Table of Contents

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Perforce Server and Perforce Client Programs

Moving files between the clients and the server

File conflicts

Labeling groups of files

Branching files

Job tracking

Change notification

Protections

Other Perforce Clients

P4Win

P4Web

Merge Tools

P4 resolve

P4WinMerge

Other merge utilities

Defect Tracking Systems

Perforce jobs

P4DTI integrations with third-party defect trackers

Plug-Ins, reporting and tool integrations

IDE Plug-ins

P4Report and P4SQL

P4OFC

Before you begin

Setting up your environment to use Perforce

Telling Perforce clients where the server is

Verifying the connection to the Perforce server

Underlying concepts

File configurations used in the examples

Setting up a client workspace

Naming the client workspace

Describing the client workspace to the Perforce server

Copying depot files into your workspace

Updating the depot with files from your workspace

Adding files to the depot

Editing files in the depot

Deleting files from the depot

Submitting with multiple operations

Backing out: reverting files to their unopened states

Basic reporting commands

Description of the Client Workspace

Wildcards

Wildcards and "p4 add"

Mapping the Depot to the Client Workspace

Multiple depots

Using views

Wildcards in views

Types of mappings

Editing Existing Client Specifications

Deleting an existing client specification

Client specification options

Multiple workspace roots for cross-platform work

Line-ending conventions (CR/LF translation)

Referring to Files on the Command Line

Local syntax

Perforce syntax

Providing files as arguments to commands

Wildcards and Perforce syntax

Name and String Limitations

Illegal characters in filenames and Perforce objects

Name and description lengths

Specifying Older File Revisions

Using revision specifications without filenames

Revision Ranges

File Types

Forms and Perforce Commands

Reading forms from standard input; Writing forms to standard output

General Reporting Commands

RCS Format: How Perforce Stores File Revisions

Only the differences between revisions are stored

Use of "diff" to determine file revision differences

Scheduling Resolves of Conflicting Files

Why "p4 sync" to Schedule a Resolve?

How Do I Know When a Resolve is Needed?

Performing Resolves of Conflicting Files

File revisions used and generated by "p4 resolve"

Types of conflicts between file revisions

How the merge file is generated

The "p4 resolve" options

Using Flags with Resolve to Automatically Accept Particular Revisions

Binary files and "p4 resolve"

Locking Files to Minimize File Conflicts

Preventing multiple resolves with p4 lock

Preventing multiple checkouts with +l files

Resolves and Branching

Resolve Reporting

Reconfiguring the Perforce Environment with $P4CONFIG

Perforce Passwords

Command-Line Flags Common to All Perforce Commands

Working Detached

Finding changed files with "p4 diff"

Using "p4 diff" to update the depot

Refreshing files

Recommendations for Organizing the Depot

Renaming Files

Revision histories and renamed files

Working with the Default Changelist

Creating Numbered Changelists Manually

Working With Numbered Changelists

Automatic Creation and Renumbering of Changelists

When submit of the default changelist fails, the changelist is assigned a number

Perforce May Renumber a Changelist upon Submission

Deleting Changelists

Changelist Reporting

Why Not Just Use Changelist Numbers?

Creating a Label

Adding and Changing Files Listed in a Label

Previewing labelsync's results

Preventing Accidental Overwrites of a Label's Contents

Retrieving a Label's Contents into a Client Workspace

Deleting Labels

Label Reporting

What is Branching?

When to Create a Branch

Perforce's Branching Mechanisms: Introduction

Branching and Merging, Method 1: Branching with File Specifications

Creating branched files

Propagating changes between branched files

Propagating changes from branched files to the original files

Branching and Merging, Method 2: Branching with Branch Specifications

Branch Specification Usage Notes

Integration Usage Notes

Deleting Branches

Advanced Integration Functions

Integrating specific file revisions

Re-integrating and re-resolving files

How Integrate Works

The yours, theirs, and base files

The integration algorithm

Integrate's actions

Integration Reporting

For More Information

Job Usage Overview

Creating and editing jobs using the default job specification

Creating and editing jobs with custom job specifications

Viewing jobs by content with jobviews

Finding jobs containing particular words

Finding jobs by field values

Using and escaping wildcards in jobviews

Negating the sense of a query

Using dates in jobviews

Comparison operators and field types

Linking Jobs to Changelists

Automatically linking jobs to changelists with the p4 user form

Automatic update of job status

Manually associating jobs with changelists

What if there's no status field?

Deleting Jobs

Integrating with External Defect Tracking Systems

Job Reporting Commands

Files

File metadata

Relationships between client and depot files

File contents

Changelists

Viewing changelists that meet particular criteria

Files and jobs affected by changelists

Labels

Branch and Integration Reporting

Job Reporting

Basic job information

Jobs, fixes, and changelists

Reporting for Daemons

System Configuration

Special Reporting Flags

Reporting with Scripting

Comparing the change content of two file sets

Getting Perforce

Installing Perforce on UNIX

Download the files and make them executable

Creating a Perforce server root directory

Telling the Perforce server which port to listen to

Starting the Perforce server

Stopping the Perforce server

Telling Perforce clients which port to talk to

Installing Perforce on Windows

Terminology note: Windows services and servers

Starting and stopping Perforce on Windows

Setting and viewing environment variables

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