About This Manual

Perforce 98.2 p4 User's Guide


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Preface
About This Manual

This is the Perforce 98.2 User's Guide. It teaches the use of Perforce's command-line interface; the Perforce Windows GUI is not discussed. For documentation on the Windows GUI interface, p4win, the experienced Perforce user should use our p4 to p4win Translation Guide, and the Perforce novice should consult the p4win User's Guide.

Although this guide can be used as a reference manual, it is primarily intended as guide/tutorial on using Perforce. The full syntax of most of the Perforce commands is not provided here; in particular, only a subset of the available flags are listed. We suggest that you supplement use of this guide with the Perforce Command Reference, or with the on-line help system. Use of this manual for operating systems other than UNIX and NT should be supplemented with the release notes, for that OS.

Chapters 2 through 4 of this manual comprise our Getting Started guide. Newcomers to Perforce should start there, and move to subsequent chapters as needed.


Please consult the release notes before upgrading from earlier versions of Perforce to version 98.2! The journaling and checkpointing subsystems have changed; the release notes contain safety instructions on performing the upgrade.

The Example Set

We have attempted to develop a uniform example set for use with this manual. All of the examples use the source code for Elm, a popular UNIX mail program. We selected the Elm source code for a number of reasons:

Elm is widely used, and many Perforce users will be familiar with the program. If they are not, they will at least understand what it does.
The source code is stored in well-organized subdirectories, which allow us to demonstrate certain capabilities of Perforce.
The source code for Elm is widely available; users of this manual can download Elm and try the examples as they're encountered.

Links to the Elm source code can be found at

http://www.myxa.com/elm.html

We are using the Elm source with the kind permission of Sydney Weinstein and Bill Pemberton of the USENET Community Trust.


Disclaimer: To the best of our knowledge, the Elm team has never used Perforce for source management; in fact, they had no knowledge of Perforce until they received our email asking for permission to use their code in our manual. No implication that the Elm team uses or endorses Perforce is intended; none should be inferred.

Please Give Us Feedback

We are always interested in receiving feedback on our manuals. Does this guide teach the topic well? Are there any glaring errors? Are the explanations clear, or are the exemplifications obfuscated by this enchiridion? Please let us know what you think; we can be reached at [email protected].

Perforce 98.2 p4 User's Guide


<< Previous Chapter Table of Contents	Table of Contents Index Perforce on the Web	Next Chapter >> Concepts