1GIT-P4(1)                         Git Manual                         GIT-P4(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       git-p4 - Import from and submit to Perforce repositories
7

SYNOPSIS

9       git p4 clone [<sync options>] [<clone options>] <p4 depot path>...
10       git p4 sync [<sync options>] [<p4 depot path>...]
11       git p4 rebase
12       git p4 submit [<submit options>] [<master branch name>]
13

DESCRIPTION

15       This command provides a way to interact with p4 repositories using Git.
16
17       Create a new Git repository from an existing p4 repository using git p4
18       clone, giving it one or more p4 depot paths. Incorporate new commits
19       from p4 changes with git p4 sync. The sync command is also used to
20       include new branches from other p4 depot paths. Submit Git changes back
21       to p4 using git p4 submit. The command git p4 rebase does a sync plus
22       rebases the current branch onto the updated p4 remote branch.
23

EXAMPLES

25       •   Clone a repository:
26
27               $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
28
29       •   Do some work in the newly created Git repository:
30
31               $ cd project
32               $ vi foo.h
33               $ git commit -a -m "edited foo.h"
34
35       •   Update the Git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing
36           your work on top:
37
38               $ git p4 rebase
39
40       •   Submit your commits back to p4:
41
42               $ git p4 submit
43

COMMANDS

45   Clone
46       Generally, git p4 clone is used to create a new Git directory from an
47       existing p4 repository:
48
49           $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
50
51       This:
52
53        1. Creates an empty Git repository in a subdirectory called project.
54
55        2. Imports the full contents of the head revision from the given p4
56           depot path into a single commit in the Git branch
57           refs/remotes/p4/master.
58
59        3. Creates a local branch, master from this remote and checks it out.
60
61       To reproduce the entire p4 history in Git, use the @all modifier on the
62       depot path:
63
64           $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all
65
66   Sync
67       As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can be
68       included in the Git repository using:
69
70           $ git p4 sync
71
72       This command finds new changes in p4 and imports them as Git commits.
73
74       P4 repositories can be added to an existing Git repository using git p4
75       sync too:
76
77           $ mkdir repo-git
78           $ cd repo-git
79           $ git init
80           $ git p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot
81
82       This imports the specified depot into refs/remotes/p4/master in an
83       existing Git repository. The --branch option can be used to specify a
84       different branch to be used for the p4 content.
85
86       If a Git repository includes branches refs/remotes/origin/p4, these
87       will be fetched and consulted first during a git p4 sync. Since
88       importing directly from p4 is considerably slower than pulling changes
89       from a Git remote, this can be useful in a multi-developer environment.
90
91       If there are multiple branches, doing git p4 sync will automatically
92       use the "BRANCH DETECTION" algorithm to try to partition new changes
93       into the right branch. This can be overridden with the --branch option
94       to specify just a single branch to update.
95
96   Rebase
97       A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4
98       depot and merge them with local uncommitted changes. Often, the p4
99       repository is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase
100       workflow makes sense. This command does git p4 sync followed by git
101       rebase to move local commits on top of updated p4 changes.
102
103           $ git p4 rebase
104
105   Submit
106       Submitting changes from a Git repository back to the p4 repository
107       requires a separate p4 client workspace. This should be specified using
108       the P4CLIENT environment variable or the Git configuration variable
109       git-p4.client. The p4 client must exist, but the client root will be
110       created and populated if it does not already exist.
111
112       To submit all changes that are in the current Git branch but not in the
113       p4/master branch, use:
114
115           $ git p4 submit
116
117       To specify a branch other than the current one, use:
118
119           $ git p4 submit topicbranch
120
121       To specify a single commit or a range of commits, use:
122
123           $ git p4 submit --commit <sha1>
124           $ git p4 submit --commit <sha1..sha1>
125
126       The upstream reference is generally refs/remotes/p4/master, but can be
127       overridden using the --origin= command-line option.
128
129       The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking git p4 submit. The
130       --preserve-user option will cause ownership to be modified according to
131       the author of the Git commit. This option requires admin privileges in
132       p4, which can be granted using p4 protect.
133
134       To shelve changes instead of submitting, use --shelve and
135       --update-shelve:
136
137           $ git p4 submit --shelve
138           $ git p4 submit --update-shelve 1234 --update-shelve 2345
139
140   Unshelve
141       Unshelving will take a shelved P4 changelist, and produce the
142       equivalent git commit in the branch
143       refs/remotes/p4-unshelved/<changelist>.
144
145       The git commit is created relative to the current origin revision (HEAD
146       by default). A parent commit is created based on the origin, and then
147       the unshelve commit is created based on that.
148
149       The origin revision can be changed with the "--origin" option.
150
151       If the target branch in refs/remotes/p4-unshelved already exists, the
152       old one will be renamed.
153
154           $ git p4 sync
155           $ git p4 unshelve 12345
156           $ git show p4-unshelved/12345
157           <submit more changes via p4 to the same files>
158           $ git p4 unshelve 12345
159           <refuses to unshelve until git is in sync with p4 again>
160

OPTIONS

162   General options
163       All commands except clone accept these options.
164
165       --git-dir <dir>
166           Set the GIT_DIR environment variable. See git(1).
167
168       -v, --verbose
169           Provide more progress information.
170
171   Sync options
172       These options can be used in the initial clone as well as in subsequent
173       sync operations.
174
175       --branch <ref>
176           Import changes into <ref> instead of refs/remotes/p4/master. If
177           <ref> starts with refs/, it is used as is. Otherwise, if it does
178           not start with p4/, that prefix is added.
179
180           By default a <ref> not starting with refs/ is treated as the name
181           of a remote-tracking branch (under refs/remotes/). This behavior
182           can be modified using the --import-local option.
183
184           The default <ref> is "master".
185
186           This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing Git
187           repository:
188
189                   $ git init
190                   $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2
191
192       --detect-branches
193           Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is
194           documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".
195
196       --changesfile <file>
197           Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in file, one per line.
198           Normally, git p4 inspects the current p4 repository state and
199           detects the changes it should import.
200
201       --silent
202           Do not print any progress information.
203
204       --detect-labels
205           Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add them
206           as tags in Git. Limited usefulness as only imports labels
207           associated with new changelists. Deprecated.
208
209       --import-labels
210           Import labels from p4 into Git.
211
212       --import-local
213           By default, p4 branches are stored in refs/remotes/p4/, where they
214           will be treated as remote-tracking branches by git-branch(1) and
215           other commands. This option instead puts p4 branches in
216           refs/heads/p4/. Note that future sync operations must specify
217           --import-local as well so that they can find the p4 branches in
218           refs/heads.
219
220       --max-changes <n>
221           Import at most n changes, rather than the entire range of changes
222           included in the given revision specifier. A typical usage would be
223           use @all as the revision specifier, but then to use --max-changes
224           1000 to import only the last 1000 revisions rather than the entire
225           revision history.
226
227       --changes-block-size <n>
228           The internal block size to use when converting a revision specifier
229           such as @all into a list of specific change numbers. Instead of
230           using a single call to p4 changes to find the full list of changes
231           for the conversion, there are a sequence of calls to p4 changes -m,
232           each of which requests one block of changes of the given size. The
233           default block size is 500, which should usually be suitable.
234
235       --keep-path
236           The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to Git, by
237           default, involves removing the entire depot path. With this option,
238           the full p4 depot path is retained in Git. For example, path
239           //depot/main/foo/bar.c, when imported from //depot/main/, becomes
240           foo/bar.c. With --keep-path, the Git path is instead
241           depot/main/foo/bar.c.
242
243       --use-client-spec
244           Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4. See
245           the "CLIENT SPEC" section below.
246
247       -/ <path>
248           Exclude selected depot paths when cloning or syncing.
249
250   Clone options
251       These options can be used in an initial clone, along with the sync
252       options described above.
253
254       --destination <directory>
255           Where to create the Git repository. If not provided, the last
256           component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new directory.
257
258       --bare
259           Perform a bare clone. See git-clone(1).
260
261   Submit options
262       These options can be used to modify git p4 submit behavior.
263
264       --origin <commit>
265           Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
266           p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable from
267           HEAD.
268
269       -M
270           Detect renames. See git-diff(1). Renames will be represented in p4
271           using explicit move operations. There is no corresponding option to
272           detect copies, but there are variables for both moves and copies.
273
274       --preserve-user
275           Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option requires
276           p4 admin privileges.
277
278       --export-labels
279           Export tags from Git as p4 labels. Tags found in Git are applied to
280           the perforce working directory.
281
282       -n, --dry-run
283           Show just what commits would be submitted to p4; do not change
284           state in Git or p4.
285
286       --prepare-p4-only
287           Apply a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting
288           files in p4 as for a normal submit operation. Do not issue the
289           final "p4 submit", but instead print a message about how to submit
290           manually or revert. This option always stops after the first
291           (oldest) commit. Git tags are not exported to p4.
292
293       --shelve
294           Instead of submitting create a series of shelved changelists. After
295           creating each shelve, the relevant files are reverted/deleted. If
296           you have multiple commits pending multiple shelves will be created.
297
298       --update-shelve CHANGELIST
299           Update an existing shelved changelist with this commit. Implies
300           --shelve. Repeat for multiple shelved changelists.
301
302       --conflict=(ask|skip|quit)
303           Conflicts can occur when applying a commit to p4. When this
304           happens, the default behavior ("ask") is to prompt whether to skip
305           this commit and continue, or quit. This option can be used to
306           bypass the prompt, causing conflicting commits to be automatically
307           skipped, or to quit trying to apply commits, without prompting.
308
309       --branch <branch>
310           After submitting, sync this named branch instead of the default
311           p4/master. See the "Sync options" section above for more
312           information.
313
314       --commit <sha1>|<sha1..sha1>
315           Submit only the specified commit or range of commits, instead of
316           the full list of changes that are in the current Git branch.
317
318       --disable-rebase
319           Disable the automatic rebase after all commits have been
320           successfully submitted. Can also be set with git-p4.disableRebase.
321
322       --disable-p4sync
323           Disable the automatic sync of p4/master from Perforce after commits
324           have been submitted. Implies --disable-rebase. Can also be set with
325           git-p4.disableP4Sync. Sync with origin/master still goes ahead if
326           possible.
327

HOOKS FOR SUBMIT

329   p4-pre-submit
330       The p4-pre-submit hook is executed if it exists and is executable. The
331       hook takes no parameters and nothing from standard input. Exiting with
332       non-zero status from this script prevents git-p4 submit from launching.
333       It can be bypassed with the --no-verify command line option.
334
335       One usage scenario is to run unit tests in the hook.
336
337   p4-prepare-changelist
338       The p4-prepare-changelist hook is executed right after preparing the
339       default changelist message and before the editor is started. It takes
340       one parameter, the name of the file that contains the changelist text.
341       Exiting with a non-zero status from the script will abort the process.
342
343       The purpose of the hook is to edit the message file in place, and it is
344       not suppressed by the --no-verify option. This hook is called even if
345       --prepare-p4-only is set.
346
347   p4-changelist
348       The p4-changelist hook is executed after the changelist message has
349       been edited by the user. It can be bypassed with the --no-verify
350       option. It takes a single parameter, the name of the file that holds
351       the proposed changelist text. Exiting with a non-zero status causes the
352       command to abort.
353
354       The hook is allowed to edit the changelist file and can be used to
355       normalize the text into some project standard format. It can also be
356       used to refuse the Submit after inspect the message file.
357
358   p4-post-changelist
359       The p4-post-changelist hook is invoked after the submit has
360       successfully occurred in P4. It takes no parameters and is meant
361       primarily for notification and cannot affect the outcome of the git p4
362       submit action.
363
364   Rebase options
365       These options can be used to modify git p4 rebase behavior.
366
367       --import-labels
368           Import p4 labels.
369
370   Unshelve options
371       --origin
372           Sets the git refspec against which the shelved P4 changelist is
373           compared. Defaults to p4/master.
374

DEPOT PATH SYNTAX

376       The p4 depot path argument to git p4 sync and git p4 clone can be one
377       or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional p4 revision
378       specifier on the end:
379
380       "//depot/my/project"
381           Import one commit with all files in the #head change under that
382           tree.
383
384       "//depot/my/project@all"
385           Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot
386           path.
387
388       "//depot/my/project@1,6"
389           Import only changes 1 through 6.
390
391       "//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all"
392           Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single
393           repository. Only files below these directories are included. There
394           is not a subdirectory in Git for each "proj1" and "proj2". You must
395           use the --destination option when specifying more than one depot
396           path. The revision specifier must be specified identically on each
397           depot path. If there are files in the depot paths with the same
398           name, the path with the most recently updated version of the file
399           is the one that appears in Git.
400
401       See p4 help revisions for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.
402

CLIENT SPEC

404       The p4 client specification is maintained with the p4 client command
405       and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot is
406       mapped into the client repository. The clone and sync commands can
407       consult the client spec when given the --use-client-spec option or when
408       the useClientSpec variable is true. After git p4 clone, the
409       useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository
410       configuration file. This allows future git p4 submit commands to work
411       properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does not
412       have a command-line option.
413
414       The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in p4 help views. git p4
415       knows only a subset of the view syntax. It understands multi-line
416       mappings, overlays with +, exclusions with - and double-quotes around
417       whitespace. Of the possible wildcards, git p4 only handles ..., and
418       only when it is at the end of the path. git p4 will complain if it
419       encounters an unhandled wildcard.
420
421       Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist. If multiple depot
422       paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository, git
423       p4 can choose the wrong one. This is hard to solve without dedicating a
424       client spec just for git p4.
425
426       The name of the client can be given to git p4 in multiple ways. The
427       variable git-p4.client takes precedence if it exists. Otherwise, normal
428       p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used: environment variable
429       P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name.
430

BRANCH DETECTION

432       P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as Git. Instead, p4
433       organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
434       different logical branches are in different locations in the tree. The
435       p4 branch command is used to maintain mappings between different areas
436       in the tree, and indicate related content. git p4 can use these
437       mappings to determine branch relationships.
438
439       If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
440       subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use --detect-branches
441       when cloning or syncing to have git p4 automatically find
442       subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in Git.
443
444       For example, if the P4 repository structure is:
445
446           //depot/main/...
447           //depot/branch1/...
448
449       And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:
450
451           //depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...
452
453       Then this git p4 clone command:
454
455           git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all
456
457       produces a separate branch in refs/remotes/p4/ for //depot/main, called
458       master, and one for //depot/branch1 called depot/branch1.
459
460       However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
461       them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch
462       relationships automatically, a Git configuration setting
463       git-p4.branchList can be used to explicitly identify branch
464       relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
465       simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination"
466       are the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on
467       the presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result
468       will occur with:
469
470           git init depot
471           cd depot
472           git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
473           git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all .
474

PERFORMANCE

476       The fast-import mechanism used by git p4 creates one pack file for each
477       invocation of git p4 sync. Normally, Git garbage compression (git-
478       gc(1)) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files, but explicit
479       invocation of git repack -adf may improve performance.
480

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

482       The following config settings can be used to modify git p4 behavior.
483       They all are in the git-p4 section.
484
485   General variables
486       git-p4.user
487           User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -u <user>. The
488           environment variable P4USER can be used instead.
489
490       git-p4.password
491           Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -P
492           <password>. The environment variable P4PASS can be used instead.
493
494       git-p4.port
495           Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -p <port>. The
496           environment variable P4PORT can be used instead.
497
498       git-p4.host
499           Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -h <host>. The
500           environment variable P4HOST can be used instead.
501
502       git-p4.client
503           Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -c <client>,
504           including the client spec.
505
506       git-p4.retries
507           Specifies the number of times to retry a p4 command (notably, p4
508           sync) if the network times out. The default value is 3. Set the
509           value to 0 to disable retries or if your p4 version does not
510           support retries (pre 2012.2).
511
512   Clone and sync variables
513       git-p4.syncFromOrigin
514           Because importing commits from other Git repositories is much
515           faster than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4
516           changes first in Git remotes. If branches exist under
517           refs/remote/origin/p4, those will be fetched and used when syncing
518           from p4. This variable can be set to false to disable this
519           behavior.
520
521       git-p4.branchUser
522           One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches to
523           find new ones to import. By default, all branches are inspected.
524           This option limits the search to just those owned by the single
525           user named in the variable.
526
527       git-p4.branchList
528           List of branches to be imported when branch detection is enabled.
529           Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated by a colon
530           (:). This example declares that both branchA and branchB were
531           created from main:
532
533               git config       git-p4.branchList main:branchA
534               git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
535
536       git-p4.ignoredP4Labels
537           List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as
538           unimportable labels are discovered.
539
540       git-p4.importLabels
541           Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels.
542
543       git-p4.labelImportRegexp
544           Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported.
545           The default value is [a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$.
546
547       git-p4.useClientSpec
548           Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4 depot
549           paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the option
550           --use-client-spec. See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above. This
551           variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client.
552
553       git-p4.pathEncoding
554           Perforce keeps the encoding of a path as given by the originating
555           OS. Git expects paths encoded as UTF-8. Use this config to tell
556           git-p4 what encoding Perforce had used for the paths. This encoding
557           is used to transcode the paths to UTF-8. As an example, Perforce on
558           Windows often uses "cp1252" to encode path names.
559
560       git-p4.largeFileSystem
561           Specify the system that is used for large (binary) files. Please
562           note that large file systems do not support the git p4 submit
563           command. Only Git LFS is implemented right now (see
564           https://git-lfs.github.com/ for more information). Download and
565           install the Git LFS command line extension to use this option and
566           configure it like this:
567
568               git config       git-p4.largeFileSystem GitLFS
569
570       git-p4.largeFileExtensions
571           All files matching a file extension in the list will be processed
572           by the large file system. Do not prefix the extensions with ..
573
574       git-p4.largeFileThreshold
575           All files with an uncompressed size exceeding the threshold will be
576           processed by the large file system. By default the threshold is
577           defined in bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
578
579       git-p4.largeFileCompressedThreshold
580           All files with a compressed size exceeding the threshold will be
581           processed by the large file system. This option might slow down
582           your clone/sync process. By default the threshold is defined in
583           bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
584
585       git-p4.largeFilePush
586           Boolean variable which defines if large files are automatically
587           pushed to a server.
588
589       git-p4.keepEmptyCommits
590           A changelist that contains only excluded files will be imported as
591           an empty commit if this boolean option is set to true.
592
593       git-p4.mapUser
594           Map a P4 user to a name and email address in Git. Use a string with
595           the following format to create a mapping:
596
597               git config --add git-p4.mapUser "p4user = First Last <mail@address.com>"
598
599           A mapping will override any user information from P4. Mappings for
600           multiple P4 user can be defined.
601
602   Submit variables
603       git-p4.detectRenames
604           Detect renames. See git-diff(1). This can be true, false, or a
605           score as expected by git diff -M.
606
607       git-p4.detectCopies
608           Detect copies. See git-diff(1). This can be true, false, or a score
609           as expected by git diff -C.
610
611       git-p4.detectCopiesHarder
612           Detect copies harder. See git-diff(1). A boolean.
613
614       git-p4.preserveUser
615           On submit, re-author changes to reflect the Git author, regardless
616           of who invokes git p4 submit.
617
618       git-p4.allowMissingP4Users
619           When preserveUser is true, git p4 normally dies if it cannot find
620           an author in the p4 user map. This setting submits the change
621           regardless.
622
623       git-p4.skipSubmitEdit
624           The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change is
625           submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing step is
626           skipped.
627
628       git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck
629           After editing the p4 change message, git p4 makes sure that the
630           description really was changed by looking at the file modification
631           time. This option disables that test.
632
633       git-p4.allowSubmit
634           By default, any branch can be used as the source for a git p4
635           submit operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only
636           the named branches to be used as submit sources. Branch names must
637           be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be separated by
638           commas (","), with no spaces.
639
640       git-p4.skipUserNameCheck
641           If the user running git p4 submit does not exist in the p4 user
642           map, git p4 exits. This option can be used to force submission
643           regardless.
644
645       git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup
646           If enabled, git p4 submit will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords
647           ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and
648           prevent the submit going ahead. This option should be considered
649           experimental at present.
650
651       git-p4.exportLabels
652           Export Git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels.
653
654       git-p4.labelExportRegexp
655           Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported.
656           The default value is [a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$.
657
658       git-p4.conflict
659           Specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per
660           --conflict. The default behavior is ask.
661
662       git-p4.disableRebase
663           Do not rebase the tree against p4/master following a submit.
664
665       git-p4.disableP4Sync
666           Do not sync p4/master with Perforce following a submit. Implies
667           git-p4.disableRebase.
668

IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS

670       •   Changesets from p4 are imported using Git fast-import.
671
672       •   Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are
673           collected using p4 print.
674
675       •   Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location
676           as the Git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to this
677           p4 client and submitted from there.
678
679       •   Each commit imported by git p4 has a line at the end of the log
680           message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This
681           line is used by later git p4 sync operations to know which p4
682           changes are new.
683

GIT

685       Part of the git(1) suite
686
687
688
689Git 2.33.1                        2021-10-12                         GIT-P4(1)
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