p4 change

Synopsis

Syntax

Description

p4 change brings up a form for editing or viewing in the editor defined by the environment or registry variable P4EDITOR. When no arguments are provided, this command will create a new, numbered changelist. Changelist numbers are assigned in sequence, Perforce may renumber changelists automatically on submission in order to keep the numeric order of submitted changelists identical to the chronological order.

p4 change changelist# can be used to edit the description of a pending changelist, and may be used to view the fields of a submitted changelist.

The default changelist will be assigned a number if p4 submit of the changelist fails. The changelist must be referred to by number from that point forward.

Form Fields

Field Name	Type	Description
Change:	Read-only	Contains the change number if editing an existing changelist, or new if creating a new changelist.
Client:	Read-only	Name of current client workspace.
User:	Read-only	Name of current Perforce user.
Status:	Read-only value	pending, submitted, or new. Not editable by the user. The status is new when the changelist is created, pending when it has been created but has not yet been submitted to the depot with p4 submit, and submitted when its contents have been stored in the depot with p4 submit.
Description:	Writable, mandatory	Textual description of changelist. This value must be changed before submission, and cannot be changed after submission except by the Perforce superuser.
Jobs:	List	A list of jobs that are fixed by this changelist. The list of jobs that appears when the form is first displayed is controlled by the p4 user form's JobView: setting. Jobs may be deleted from or added to this list.
Files:	List	The list of files being submitted in this changelist. Files may be deleted from this list, and files that are found in the default changelist can be added.

Options

-d	Delete the changelist. This is usually allowed only with pending changelists that contain no files, but the superuser can delete changelists under other circumstances with the addition of the -f flag.
-f	Force flag. Allows the description of a submitted changelist to be edited. Available only to Perforce superusers.
-f -d	Forcibly delete a previously-submitted changelist. Only the Perforce superuser can use this command, and the changelist must have had all its files removed from the system with p4 obliterate.
-o	Write a changelist description to standard output.
-i	Read a changelist description from standard input. Input must be in the same format as that used by the p4 change form.
g_opts	See the Global Options section.

Usage Notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier?	Can File Arguments Use Revision Range?	Minimal Access Level Required
N/A	N/A	open

• Multiple changelists should be created by users when editing files to handle different logical tasks. For example, if edits to files foo and bar fix a particular bug, and edits to file baz adds a new feature, foo and bar should be opened in one changelist, and baz should be opened in a different changelist.

• p4 change changelist# edits the specification of an existing changelist, but does not display the files or jobs that are linked to the changelist. Use p4 opened -c changelist# to see a list of files linked to a particular changelist and p4 fixes -c changelist# to see a list of jobs linked to a particular changelist

• To move a file from one changelist to another, use p4 reopen, or use p4 revert to remove a file from all pending changelists.

Examples

p4 change	Create a new changelist.
p4 change -f 25	Edit previously-submitted changelist 25. Superuser access is required.
p4 change -d 29	Delete changelist 29. This will succeed only if changelist 29 is pending and contains no files.

Related Commands

To submit a changelist to the depot	p4 submit
To move a file from one changelist to another	p4 reopen
To remove a file from all pending changelists	p4 revert
To list changelists meeting particular criteria	p4 changes
To list opened files	p4 opened
To list fixes linked to particular changelists	p4 fixes
To link a job to a a particular changelist	p4 fix
To remove a job from a particular changelist	p4 fix -d
To list all the files listed in a changelist	p4 opened -c changelist#
To obtain a description of files changed in a changelist	p4 describe changelist#