Environment Variables

Environment Variable	P4CLIENT	P4JOURNAL	P4LOG
Description	Name of client workspace	Database journal file	File to write errors to
Command-Line Alternative	-c	-J	-L
Used by p4?	Yes	No	No
Used by p4d?	No	Yes	Yes
Examples	eds_elm manual	journal /disk2/perf/journal	log /disk2/perf/log
Value if not Explicitly Set	UNIX: name of p4 host NT: value of COMPUTERNAME environment variable	P4ROOT/journal	standard error
Notes		File is specified relative to p4d server root, or as an absolute path. Setting this variable, or using the command-line alternative, enables journaling.	File is specified relative to p4d server root, or as an absolute path.

Table 1: Basic Perforce Environment Variables (page 2 of 2)

Environment Variable	P4PORT	P4ROOT	P4USER
Description	For p4d server, port # to listen on. For p4 client, p4d host and its port	Directory in which p4d stores its files and subdirectories	Perforce client username
Command-Line Alternative	-p	-r	-u
Used by p4?	Yes	No	Yes
Used by p4d?	Yes	Yes	No
Examples	p4d server example: 1515 p4 client example: squid:1666 it.com:1308	/usr/lcl/p4root	edk lisag
Value if not Explicitly Set	For p4d server: 1666 For p4 client: perforce:1666	<none>	UNIX: the value of the USER environment variable NT: the value of the USERNAME environment variable
Notes	Format on p4 client is host:port#, or port# by itself if the p4 client and the p4d server run on the same host. To use the default value with p4d, define perforce as a alias to the host in /etc/hosts, or use the domain name services. Port numbers must be in the range 1024 - 31767.	Create this directory before starting p4d. Only the account running p4d needs read/write permissions in this directory.	By default, the Perforce username is the same as the OS username, but this can be set to any other Perforce user.

Environment Variable	DIFF	EDITOR	MERGE
Description	Name and location of the `diff' program used by p4 resolve and p4 diff.	Editor used by p4 commands that bring up forms, such as p4 client and p4 user	MERGE program used by p4 resolve's merge command
Command-Line Alternative
Used by p4?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Used by p4d?	No	No	No
Examples	diff diff -b windiff compare	vi emacs SimpleText	Prescient Software's MergeRight
Value if not Explicitly Set	UNIX: diff NT: If SHELL set, diff; otherwise, windiff.	UNIX: vi NT: if SHELL is set, vi; otherwise, notepad VMS: if POSIX$SHELL is set, vi; otherwise, edit Mac: if EDITOR_SIGNATURE is set, the program with that four-character creator; otherwise, SimpleText.	<none>
Notes	p4 describe, p4 diff2, and p4 submit use the server diff, which is usually GNU diff. This EV can contain flags to diff, such as diff -b.		This program is used only by p4 resolve's merge command. It takes four arguments, representing yours, theirs, base, and the resulting merge file.

Environment Variable	P4CASE	PAGER	PWD	TMP, TEMP
Description	[NT only]. Determines whether or not the current directory is not lowercased before use.	Program used to page output from p4 resolve's diff.	The working directory when p4 commands are run.	Directory in which temporary files are written
Command-Line Alternative			-d
Used by p4?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Used by p4d?	No	No	No	No
Examples		more	/u1/doug/prog	/tmp
Value if not Explicitly Set	If the variable doesn't exist, current directory is automatically lowercased.	<none>	UNIX: Value of PWD as set by shell; if not set by shell, getwd() is used. VMS, NT, Mac/MPW: Actual current working directory	UNIX, NT: /tmp VMS, Mac/MPW: current directory
Notes	The value of the variable doesn't matter. Only its existence determines whether case is forcibly set. It is recommended that this variable NOT be set. This forces lowercasing of the current directory.	Used only by p4 resolve. If this variable is not set, the output of diff will not be paged.		If the TEMP environment variable is set, this is used; otherwise, if TMP is set, this is used; otherwise, defaults to the values above.

Table 2: Esoteric Perforce Environment Variables (page 2 of 2)