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 The upstream reference is generally 'refs/remotes/p4/master', but can
153 be overridden using the '--origin=' command-line option.
155 The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking 'git p4 submit'. The
156 '--preserve-user' option will cause ownership to be modified
157 according to the author of the Git commit. This option requires admin
158 privileges in p4, which can be granted using 'p4 protect'.
166 All commands except clone accept these options.
169 Set the 'GIT_DIR' environment variable. See linkgit:git[1].
173 Provide more progress information.
177 These options can be used in the initial 'clone' as well as in
178 subsequent 'sync' operations.
181 Import changes into <ref> instead of refs/remotes/p4/master.
182 If <ref> starts with refs/, it is used as is. Otherwise, if
183 it does not start with p4/, that prefix is added.
185 By default a <ref> not starting with refs/ is treated as the
186 name of a remote-tracking branch (under refs/remotes/). This
187 behavior can be modified using the --import-local option.
189 The default <ref> is "master".
191 This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing
196 $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2
200 Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is
201 documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".
203 --changesfile <file>::
204 Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in 'file', one per
205 line. Normally, 'git p4' inspects the current p4 repository
206 state and detects the changes it should import.
209 Do not print any progress information.
212 Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add
213 them as tags in Git. Limited usefulness as only imports labels
214 associated with new changelists. Deprecated.
217 Import labels from p4 into Git.
220 By default, p4 branches are stored in 'refs/remotes/p4/',
221 where they will be treated as remote-tracking branches by
222 linkgit:git-branch[1] and other commands. This option instead
223 puts p4 branches in 'refs/heads/p4/'. Note that future
224 sync operations must specify '--import-local' as well so that
225 they can find the p4 branches in refs/heads.
228 Limit the number of imported changes to 'n'. Useful to
229 limit the amount of history when using the '@all' p4 revision
233 The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to Git, by
234 default, involves removing the entire depot path. With this
235 option, the full p4 depot path is retained in Git. For example,
236 path '//depot/main/foo/bar.c', when imported from
237 '//depot/main/', becomes 'foo/bar.c'. With '--keep-path', the
238 Git path is instead 'depot/main/foo/bar.c'.
241 Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4.
242 See the "CLIENT SPEC" section below.
246 These options can be used in an initial 'clone', along with the 'sync'
247 options described above.
249 --destination <directory>::
250 Where to create the Git repository. If not provided, the last
251 component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new
255 Perform a bare clone. See linkgit:git-clone[1].
258 Exclude selected depot paths when cloning.
262 These options can be used to modify 'git p4 submit' behavior.
265 Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
266 p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable
270 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. Renames will be
271 represented in p4 using explicit 'move' operations. There
272 is no corresponding option to detect copies, but there are
273 variables for both moves and copies.
276 Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option
277 requires p4 admin privileges.
280 Export tags from Git as p4 labels. Tags found in Git are applied
281 to the perforce working directory.
285 Show just what commits would be submitted to p4; do not change
289 Apply a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting
290 files in p4 as for a normal submit operation. Do not issue the
291 final "p4 submit", but instead print a message about how to
292 submit manually or revert. This option always stops after the
293 first (oldest) commit. Git tags are not exported to p4.
295 --conflict=(ask|skip|quit)::
296 Conflicts can occur when applying a commit to p4. When this
297 happens, the default behavior ("ask") is to prompt whether to
298 skip this commit and continue, or quit. This option can be used
299 to bypass the prompt, causing conflicting commits to be automatically
300 skipped, or to quit trying to apply commits, without prompting.
303 After submitting, sync this named branch instead of the default
304 p4/master. See the "Sync options" section above for more
309 These options can be used to modify 'git p4 rebase' behavior.
316 The p4 depot path argument to 'git p4 sync' and 'git p4 clone' can
317 be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional
318 p4 revision specifier on the end:
320 "//depot/my/project"::
321 Import one commit with all files in the '#head' change under that tree.
323 "//depot/my/project@all"::
324 Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot path.
326 "//depot/my/project@1,6"::
327 Import only changes 1 through 6.
329 "//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all"::
330 Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single
331 repository. Only files below these directories are included.
332 There is not a subdirectory in Git for each "proj1" and "proj2".
333 You must use the '--destination' option when specifying more
334 than one depot path. The revision specifier must be specified
335 identically on each depot path. If there are files in the
336 depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently
337 updated version of the file is the one that appears in Git.
339 See 'p4 help revisions' for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.
344 The p4 client specification is maintained with the 'p4 client' command
345 and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot
346 is mapped into the client repository. The 'clone' and 'sync' commands
347 can consult the client spec when given the '--use-client-spec' option or
348 when the useClientSpec variable is true. After 'git p4 clone', the
349 useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository
350 configuration file. This allows future 'git p4 submit' commands to
351 work properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does
352 not have a command-line option.
354 The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in 'p4 help views'. 'git p4'
355 knows only a subset of the view syntax. It understands multi-line
356 mappings, overlays with '+', exclusions with '-' and double-quotes
357 around whitespace. Of the possible wildcards, 'git p4' only handles
358 '...', and only when it is at the end of the path. 'git p4' will complain
359 if it encounters an unhandled wildcard.
361 Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist. If multiple depot
362 paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository,
363 'git p4' can choose the wrong one. This is hard to solve without
364 dedicating a client spec just for 'git p4'.
366 The name of the client can be given to 'git p4' in multiple ways. The
367 variable 'git-p4.client' takes precedence if it exists. Otherwise,
368 normal p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used: environment
369 variable P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name.
374 P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as Git. Instead,
375 p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
376 different logical branches are in different locations in the tree.
377 The 'p4 branch' command is used to maintain mappings between
378 different areas in the tree, and indicate related content. 'git p4'
379 can use these mappings to determine branch relationships.
381 If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
382 subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use '--detect-branches'
383 when cloning or syncing to have 'git p4' automatically find
384 subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in Git.
386 For example, if the P4 repository structure is:
392 And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:
394 //depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...
397 Then this 'git p4 clone' command:
399 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
401 produces a separate branch in 'refs/remotes/p4/' for //depot/main,
402 called 'master', and one for //depot/branch1 called 'depot/branch1'.
404 However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
405 them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch
406 relationships automatically, a Git configuration setting
407 'git-p4.branchList' can be used to explicitly identify branch
408 relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
409 simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are
410 the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the
411 presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will
416 git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
417 git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all .
423 The fast-import mechanism used by 'git p4' creates one pack file for
424 each invocation of 'git p4 sync'. Normally, Git garbage compression
425 (linkgit:git-gc[1]) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files,
426 but explicit invocation of 'git repack -adf' may improve performance.
429 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
430 -----------------------
431 The following config settings can be used to modify 'git p4' behavior.
432 They all are in the 'git-p4' section.
437 User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with '-u <user>'.
438 The environment variable 'P4USER' can be used instead.
441 Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
443 The environment variable 'P4PASS' can be used instead.
446 Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
448 The environment variable 'P4PORT' can be used instead.
451 Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
453 The environment variable 'P4HOST' can be used instead.
456 Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with
457 '-c <client>', including the client spec.
459 Clone and sync variables
460 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
461 git-p4.syncFromOrigin::
462 Because importing commits from other Git repositories is much faster
463 than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4 changes
464 first in Git remotes. If branches exist under 'refs/remote/origin/p4',
465 those will be fetched and used when syncing from p4. This
466 variable can be set to 'false' to disable this behavior.
469 One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches
470 to find new ones to import. By default, all branches are
471 inspected. This option limits the search to just those owned
472 by the single user named in the variable.
475 List of branches to be imported when branch detection is
476 enabled. Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated
477 by a colon (:). This example declares that both branchA and
478 branchB were created from main:
481 git config git-p4.branchList main:branchA
482 git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
485 git-p4.ignoredP4Labels::
486 List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as
487 unimportable labels are discovered.
489 git-p4.importLabels::
490 Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels.
492 git-p4.labelImportRegexp::
493 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported. The
494 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
496 git-p4.useClientSpec::
497 Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4
498 depot paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the
499 option '--use-client-spec'. See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above.
500 This variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client.
504 git-p4.detectRenames::
505 Detect renames. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. This can be true,
506 false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -M'.
508 git-p4.detectCopies::
509 Detect copies. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. This can be true,
510 false, or a score as expected by 'git diff -C'.
512 git-p4.detectCopiesHarder::
513 Detect copies harder. See linkgit:git-diff[1]. A boolean.
515 git-p4.preserveUser::
516 On submit, re-author changes to reflect the Git author,
517 regardless of who invokes 'git p4 submit'.
519 git-p4.allowMissingP4Users::
520 When 'preserveUser' is true, 'git p4' normally dies if it
521 cannot find an author in the p4 user map. This setting
522 submits the change regardless.
524 git-p4.skipSubmitEdit::
525 The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change
526 is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing
529 git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck::
530 After editing the p4 change message, 'git p4' makes sure that
531 the description really was changed by looking at the file
532 modification time. This option disables that test.
535 By default, any branch can be used as the source for a 'git p4
536 submit' operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only
537 the named branches to be used as submit sources. Branch names
538 must be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be
539 separated by commas (","), with no spaces.
541 git-p4.skipUserNameCheck::
542 If the user running 'git p4 submit' does not exist in the p4
543 user map, 'git p4' exits. This option can be used to force
544 submission regardless.
546 git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup::
547 If enabled, 'git p4 submit' will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords
548 ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and prevent
549 the submit going ahead. This option should be considered experimental at
552 git-p4.exportLabels::
553 Export Git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels.
555 git-p4.labelExportRegexp::
556 Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported. The
557 default value is '[a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$'.
560 Specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per
561 --conflict. The default behavior is 'ask'.
563 IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
564 ----------------------
565 * Changesets from p4 are imported using Git fast-import.
566 * Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are
567 collected using 'p4 print'.
568 * Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location
569 as the Git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to
570 this p4 client and submitted from there.
571 * Each commit imported by 'git p4' has a line at the end of the log
572 message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This
573 line is used by later 'git p4 sync' operations to know which p4