p4 resolve

Synopsis

Syntax

Description

• When a simple conflict exists: the revision of a file last synced to the client workspace is not the head revision at the time of the submit.

For example, Alice does a p4 sync followed by a p4 edit of file file.c, and Bob does the same thing. Alice p4 submits file.c, and then Bob tries to submit file.c. Bob's submit fails because if his version of file.c were to be accepted into the depot, Alice's changes to file.c would no longer be visible. Bob must resolve the conflict before he can submit the file.

• When p4 integrate has been used to schedule the integration of changes from one file to another.

• If the file is of type text, p4 resolve allows the user to choose whether to overwrite the file revision in the depot with the file in the client workspace, overwrite the file in the client workspace with the file in the depot, or merge changes from both the depot revision and the client workspace revision into a single file.

• If the file is of type binary, only the first two options (overwrite the file in the depot with the file in the workspace, or overwrite the file in the workspace with the file in the depot) are normally available, since merges don't generally work with binary files.

The p4 resolve dialog presents the following options:

Resolution of a file is completed when any of the accept options are chosen, or if the file is skipped with the skip option.

To help decide which option to choose, counts of four types of changes that have been made to the file revisions are displayed by p4 resolve:

Diff Chunks: 2 yours + 3 theirs + 5 both + 7 conflicting

If there are no conflicting chunks, it is often safe to accept Perforce's generated merge file, since Perforce will substitute all the changes from yours and theirs into base.

If there are conflicting chunks, the merge file must be edited. In this case, Perforce will include the conflicting yours, theirs, and base text in the merge file; it's up to you to choose which version of the chunk you want to keep.

The different text is clearly delineated with file markers:

Choose the text you want to keep; delete the conflicting chunks and all the difference markers.

Options

-am -af -as -at -ay	Skip the resolution dialog, and resolve the files automatically as follows: -am: Automatic Mode. Automatically accept the Perforce-recommended file revision: if theirs is identical to base, accept yours; if yours is identical to base, accept theirs; if yours and theirs are different from base, and there are no conflicts between yours and theirs; accept merge; otherwise, there are conflicts between yours and theirs, so skip this file. -ay: Accept Yours, ignore theirs. -at: Accept Theirs. Use this flag with caution, as the file in the client workspace will be overwritten! -as: Safe Accept. If either, but not both, of yours and theirs is different from base, accept that revision. If both are different from base, skip this file. -af: Force Accept. Accept the merge file no matter what. If the merge file has conflict markers, they will be left in, and you'll need to remove them by editing the file.
-db -dw	When merging files, ignore specified differences in whitespace. (If you use these flags, and the files differ in whitespace only, p4 resolve will use the text in the client file.) -db: Ignore whitespace-only changes (for instance, a tab replaced by eight spaces) -dw: Ignore whitespace altogether (for instance, deletion of tabs or other whitespace)
-n	List the files that need resolving without actually performing the resolve.
-v	Include conflict markers in the file for all changes between yours and base, and between theirs and base. Normally, conflict markers are included only when yours and theirs conflict.
-b	(An old flag, equivalent to -t. No longer "officially" documented, but still supported. Changed to -t for its equivalence to p4 diff's and p4 diff2's -t flag.)
-f	Allow already resolved, but not yet submitted, files to be resolved again.
-t	Force a three-way merge, even on binary (non-text) files. This allows you to inspect diffs between files of any type, and lets you merge non-text files if P4MERGE is set to a utility that can do such a thing.
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
No	No	open

• p4 resolve works only with files that have been scheduled for resolve. Three operations schedule files for resolution:
  • Integrating the file with p4 integrate.

  • Submitting an open file that was synced from a revision other then the current head revision; the submit fails, and the file is scheduled for resolve.

  • Instead of running p4 submit, running p4 sync on the open file. Nothing is copied into the client workspace; instead, the file is scheduled for resolve. (The only benefit of scheduling files for resolve with p4 sync instead of a failed submit is that the submit will not fail).

When p4 resolve is run with no file arguments, it operates on all files in the client workspace that have been scheduled for resolve.

Related Commands

To view a list of resolved but unsubmitted files	p4 resolved
To schedule the propagation of changes between two separate files	p4 integrate
To submit a set of changed files to the depot	p4 submit
To copy a file to the client workspace, or schedule an open file for resolve	p4 sync