366 list of changes that are in the current Git branch.
369 Disable the automatic rebase after all commits have been successfully
370 submitted. Can also be set with git-p4.disableRebase.
373 Disable the automatic sync of p4/master from Perforce after commits have
374 been submitted. Implies --disable-rebase. Can also be set with
375 git-p4.disableP4Sync. Sync with origin/master still goes ahead if possible.
383 The `p4-pre-submit` hook is executed if it exists and is executable.
384 The hook takes no parameters and nothing from standard input. Exiting with
385 non-zero status from this script prevents `git-p4 submit` from launching.
386 It can be bypassed with the `--no-verify` command line option.
388 One usage scenario is to run unit tests in the hook.
390 p4-prepare-changelist
391 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
393 The `p4-prepare-changelist` hook is executed right after preparing
394 the default changelist message and before the editor is started.
395 It takes one parameter, the name of the file that contains the
396 changelist text. Exiting with a non-zero status from the script
397 will abort the process.
399 The purpose of the hook is to edit the message file in place,
400 and it is not suppressed by the `--no-verify` option. This hook
401 is called even if `--prepare-p4-only` is set.
406 The `p4-changelist` hook is executed after the changelist
407 message has been edited by the user. It can be bypassed with the
408 `--no-verify` option. It takes a single parameter, the name
409 of the file that holds the proposed changelist text. Exiting
410 with a non-zero status causes the command to abort.
412 The hook is allowed to edit the changelist file and can be used
413 to normalize the text into some project standard format. It can
414 also be used to refuse the Submit after inspect the message file.
419 The `p4-post-changelist` hook is invoked after the submit has
420 successfully occurred in P4. It takes no parameters and is meant
421 primarily for notification and cannot affect the outcome of the
422 git p4 submit action.
428 These options can be used to modify 'git p4 rebase' behavior.
437 Sets the git refspec against which the shelved P4 changelist is compared.
438 Defaults to p4/master.
442 The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can
443 be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional
444 p4 revision specifier on the end:
446 "//depot/my/project"::
447 Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree.
449 "//depot/my/project@all"::
450 Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path.
452 "//depot/my/project@1,6"::
453 Import only changes 1 through 6.
455 "//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all"::
456 Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single
457 repository. Only files below these directories are included.
458 There is not a subdirectory in Git for each "proj1" and "proj2".
459 You must use the `--destination` option when specifying more
460 than one depot path. The revision specifier must be specified
461 identically on each depot path. If there are files in the
462 depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently
463 updated version of the file is the one that appears in Git.
465 See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.
470 The p4 client specification is maintained with the 'p4 client' command
471 and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot
472 is mapped into the client repository. The 'clone' and 'sync' commands
473 can consult the client spec when given the `--use-client-spec` option or
474 when the useClientSpec variable is true. After 'git p4 clone', the
475 useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository
476 configuration file. This allows future 'git p4 submit' commands to
477 work properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does
478 not have a command-line option.
480 The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in 'p4 help views'. 'git p4'
481 knows only a subset of the view syntax. It understands multi-line
482 mappings, overlays with '+', exclusions with '-' and double-quotes
483 around whitespace. Of the possible wildcards, 'git p4' only handles
484 '...', and only when it is at the end of the path. 'git p4' will complain
485 if it encounters an unhandled wildcard.
487 Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist. If multiple depot
488 paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository,
489 'git p4' can choose the wrong one. This is hard to solve without
490 dedicating a client spec just for 'git p4'.
492 The name of the client can be given to 'git p4' in multiple ways. The
493 variable 'git-p4.client' takes precedence if it exists. Otherwise,
494 normal p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used: environment
495 variable `P4CLIENT`, a file referenced by `P4CONFIG`, or the local host name.
500 P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as Git. Instead,
501 p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
502 different logical branches are in different locations in the tree.
503 The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between
504 different areas in the tree, and indicate related content. 'git p4'
505 can use these mappings to determine branch relationships.
507 If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
508 subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use `--detect-branches`
509 when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find
510 subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in Git.
512 For example, if the P4 repository structure is:
518 And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:
520 //depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...
523 Then this 'git p4 clone' command:
525 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
527 produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main,
528 called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'.
530 However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
531 them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch
532 relationships automatically, a Git configuration setting
533 'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch
534 relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
535 simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are
536 the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the
537 presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will
542 git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
543 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all .
549 The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for
550 each invocation of 'git p4 sync'. Normally, Git garbage compression
551 (linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files,
552 but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance.
555 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
556 -----------------------
557 The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior.
558 They all are in the 'git-p4' section.
563 User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'.
564 The environment variable `P4USER` can be used instead.
567 Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
569 The environment variable `P4PASS` can be used instead.
572 Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
574 The environment variable `P4PORT` can be used instead.
577 Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
579 The environment variable `P4HOST` can be used instead.
582 Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
583 '-c <client>', including the client spec.
586 Specifies the number of times to retry a p4 command (notably,
587 'p4 sync') if the network times out. The default value is 3.
588 Set the value to 0 to disable retries or if your p4 version
589 does not support retries (pre 2012.2).
591 Clone and sync variables
592 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
593 git-p4.syncFromOrigin::
594 Because importing commits from other Git repositories is much faster
595 than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes
596 first in Git remotes. If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4',
597 those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4. This
598 variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior.
601 One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches
602 to find new ones to import. By default, all branches are
603 inspected. This option limits the search to just those owned
604 by the single user named in the variable.
607 List of branches to be imported when branch detection is
608 enabled. Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated
609 by a colon (:). This example declares that both branchA and
610 branchB were created from main:
613 git config git-p4.branchList main:branchA
614 git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
617 git-p4.ignoredP4Labels::
618 List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as
619 unimportable labels are discovered.
621 git-p4.importLabels::
622 Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels.
624 git-p4.labelImportRegexp::
625 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported. The
626 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
628 git-p4.useClientSpec::
629 Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4
630 depot paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the
631 option `--use-client-spec`. See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above.
632 This variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client.
634 git-p4.pathEncoding::
635 Perforce keeps the encoding of a path as given by the originating OS.
636 Git expects paths encoded as UTF-8. Use this config to tell git-p4
637 what encoding Perforce had used for the paths. This encoding is used
638 to transcode the paths to UTF-8. As an example, Perforce on Windows
639 often uses "cp1252" to encode path names. If this option is passed
640 into a p4 clone request, it is persisted in the resulting new git
643 git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy::
644 Perforce keeps the encoding of a changelist descriptions and user
645 full names as stored by the client on a given OS. The p4v client
646 uses the OS-local encoding, and so different users can end up storing
647 different changelist descriptions or user full names in different
648 encodings, in the same depot.
649 Git tolerates inconsistent/incorrect encodings in commit messages
650 and author names, but expects them to be specified in utf-8.
651 git-p4 can use three different decoding strategies in handling the
652 encoding uncertainty in Perforce: 'passthrough' simply passes the
653 original bytes through from Perforce to git, creating usable but
654 incorrectly-encoded data when the Perforce data is encoded as
655 anything other than utf-8. 'strict' expects the Perforce data to be
656 encoded as utf-8, and fails to import when this is not true.
657 'fallback' attempts to interpret the data as utf-8, and otherwise
658 falls back to using a secondary encoding - by default the common
659 windows encoding 'cp-1252' - with upper-range bytes escaped if
660 decoding with the fallback encoding also fails.
661 Under python2 the default strategy is 'passthrough' for historical
662 reasons, and under python3 the default is 'fallback'.
663 When 'strict' is selected and decoding fails, the error message will
664 propose changing this config parameter as a workaround. If this
665 option is passed into a p4 clone request, it is persisted into the
666 resulting new git repo.
668 git-p4.metadataFallbackEncoding::
669 Specify the fallback encoding to use when decoding Perforce author
670 names and changelists descriptions using the 'fallback' strategy
671 (see git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy). The fallback encoding will
672 only be used when decoding as utf-8 fails. This option defaults to
673 cp1252, a common windows encoding. If this option is passed into a
674 p4 clone request, it is persisted into the resulting new git repo.
676 git-p4.largeFileSystem::
677 Specify the system that is used for large (binary) files. Please note
678 that large file systems do not support the 'git p4 submit' command.
679 Only Git LFS is implemented right now (see https://git-lfs.github.com/
680 for more information). Download and install the Git LFS command line
681 extension to use this option and configure it like this:
684 git config git-p4.largeFileSystem GitLFS
687 git-p4.largeFileExtensions::
688 All files matching a file extension in the list will be processed
689 by the large file system. Do not prefix the extensions with '.'.
691 git-p4.largeFileThreshold::
692 All files with an uncompressed size exceeding the threshold will be
693 processed by the large file system. By default the threshold is
694 defined in bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
696 git-p4.largeFileCompressedThreshold::
697 All files with a compressed size exceeding the threshold will be
698 processed by the large file system. This option might slow down
699 your clone/sync process. By default the threshold is defined in
700 bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
702 git-p4.largeFilePush::
703 Boolean variable which defines if large files are automatically
706 git-p4.keepEmptyCommits::
707 A changelist that contains only excluded files will be imported
708 as an empty commit if this boolean option is set to true.
711 Map a P4 user to a name and email address in Git. Use a string
712 with the following format to create a mapping:
715 git config --add git-p4.mapUser "p4user = First Last <mail@address.com>"
718 A mapping will override any user information from P4. Mappings for
719 multiple P4 user can be defined.
723 git-p4.detectRenames::
724 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. This can be true,
725 false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -M'.
727 git-p4.detectCopies::
728 Detect copies. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. This can be true,
729 false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -C'.
731 git-p4.detectCopiesHarder::
732 Detect copies harder. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. A boolean.
734 git-p4.preserveUser::
735 On submit, re-author changes to reflect the Git author,
736 regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'.
738 git-p4.allowMissingP4Users::
739 When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it
740 cannot find an author in the p4 user map. This setting
741 submits the change regardless.
743 git-p4.skipSubmitEdit::
744 The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change
745 is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing
748 git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck::
749 After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that
750 the description really was changed by looking at the file
751 modification time. This option disables that test.
754 By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4
755 submit' operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only
756 the named branches to be used as submit sources. Branch names
757 must be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be
758 separated by commas (","), with no spaces.
760 git-p4.skipUserNameCheck::
761 If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4
762 user map, 'git p4' exits. This option can be used to force
763 submission regardless.
765 git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup::
766 If enabled, 'git p4 submit' will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords
767 ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and prevent
768 the submit going ahead. This option should be considered experimental at
771 git-p4.exportLabels::
772 Export Git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels.
774 git-p4.labelExportRegexp::
775 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported. The
776 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
779 Specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per
780 --conflict. The default behavior is 'ask'.
782 git-p4.disableRebase::
783 Do not rebase the tree against p4/master following a submit.
785 git-p4.disableP4Sync::
786 Do not sync p4/master with Perforce following a submit. Implies git-p4.disableRebase.
788 IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
789 ----------------------
790 * Changesets from p4 are imported using Git fast-import.
791 * Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are
792 collected using 'p4 print'.
793 * Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location
794 as the Git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to
795 this p4 client and submitted from there.
796 * Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log
797 message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This
798 line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4
803 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite