Table of Contents

Please Give Us Feedback

Getting Perforce

Installing Perforce on UNIX

Download the files and make them executable

Create a Perforce server root directory

Telling the Perforce server which port to listen to

Telling Perforce client programs which port to talk to

Starting the Perforce server

Stopping the Perforce server

Installing Perforce on Windows

Terminology note: Windows services and servers

Starting and stopping Perforce on Windows

Upgrading a Perforce Server

Using old client programs with a new server

Important Notes for 2001.1 and later

UNIX upgrades

Windows upgrades

Installation and Administration Tips

Release and license information

Observe proper backup procedures

Use separate physical drives for server root and journal

Use protections and passwords

Allocate disk space for anticipated growth

Managing disk space after installation

Large filesystem support

UNIX and NFS support

Windows: Username and password required for network drives

UNIX: Run p4d as a non-privileged user

Logging errors

Case sensitivity issues

Tune for performance

Backup and Recovery Concepts

Checkpoint files

Journal files

Versioned files

Backup Procedures

Recovery Procedures

Database corruption, versioned files unaffected

Both database and versioned files lost or damaged

Ensuring system integrity after any restoration

Basic Perforce Administration

Resetting user passwords

Creating new users

Preventing creation of new users

Deleting obsolete users

Reverting files left open by obsolete users

Reclaiming disk space by obliterating files

Deleting changelists and editing changelist descriptions

File verification by signature

Defining filetypes with p4 typemap

Forcing operations with the -f flag

Advanced Perforce Administration

Running Perforce through a firewall

Specifying IP addresses in P4PORT

Running from inetd on UNIX

Case sensitivity and multi-platform development

Monitoring server activity

Perforce server trace flags

Migrating to a new machine

Moving your versioned files and Perforce database

Changing the IP address of your server

Changing the hostname of your server

Using Multiple Depots

Defining new depots

Other depot operations

Remote depots and distributed development

When to use remote depots

How remote depots work

Using remote depots for code drops

When Should Protections Be Set?

Setting Protections with "p4 protect"

The permission lines' five fields

Access levels

Which users should receive which permissions?

Default protections

Interpreting multiple permission lines

Exclusionary protections

Granting Access to Groups of Users

Creating and editing groups

Groups and protections

Deleting groups

How Protections are Implemented

Access Levels Required by Perforce Commands

The Default Perforce Job Template

The Job Template's Fields

The Fields: field

The Presets: field

The Values: fields

The Comments: field

Caveats, Warnings, and Recommendations

Example: A Custom Template

Working with third-party defect tracking systems

Using P4DTI - Perforce Defect Tracking Integration

Building your own integration

Getting more information

Triggers

Using triggers

Triggers and security

Triggers and Windows

Daemons

Perforce's change review daemon

Creating other daemons

Commands used by daemons

Daemons and counters

Scripting and buffering

Tuning for Performance

Memory

Filesystem performance

Disk space allocation

Network

CPU

Diagnosing Slow Response Times

Hostname vs. IP address

Try p4 info vs. P4Win

Windows wildcards

DNS lookups and the hosts file

Location of the "p4" executable

Preventing Server Swamp

Using tight views

Assigning protections

Limiting database queries

Scripting efficiently

Using compression efficiently

Checkpoints for Database Tree Rebalancing

Using the Perforce installer

Upgrade notes

Installation options

Windows services vs. Windows servers

Starting and stopping the Perforce service

Starting and stopping the Perforce server

Installing the Perforce service on a network drive

Multiple Perforce services under Windows

Windows configuration parameter precedence

Resolving Windows-related instabilities

Users having trouble with P4EDITOR or P4DIFF

System Requirements

Installing P4P

UNIX

Windows

Running P4P

Running as a Windows service

P4P flags

Administering P4P

No backups required

Stopping P4P

Managing disk space consumption

Determining if your Perforce client is using the proxy

P4P and protections

Determining if specific files are being delivered from the proxy

Maximizing performance improvement

Network topologies versus P4P

Pre-loading the cache directory for optimal initial performance

Distributing disk space consumption

Reducing server CPU usage by disabling file compression

Synopsis

Syntax

Description

Exit Status

Options

Usage Notes

Related Commands

All rights reserved.

Perforce software and documentation is available from http://www.perforce.com. You may download and use Perforce programs, but you may not sell or redistribute them. You may download, print, copy, edit, and redistribute the documentation, but you may not sell it, or sell any documentation derived from it. You may not modify or attempt to reverse engineer the programs.

Perforce programs and documents are available from our Web site as is. No warranty or support is provided. Warranties and support, along with higher capacity servers, are sold by Perforce Software.

Perforce Software assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book.

By downloading and using our programs and documents you agree to these terms.

Perforce and Inter-File Branching are trademarks of Perforce Software. Perforce software includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.

All other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or organizations.