p4 pull

Retrieve metadata or versioned files from a Helix Core Server master server to a replica, or display status information about pending transfers, although there is a special syntax for a commit server to pull from a replica. In most situations, server replication with p4 pull is preferable to p4 replicate.

Syntax for a replica to pull from a commit server

p4 [g-opts] pull [-J prefix] [-i interval] [-b interval] [-T excluded_tables] [-P serverid]
p4 [g-opts] pull -u [-i interval -b interval --batch=number --min-size=number  --max-size=number --trigger]
p4 [g-opts] pull -l [-s | -j [-J prefix] [-v]]
p4 [g-opts] pull -d -f file -r revision
p4 [g-opts] pull -L [-i interval]
p4 [g-opts] pull -R [file]
p4 pull -T

Syntax conventions

Syntax for a commit server to pull from a replica

p4 pull -u -t target [-i interval -b interval]

Description

The p4 pull command provides syntax variants, such as:

Description

Description
*p4 [g-opts] pull [-J prefix] [-i interval] [-b interval] [-T excluded_tables] [-P serverid]* retrieves journal records from a target server specified by `P4TARGET`
*p4 [g-opts] pull -u [-i interval* -b interval --batch=number --min-size=number --max-size=number --trigger]** retrieves file contents from a target server specified by `P4TARGET`
*p4 [g-opts] pull -l [-s \| -j [-J prefix]]* displays information about scheduled file transfers
p4 [g-opts] pull -d -f file -r revision cancels a scheduled file transfer
*p4 [g-opts] pull -L [-i interval]* specifies that journal records be retrieved from a local journal file (produced by the `p4 journalcopy` command) rather than from the journal file of the target server. These records are then written to the replica’s database. For a standby replica for failover.
*p4 [g-opts] pull -R* retries all failed transfers
p4 [g-opts] pull -R file retries the failed transfer of the specified file

p4 [g-opts] pull [-J prefix] [-i interval] [-b interval] [-T excluded_tables] [-P serverid]

retrieves journal records from a target server specified by P4TARGET

p4 [g-opts] pull -u [-i interval -b interval --batch=number --min-size=number --max-size=number --trigger]

retrieves file contents from a target server specified by P4TARGET

p4 [g-opts] pull -l [-s | -j [-J prefix]]

displays information about scheduled file transfers

p4 [g-opts] pull -d -f file -r revision

cancels a scheduled file transfer

p4 [g-opts] pull -L [-i interval]

specifies that journal records be retrieved from a local journal file (produced by the p4 journalcopy command) rather than from the journal file of the target server. These records are then written to the replica’s database. For a standby replica for failover.

p4 [g-opts] pull -R

retries all failed transfers

p4 [g-opts] pull -R file

retries the failed transfer of the specified file

Except for testing purposes, p4 pull is rarely run from the command line. Instead, set the startup.N configurable to start the p4 pull processes every time the replica server starts.

Note

When you stop either the master server or a replica server, the replica server tracks the most recent journal position in a small text file called the state file. By default, the state file is named state and resides in the replica server’s root directory. You can specify a different file name by setting the statefile configurable with p4 configure.

Retrieving journal and file content

The p4 pull command instructs the current replica server to retrieve either journal records or file contents from a target server specified by P4TARGET. Some replica servers do not need both journal records and file contents: for example, if you are creating a replica to help with offline checkpointing, you do not need to transfer file contents.

To replicate both metadata and file contents, you must run at least two p4 pull commands: one p4 pull (without the -u option) to replicate the master server’s metadata, and at least one p4 pull (with the -u option) to replicate the server’s versioned files.

The -i option specifies a polling interval (in seconds) between updates. If -i is not specified, p4 pull runs for one polling interval and then exits.
The -b option specifies a wait time after a failed pull attempt. If -b is not specified, p4 pull retries after 60 seconds.
The -u option specifies that file content should be retrieved. If this option is not specified only journal records are fetched.
The --batch option specifies the number of files a pull thread should process in a single request. The default value of 1 is usually adequate. For high-latency configurations, a larger value might improve archive transfer speed for large numbers of small files. (Use of this option requires that both master and replica be at version 15.2 or higher.)

Use the -T option to exclude tables you do not want to replicate. For example a build farm server does not need to replicate the db.have, db.working, or db.resolve tables.

To delete a pending file transfer operation, use p4 pull -d -f file -r rev. This can be useful if a pending file transfer is failing repeatedly due to unrecoverable errors on the master.

Note

Setting the rpl.compress configurable allows you to compress journal record data that is transmitted using p4 pull.

Getting status information

Use the -l option to display a list of files that are scheduled for transfer. If -s is specified along with -l, a summary of scheduled file transfers is displayed. An additional line specifies the oldest changelist number that has at least one pending transfer. This provides a clue about how far the replica is lagging in its transfer of archive content.

An operator can run the p4 journalcopy -l, p4 pull -l -j, and p4 pull -l -s commands. This makes it possible for an operator to confirm the state of a replica.

File transfers: n active/m total, bytes: nnn active/mmmmm total.
Oldest change with at least one pending file transfer: n

For example, the following output:

File transfers: 1 active/63 total, bytes: 745 active/23684 total.

Tells us that there are 63 pending archive file transfers, one of which is currently active; and there are 23,684 bytes needed to be transferred of which 745 are currently actively being transferred.

If -j is specified with -l, report the current journal state at the current replica and its master, the last time the state file was modified, and the server’s local time and time zone. For example:

Current replica journal state is: Journal jjj, Sequence: sssss.
Current master journal state is: Journal jjj, Sequence: sssss.
The statefile was last modified at: 2012/01/10 14:23:23.
The Server time is currently: 2012/01/10 14:23:23 -0800 PST

The value of jjj specifies a journal number; sssss specifies an offset in that journal.

Options

`-b interval`	Specify a polling interval in seconds for retries after failed retrieval attempts. If you do not specify this option, the pull is retried after 60 seconds.
`-u`	Transfer archive files Versioned files that users have submitted to a depot. instead of journal records. If you omit this option, the command retrieves journal records. Multiple p4 pull -u commands can be active on a single replica server.
`--batch number`	Use this option to specify the number of files a pull thread should process in a single request. For high-latency configurations, providing a larger value than the default might improve archive transfer speed for large numbers of small files. Default: `1`
`--min-size number`	The `--min-size` and `--max-size` options: must be used with the `-u` and --batch can be used with pull commands that create different pull threads for files with different sizes Pull threads called with these options pull files within the data size range specified with these options. The default size unit is bytes, but K, M, G, and T modifiers can also be used, such as 2K. See Example for min and max sizes.
`--max-size number`
`-d -f file -r revision`	Cancel a pending file content transfer, where `file` and `revision` refer to a depot file and a specific revision. Note This is not the normal Helix Core Server file and revision data, but rather the archive file and revision. Use the `p4 pull -l` command to get the correct file name and revision. The archive revision reported by the `p4 pull -l` command typically has a `1.` prefix. For example, the `p4 pull -l` command might report the archive revision as `1.38` for the transfer of revision 38 of a file. Then, to cancel the transfer of revision `38` of the file: `p4 pull -d -f //project1/big.mpeg -r 1.38`
`-i interval`	Specify a polling interval in seconds for content retrieval. The smallest interval is one second. If you omit this option, the command runs once and exits. If you set the interval to be `0`, the master server advises the replicate as soon as new data becomes available. This way the replicated server can pull new data with no delay.
`-J prefix`	Specify a prefix for the rotated journal file; overrides `journalPrefix` configurable. If your master server uses a non-default rotated journal location, this allows you to specify the rotated journal file location on the master server.
`-l`	List files that are scheduled for transfer. The archive revision reported by the `p4 pull -l` command typically has a `1.` prefix. For example, the `p4 pull -l` command might report the archive revision as `1.38` for the transfer of revision 38 of a file. If you use this option on an edge server or build server that has `lbr.replication=cache` set, you might see several entries because of parallel file transfers. p4 pull -l (and `p4 pull -ls`) can be done on a commit server to monitor reverse replication as a result of submits to edge servers.
`-l -j [-v]`	Display the current journal state on the replica and the master. During the process of journal rotation on the master, the output of `p4 pull -l -j` can have three lines of output: line 1 for the replica journal’s current state, line 2 for the state of the corresponding journal on the master, and line 3 for the new journal on the master, data from which has not yet arrived at the replica. `p4 pull -l -j -v` run against a replica reports the total number of bytes of journal that the upstream server has yet to deliver, potentially across multiple journal rotations.
`-l -s`	Display a summary of scheduled file content transfers. If this list is unexpectedly long or is growing, you might consider running additional `p4 pull -u` commands.
`-L`	Retrieve journal records from a local journal file, normally produced by the `p4 journalcopy` command.
`-P serverid`	Filter data from `serverid` according to the `ArchiveDataFilter:` and `ClientDataFilter:` and `RevisionDataFilter` fields in the specified server’s `p4 server` form. In older releases, this option confirmed filters defined in the filter spec. This confirmation is no longer required. The option is retained for continued support of earlier releases. It can also be useful if you want to share filter configuration among multiple servers. In this case, the `serverid` refers to the server whose filter definitions you want shared. Note For compatibility with earlier releases of Helix Core Server, you can also supply filter patterns directly within this field by using the same syntax used by the `p4 export`, but specifying a server and using fields in the `p4 server` form is strongly encouraged, because the behavior of a replica that makes use of multiple `p4 pull` commands with inconsistent or conflicting `-P filterpattern` arguments is undefined.
`-R`	p4 pull -R file retries the failed transfer of the specified file p4 pull -R retries ALL failed transfers Note The `-d` option can be used to remove pending or failed file transfers individually, this option will instead reset the retry count of failed transfers so that subsequent pull operations can retry the transfers.
`-T excluded_tables`	Supply a list of database tables (for example, `db.have` and `db.working`) to exclude from the replica’s journal records. The table names must begin with `db.`, following the naming convention used for database files in the server root directory. To specify multiple tables, double-quote the list and separate the table names with spaces. Table names can also be separated by commas. For example, `-T db.have,db.working` or `-T "db.have db.working"`.
`--trigger`	The `--trigger` option is used with a pull-archive trigger to transfer files using an alternative file transfer mechanism from within the trigger. This option is only used in a multi-server environment and is not supported for RCS storage. The configurable pull.trigger.dir must be set to a location to write temporary files. It is also recommended to set the configurable lbr.replica.notransferto `=1` to suppress "on demand" file transfer.
-t target	On the commit server, if p4 pull -l indicates that the commit server is not able to pull the archives from the edge, issue the following command manually: p4 pull -u -t target where: -u enables archive transfer target specifies the ExternalAddress field of the server spec of the edge. (See p4 server)
`g-opts`	See Global options.

Usage notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier? Can File Arguments Use Revision Range? Minimal Access Level Required

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier?	Can File Arguments Use Revision Range?	Minimal Access Level Required
N/A	N/A	`super` the `-lj` and `-ls` options are available to an operator user

N/A

super

the -lj and -ls options are available to an operator user

For more about configuring Helix Core Server to run in a replicated environment, see Replication in the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Example for min and max sizes

startup.2=pull -u -i 1  --batch=1000 --min-size=1 --max-size=2047
startup.3=pull -u -i 1  --batch=5 --min-size=2048 --max-size=4096
startup.4=pull -u -i 1  --batch=5 --min-size=4097

Related commands

To configure a Helix Core Server to run a set of `p4 pull` commands upon startup.	`p4 configure`
To replicate metadata from one server to another	`p4 replicate`
To display journal or checkpoint records in raw form	`p4 export`
To copy journal data to a replica’s local file system.	`p4 journalcopy`