The Perforce Public Depot Tutorial

NOTE These instructions are for registered Public Depot contributors only. See the Public Depot home page for more information.

Setting Up Your Workspace

Back to Table of Contents

The first thing you do when you use Perforce is to set up a client workspace on your local machine. This setup is only done once.

1. Set P4PORT to public.perforce.com:1666. One of these commands will probably work for you:

   	setenv P4PORT public.perforce.com:1666	On Unix (csh). Put this in your .cshrc or you'll have do this for every session.
   	export P4PORT=public.perforce.com:1666	On Unix (ksh). Put this in your .login or you'll have do this for every session.
   	p4 set P4PORT=public.perforce.com:1666	In MS-DOS on Windows.

2. Pick a client workspace name. We recommend you use your Public Depot username for your workspace name as well. For example, if your username is cary_grant, your client workspace name should also be cary_grant.

3. Set P4CLIENT to your workspace name using the one of these commands:

   	setenv P4CLIENT cary_grant	On Unix (csh) -- this also goes in your .cshrc
   	export P4CLIENT=cary_grant	On Unix (ksh) -- this also goes in your .login
   	p4 set P4CLIENT=cary_grant	In MS-DOS on Windows

4. Bring up the client specification form editor, using:

   p4 client

   In the editor, you'll see something like the form shown below. The text shown in red is what you must edit to set up your client workspace. The text in green may be edited if you wish:

   Client: cary_grant Description: Created by cary_grant. Root: C:\ Options: nomodtime noclobber View: //public/... //cary_grant/... //guest/... //cary_grant/...

   • In the Root field, put the root of the directory you will be using as a workspace on your local filesystem. (The directory doesn't have to exist yet; Perforce will create it for you.) For the sake of this tutorial, we'll assume your workspace root is c:\ws.

   • In the Options field, add the word locked to prevent other users from modifying your workspace specification. (The locked option is a beta test Perforce feature available only in the Public Depot server at this time.)

   • The View field is a list of "view mapping" lines. The left side of each line is a depot directory path, and the right side shows how that path will be mapped into your workspace. The client name on the right side of each mapping stands for the workspace root. For working in the Public Depot you most likely need only map to your guest branch as shown below. (If you are sharing development with another Public Depot contributor, and wish to work in his or her guest branch, see "Sharing Development".)

5. When you have modified your client spec, save it and exit the editor. Here's an example of a completed client workspace specification:

   Client: cary_grant Description: Cary Grant's workspace. Root: C:\ws Options: nomodtime noclobber locked View: //guest/cary_grant/... //cary_grant/...

Creating Your Guest Branch

Back to Table of Contents

When you register as a Public Depot contributor, you are given write access to your guest branch, but your guest branch is not actually created for you. (Because we don't know which projects you want to work on.) So you must create your own guest branch. It will start out as a clone of one of the projects in the //public path, and you will submit additions or changes to it.

For example, if Cary Grant wanted to contribute a script to the Perforce utilities project, he'd start out by branching the //public/perforce/utils project into his //guest/cary_grant branch. Here's how he'd do it:

First, open the files for branching:

p4 integ -v //public/perforce/utils/... //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/...

The "-v" flag speeds up the operation by opening "virtual" files -- that is, these files are opened, but not yet present in your workspace.

Next, submit the opened files:

p4 submit

Note that these two commands haven't moved any files in or out of Cary Grant's workspace. All they've done is created a set of files in the Public Depot's //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils path that exactly mirror the files in //public/perforce/utils.

Filling Your Workspace

Back to Table of Contents

Once you have set up your workspace and created your guest branch, you can fill your workspace with files from the depot using:

p4 sync

This copies depot files to your workspace. For example, when Gary Grant runs p4 sync, files from the //guest/gary_grant branch are copied into his local c:\ws directory. When it's done, his workspace is "in sync" with the depot.

Note:

• Synced files have read-only permission in your workspace (until you start working on them).

• Perforce will sync to the head revisions of depot files, by default.

• If you run p4 sync more than once, nothing will happen the second time unless there are newer versions in the depot that are not yet in your workspace.

• If you are running p4 sync and you get disconnected, you can run it again to continue filling your workspace. Files that have already been copied to your workspace will not be copied a second time.

Working on Files

Back to Table of Contents

Once you have filled your workspace, you can work on files. You can edit files, add files, delete files, and revert files to their original state.

Note:

• None of the commands described here affect the files in the depot. All they do is allow you to work on files. Perforce tracks the files you're working on in a changelist. As you open files, they go on your changelist. You have to submit your changelist to get your changes into the depot.

Editing files

To edit files, use the p4 edit command on them. For example, here Cary Grant opens two P4DB source files for editing:

	cd c:\ws\perforce\utils\p4db
	p4 edit index.cgi chb.cgi

Now these files are "opened for edit". Once opened for edit, files become writeable, so you can edit them, or modify them by any other means.

Adding new files

To add new files, create them first, with an editor or other tool. You must create them in a directory under your workspace root. Then use the p4 add command on them.

For example, Cary Grant is adding a new file to the P4DB suite. First he creates the file with vi, then adds it:

	cd c:\ws\perforce\utils\p4db
	vi jbv.cgi
	p4 add jbv.cgi

p4 add "opens files for add", which tells Perforce you plan to add them to the depot.

Deleting files

To delete files:

p4 delete fdv.cgi fv.cgi flv.cgi

This removes the files from your workspace, and makes them "open for delete", which tells Perforce you plan to delete them from the depot. p4 delete only works on files put in your workspace by p4 sync.

Reverting files

If you ever want to undo changes you've made to any of your opened files, use p4 revert. For example:

p4 revert fdv.cgi flv.cgi

This restores files to their original states and takes them off your changelist.

Warning: p4 revert is IRREVERSIBLE! When you revert a file that was opened for edit, Perforce replaces the file in your workspace with a fresh, read-only version directly from the depot. Any edits you've made to the file will be lost!

Note:

• When you revert files opened for delete, Perforce restores them to your workspace.

• When you revert files opened for add, Perforce doesn't do anything to the files; it simply takes them off your changelist. The new files you created in your workspace will still be there.

Submitting A Changelist

Back to Table of Contents

As you open files with p4 edit, p4 add, and p4 delete, you are building up a changelist. When you are satisfied with your changelist, you can submit it into the depot. "Submitting" copies opened files from your workspace to the depot -- until then, files in the depot are unaffected by your work.

To submit your changelist, use:

p4 submit

This puts you in an editor form, where you must replace the string "<enter description here>" with a valid description of the changes you are submitting. Cary Grant's changelist form looks like:

Change: new

Client: cary_grant

User:   cary_grant

Status: new

Description: 
    Added job searching to the P4DB browser.	

Files:
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/index.cgi  # edit
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/chb.cgi    # edit
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/jbv.cgi    # add
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/fv.cgi     # delete

When you are done typing the description, save the file and exit the editor -- your changelist will be submitted and the depot files updated.

Pulling Changes into Your Branch

Back to Table of Contents

The files in your guest branch are insulated from the files in the //public path they were branched from. From time to time, files in //public will be added as Public Depot project curators integrate changes from guest branches. If the project you made your branch from gets updated, you will need to pull those updates into your own guest branch.

So Cary Grant, for example, has been working on his P4DB enhancement. As you recall, his guest branch files were originally branched from the //public/perforce/utils path. To find out if any changes need to be pulled from that path into his own guest branch, Cary uses:

p4 integ -n //public/perforce/utils/... //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/...

1. He submits (or reverts) any opened files in his workspace.

2. He opens files for integration in his workspace using:

   p4 integ //public/perforce/utils/... //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/...

   (This is the same as the command above, without the -n. It's also exactly the same as the command that created his branch, without the -v.)

3. He resolves the opened files using:

   p4 resolve

4. He submits the opened, resolved files with:

   p4 submit

Resolving Files

Back to Table of Contents

Resolving is how you merge specific changes from one file to another. For each file, you'll see stats like:

    c:\ws\perforce\utils\p4db\index.cgi - merging //public/perforce/utils/p4db/index.cgi#7
    Diff chunks: 0 yours + 2 theirs + 0 both + 0 conflicting

    Accept(a) Edit(e) Diff(d) Merge (m) Skip(s) Help(?) [at]:

Note:

• For each file resolved, Perforce does a 3-way merge between files it refers to as "yours", "theirs", and "the base". The merged result is written to your workspace file.
  • If you are integrating new changes from one branch to another, "yours" is the target file in your workspace, "theirs" is the newer file in the originating branch, and "the base" is the version of the file in the originating branch that was last integrated from.

  • If you are syncing opened workspace files with newer depot files, "yours" is the target file in your workspace, "theirs" is the newer file in the depot, and "the base" is the version of the file you had when you opened it for edit.

• If there are no conflicting diffs, the merged result will be saved in your workspace file, and the resolve program will go on to the next file.

• If there are conflicting diffs, you will be put into an editor to resolve the conflicts. The conflicts will be marked by lines beginning with >>>>, ====, or <<<<. For example:

       >>>> ORIGINAL
       i = i + j
       ==== THEIRS
       if ( i < n ) then i = i + j
       ==== YOURS
       if ( i <= n ) then i = i + j
       <<<< 

  While in the editor, your job is to look for the conflicts, remove the conflict markers (shown here in red), and modify the remaining text in a way that makes sense. When you exit the editor, the prompt will advise you to accept the merged result.

• You can diff files while you're in the resolve program. At the prompt, type ? and you will be shown the diff commands.

• You can choose to skip any file and re-run resolve on it later. Your workspace file will be untouched if you do this.

Copyright 1998 Perforce Software info@perforce.com

You're browsing a file stored as $Id: //public/tutorial.html#1 $ in the Perforce Public Depot.

Back to Table of Contents