GIT-P4(1)			  Git Manual			     GIT-P4(1)



NAME
       git-p4 - Import from and submit to Perforce repositories

SYNOPSIS
       git p4 clone [<sync-options>] [<clone-options>] <p4-depot-path>...
       git p4 sync [<sync-options>] [<p4-depot-path>...]
       git p4 rebase
       git p4 submit [<submit-options>] [<master-branch-name>]


DESCRIPTION
       This command provides a way to interact with p4 repositories using Git.

       Create a new Git repository from an existing p4 repository using git p4
       clone, giving it one or more p4 depot paths. Incorporate new commits
       from p4 changes with git p4 sync. The sync command is also used to
       include new branches from other p4 depot paths. Submit Git changes back
       to p4 using git p4 submit. The command git p4 rebase does a sync plus
       rebases the current branch onto the updated p4 remote branch.

EXAMPLES
       o   Clone a repository:

	       $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project


       o   Do some work in the newly created Git repository:

	       $ cd project
	       $ vi foo.h
	       $ git commit -a -m "edited foo.h"


       o   Update the Git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing
	   your work on top:

	       $ git p4 rebase


       o   Submit your commits back to p4:

	       $ git p4 submit


COMMANDS
   Clone
       Generally, git p4 clone is used to create a new Git directory from an
       existing p4 repository:

	   $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project


       This:

	1. Creates an empty Git repository in a subdirectory called project.

	2. Imports the full contents of the head revision from the given p4
	   depot path into a single commit in the Git branch
	   refs/remotes/p4/master.

	3. Creates a local branch, master from this remote and checks it out.

       To reproduce the entire p4 history in Git, use the @all modifier on the
       depot path:

	   $ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all


   Sync
       As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can be
       included in the Git repository using:

	   $ git p4 sync


       This command finds new changes in p4 and imports them as Git commits.

       P4 repositories can be added to an existing Git repository using git p4
       sync too:

	   $ mkdir repo-git
	   $ cd repo-git
	   $ git init
	   $ git p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot


       This imports the specified depot into refs/remotes/p4/master in an
       existing Git repository. The --branch option can be used to specify a
       different branch to be used for the p4 content.

       If a Git repository includes branches refs/remotes/origin/p4, these
       will be fetched and consulted first during a git p4 sync. Since
       importing directly from p4 is considerably slower than pulling changes
       from a Git remote, this can be useful in a multi-developer environment.

       If there are multiple branches, doing git p4 sync will automatically
       use the "BRANCH DETECTION" algorithm to try to partition new changes
       into the right branch. This can be overridden with the --branch option
       to specify just a single branch to update.

   Rebase
       A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4
       depot and merge them with local uncommitted changes. Often, the p4
       repository is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase
       workflow makes sense. This command does git p4 sync followed by git
       rebase to move local commits on top of updated p4 changes.

	   $ git p4 rebase


   Submit
       Submitting changes from a Git repository back to the p4 repository
       requires a separate p4 client workspace. This should be specified using
       the P4CLIENT environment variable or the Git configuration variable
       git-p4.client. The p4 client must exist, but the client root will be
       created and populated if it does not already exist.

       To submit all changes that are in the current Git branch but not in the
       p4/master branch, use:

	   $ git p4 submit


       To specify a branch other than the current one, use:

	   $ git p4 submit topicbranch


       To specify a single commit or a range of commits, use:

	   $ git p4 submit --commit <sha1>
	   $ git p4 submit --commit <sha1..sha1>


       The upstream reference is generally refs/remotes/p4/master, but can be
       overridden using the --origin= command-line option.

       The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking git p4 submit. The
       --preserve-user option will cause ownership to be modified according to
       the author of the Git commit. This option requires admin privileges in
       p4, which can be granted using p4 protect.

       To shelve changes instead of submitting, use --shelve and
       --update-shelve:

	   $ git p4 submit --shelve
	   $ git p4 submit --update-shelve 1234 --update-shelve 2345


   Unshelve
       Unshelving will take a shelved P4 changelist, and produce the
       equivalent git commit in the branch
       refs/remotes/p4-unshelved/<changelist>.

       The git commit is created relative to the current origin revision (HEAD
       by default). A parent commit is created based on the origin, and then
       the unshelve commit is created based on that.

       The origin revision can be changed with the "--origin" option.

       If the target branch in refs/remotes/p4-unshelved already exists, the
       old one will be renamed.

	   $ git p4 sync
	   $ git p4 unshelve 12345
	   $ git show p4-unshelved/12345
	   <submit more changes via p4 to the same files>
	   $ git p4 unshelve 12345
	   <refuses to unshelve until git is in sync with p4 again>


OPTIONS
   General options
       All commands except clone accept these options.

       --git-dir <dir>
	   Set the GIT_DIR environment variable. See git(1).

       -v, --verbose
	   Provide more progress information.

   Sync options
       These options can be used in the initial clone as well as in subsequent
       sync operations.

       --branch <ref>
	   Import changes into <ref> instead of refs/remotes/p4/master. If
	   <ref> starts with refs/, it is used as is. Otherwise, if it does
	   not start with p4/, that prefix is added.

	   By default a <ref> not starting with refs/ is treated as the name
	   of a remote-tracking branch (under refs/remotes/). This behavior
	   can be modified using the --import-local option.

	   The default <ref> is "master".

	   This example imports a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing Git
	   repository:

		   $ git init
		   $ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2


       --detect-branches
	   Use the branch detection algorithm to find new paths in p4. It is
	   documented below in "BRANCH DETECTION".

       --changesfile <file>
	   Import exactly the p4 change numbers listed in file, one per line.
	   Normally, git p4 inspects the current p4 repository state and
	   detects the changes it should import.

       --silent
	   Do not print any progress information.

       --detect-labels
	   Query p4 for labels associated with the depot paths, and add them
	   as tags in Git. Limited usefulness as only imports labels
	   associated with new changelists. Deprecated.

       --import-labels
	   Import labels from p4 into Git.

       --import-local
	   By default, p4 branches are stored in refs/remotes/p4/, where they
	   will be treated as remote-tracking branches by git-branch(1) and
	   other commands. This option instead puts p4 branches in
	   refs/heads/p4/. Note that future sync operations must specify
	   --import-local as well so that they can find the p4 branches in
	   refs/heads.

       --max-changes <n>
	   Import at most n changes, rather than the entire range of changes
	   included in the given revision specifier. A typical usage would be
	   use @all as the revision specifier, but then to use --max-changes
	   1000 to import only the last 1000 revisions rather than the entire
	   revision history.

       --changes-block-size <n>
	   The internal block size to use when converting a revision specifier
	   such as @all into a list of specific change numbers. Instead of
	   using a single call to p4 changes to find the full list of changes
	   for the conversion, there are a sequence of calls to p4 changes -m,
	   each of which requests one block of changes of the given size. The
	   default block size is 500, which should usually be suitable.

       --keep-path
	   The mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to Git, by
	   default, involves removing the entire depot path. With this option,
	   the full p4 depot path is retained in Git. For example, path
	   //depot/main/foo/bar.c, when imported from //depot/main/, becomes
	   foo/bar.c. With --keep-path, the Git path is instead
	   depot/main/foo/bar.c.

       --use-client-spec
	   Use a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4. See
	   the "CLIENT SPEC" section below.

       -/ <path>
	   Exclude selected depot paths when cloning or syncing.

   Clone options
       These options can be used in an initial clone, along with the sync
       options described above.

       --destination <directory>
	   Where to create the Git repository. If not provided, the last
	   component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new directory.

       --bare
	   Perform a bare clone. See git-clone(1).

   Submit options
       These options can be used to modify git p4 submit behavior.

       --origin <commit>
	   Upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to
	   p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable from
	   HEAD.

       -M
	   Detect renames. See git-diff(1). Renames will be represented in p4
	   using explicit move operations. There is no corresponding option to
	   detect copies, but there are variables for both moves and copies.

       --preserve-user
	   Re-author p4 changes before submitting to p4. This option requires
	   p4 admin privileges.

       --export-labels
	   Export tags from Git as p4 labels. Tags found in Git are applied to
	   the perforce working directory.

       -n, --dry-run
	   Show just what commits would be submitted to p4; do not change
	   state in Git or p4.

       --prepare-p4-only
	   Apply a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting
	   files in p4 as for a normal submit operation. Do not issue the
	   final "p4 submit", but instead print a message about how to submit
	   manually or revert. This option always stops after the first
	   (oldest) commit. Git tags are not exported to p4.

       --shelve
	   Instead of submitting create a series of shelved changelists. After
	   creating each shelve, the relevant files are reverted/deleted. If
	   you have multiple commits pending multiple shelves will be created.

       --update-shelve CHANGELIST
	   Update an existing shelved changelist with this commit. Implies
	   --shelve. Repeat for multiple shelved changelists.

       --conflict=(ask|skip|quit)
	   Conflicts can occur when applying a commit to p4. When this
	   happens, the default behavior ("ask") is to prompt whether to skip
	   this commit and continue, or quit. This option can be used to
	   bypass the prompt, causing conflicting commits to be automatically
	   skipped, or to quit trying to apply commits, without prompting.

       --branch <branch>
	   After submitting, sync this named branch instead of the default
	   p4/master. See the "Sync options" section above for more
	   information.

       --commit (<sha1>|<sha1>..<sha1>)
	   Submit only the specified commit or range of commits, instead of
	   the full list of changes that are in the current Git branch.

       --disable-rebase
	   Disable the automatic rebase after all commits have been
	   successfully submitted. Can also be set with git-p4.disableRebase.

       --disable-p4sync
	   Disable the automatic sync of p4/master from Perforce after commits
	   have been submitted. Implies --disable-rebase. Can also be set with
	   git-p4.disableP4Sync. Sync with origin/master still goes ahead if
	   possible.

HOOKS FOR SUBMIT
   p4-pre-submit
       The p4-pre-submit hook is executed if it exists and is executable. The
       hook takes no parameters and nothing from standard input. Exiting with
       non-zero status from this script prevents git-p4 submit from launching.
       It can be bypassed with the --no-verify command line option.

       One usage scenario is to run unit tests in the hook.

   p4-prepare-changelist
       The p4-prepare-changelist hook is executed right after preparing the
       default changelist message and before the editor is started. It takes
       one parameter, the name of the file that contains the changelist text.
       Exiting with a non-zero status from the script will abort the process.

       The purpose of the hook is to edit the message file in place, and it is
       not suppressed by the --no-verify option. This hook is called even if
       --prepare-p4-only is set.

   p4-changelist
       The p4-changelist hook is executed after the changelist message has
       been edited by the user. It can be bypassed with the --no-verify
       option. It takes a single parameter, the name of the file that holds
       the proposed changelist text. Exiting with a non-zero status causes the
       command to abort.

       The hook is allowed to edit the changelist file and can be used to
       normalize the text into some project standard format. It can also be
       used to refuse the Submit after inspect the message file.

   p4-post-changelist
       The p4-post-changelist hook is invoked after the submit has
       successfully occurred in P4. It takes no parameters and is meant
       primarily for notification and cannot affect the outcome of the git p4
       submit action.

   Rebase options
       These options can be used to modify git p4 rebase behavior.

       --import-labels
	   Import p4 labels.

   Unshelve options
       --origin
	   Sets the git refspec against which the shelved P4 changelist is
	   compared. Defaults to p4/master.

DEPOT PATH SYNTAX
       The p4 depot path argument to git p4 sync and git p4 clone can be one
       or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional p4 revision
       specifier on the end:

       "//depot/my/project"
	   Import one commit with all files in the #head change under that
	   tree.

       "//depot/my/project@all"
	   Import one commit for each change in the history of that depot
	   path.

       "//depot/my/project@1,6"
	   Import only changes 1 through 6.

       "//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all"
	   Import all changes from both named depot paths into a single
	   repository. Only files below these directories are included. There
	   is not a subdirectory in Git for each "proj1" and "proj2". You must
	   use the --destination option when specifying more than one depot
	   path. The revision specifier must be specified identically on each
	   depot path. If there are files in the depot paths with the same
	   name, the path with the most recently updated version of the file
	   is the one that appears in Git.

       See p4 help revisions for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.

CLIENT SPEC
       The p4 client specification is maintained with the p4 client command
       and contains among other fields, a View that specifies how the depot is
       mapped into the client repository. The clone and sync commands can
       consult the client spec when given the --use-client-spec option or when
       the useClientSpec variable is true. After git p4 clone, the
       useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository
       configuration file. This allows future git p4 submit commands to work
       properly; the submit command looks only at the variable and does not
       have a command-line option.

       The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in p4 help views. git p4
       knows only a subset of the view syntax. It understands multi-line
       mappings, overlays with +, exclusions with - and double-quotes around
       whitespace. Of the possible wildcards, git p4 only handles ..., and
       only when it is at the end of the path. git p4 will complain if it
       encounters an unhandled wildcard.

       Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist. If multiple depot
       paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository, git
       p4 can choose the wrong one. This is hard to solve without dedicating a
       client spec just for git p4.

       The name of the client can be given to git p4 in multiple ways. The
       variable git-p4.client takes precedence if it exists. Otherwise, normal
       p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used: environment variable
       P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name.

BRANCH DETECTION
       P4 does not have the same concept of a branch as Git. Instead, p4
       organizes its content as a directory tree, where by convention
       different logical branches are in different locations in the tree. The
       p4 branch command is used to maintain mappings between different areas
       in the tree, and indicate related content. git p4 can use these
       mappings to determine branch relationships.

       If you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as
       subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use --detect-branches
       when cloning or syncing to have git p4 automatically find
       subdirectories in p4, and to generate these as branches in Git.

       For example, if the P4 repository structure is:

	   //depot/main/...
	   //depot/branch1/...


       And "p4 branch -o branch1" shows a View line that looks like:

	   //depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...


       Then this git p4 clone command:

	   git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all


       produces a separate branch in refs/remotes/p4/ for //depot/main, called
       master, and one for //depot/branch1 called depot/branch1.

       However, it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use
       them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch
       relationships automatically, a Git configuration setting
       git-p4.branchList can be used to explicitly identify branch
       relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a
       simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination"
       are the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on
       the presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result
       will occur with:

	   git init depot
	   cd depot
	   git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
	   git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all .


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

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
       The following config settings can be used to modify git p4 behavior.
       They all are in the git-p4 section.

   General variables
       git-p4.user
	   User specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -u <user>. The
	   environment variable P4USER can be used instead.

       git-p4.password
	   Password specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -P
	   <password>. The environment variable P4PASS can be used instead.

       git-p4.port
	   Port specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -p <port>. The
	   environment variable P4PORT can be used instead.

       git-p4.host
	   Host specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -h <host>. The
	   environment variable P4HOST can be used instead.

       git-p4.client
	   Client specified as an option to all p4 commands, with -c <client>,
	   including the client spec.

       git-p4.retries
	   Specifies the number of times to retry a p4 command (notably, p4
	   sync) if the network times out. The default value is 3. Set the
	   value to 0 to disable retries or if your p4 version does not
	   support retries (pre 2012.2).

   Clone and sync variables
       git-p4.syncFromOrigin
	   Because importing commits from other Git repositories is much
	   faster than importing them from p4, a mechanism exists to find p4
	   changes first in Git remotes. If branches exist under
	   refs/remote/origin/p4, those will be fetched and used when syncing
	   from p4. This variable can be set to false to disable this
	   behavior.

       git-p4.branchUser
	   One phase in branch detection involves looking at p4 branches to
	   find new ones to import. By default, all branches are inspected.
	   This option limits the search to just those owned by the single
	   user named in the variable.

       git-p4.branchList
	   List of branches to be imported when branch detection is enabled.
	   Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated by a colon
	   (:). This example declares that both branchA and branchB were
	   created from main:

	       git config	git-p4.branchList main:branchA
	       git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB


       git-p4.ignoredP4Labels
	   List of p4 labels to ignore. This is built automatically as
	   unimportable labels are discovered.

       git-p4.importLabels
	   Import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels.

       git-p4.labelImportRegexp
	   Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported.
	   The default value is [a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$.

       git-p4.useClientSpec
	   Specify that the p4 client spec should be used to identify p4 depot
	   paths of interest. This is equivalent to specifying the option
	   --use-client-spec. See the "CLIENT SPEC" section above. This
	   variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client.

       git-p4.pathEncoding
	   Perforce keeps the encoding of a path as given by the originating
	   OS. Git expects paths encoded as UTF-8. Use this config to tell
	   git-p4 what encoding Perforce had used for the paths. This encoding
	   is used to transcode the paths to UTF-8. As an example, Perforce on
	   Windows often uses "cp1252" to encode path names. If this option is
	   passed into a p4 clone request, it is persisted in the resulting
	   new git repo.

       git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy
	   Perforce keeps the encoding of a changelist descriptions and user
	   full names as stored by the client on a given OS. The p4v client
	   uses the OS-local encoding, and so different users can end up
	   storing different changelist descriptions or user full names in
	   different encodings, in the same depot. Git tolerates
	   inconsistent/incorrect encodings in commit messages and author
	   names, but expects them to be specified in utf-8. git-p4 can use
	   three different decoding strategies in handling the encoding
	   uncertainty in Perforce: passthrough simply passes the original
	   bytes through from Perforce to git, creating usable but
	   incorrectly-encoded data when the Perforce data is encoded as
	   anything other than utf-8.  strict expects the Perforce data to be
	   encoded as utf-8, and fails to import when this is not true.
	   fallback attempts to interpret the data as utf-8, and otherwise
	   falls back to using a secondary encoding - by default the common
	   windows encoding cp-1252 - with upper-range bytes escaped if
	   decoding with the fallback encoding also fails. Under python2 the
	   default strategy is passthrough for historical reasons, and under
	   python3 the default is fallback. When strict is selected and
	   decoding fails, the error message will propose changing this config
	   parameter as a workaround. If this option is passed into a p4 clone
	   request, it is persisted into the resulting new git repo.

       git-p4.metadataFallbackEncoding
	   Specify the fallback encoding to use when decoding Perforce author
	   names and changelists descriptions using the fallback strategy (see
	   git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy). The fallback encoding will only
	   be used when decoding as utf-8 fails. This option defaults to
	   cp1252, a common windows encoding. If this option is passed into a
	   p4 clone request, it is persisted into the resulting new git repo.

       git-p4.largeFileSystem
	   Specify the system that is used for large (binary) files. Please
	   note that large file systems do not support the git p4 submit
	   command. Only Git LFS is implemented right now (see
	   https://git-lfs.github.com/ for more information). Download and
	   install the Git LFS command line extension to use this option and
	   configure it like this:

	       git config	git-p4.largeFileSystem GitLFS


       git-p4.largeFileExtensions
	   All files matching a file extension in the list will be processed
	   by the large file system. Do not prefix the extensions with ..

       git-p4.largeFileThreshold
	   All files with an uncompressed size exceeding the threshold will be
	   processed by the large file system. By default the threshold is
	   defined in bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.

       git-p4.largeFileCompressedThreshold
	   All files with a compressed size exceeding the threshold will be
	   processed by the large file system. This option might slow down
	   your clone/sync process. By default the threshold is defined in
	   bytes. Add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.

       git-p4.largeFilePush
	   Boolean variable which defines if large files are automatically
	   pushed to a server.

       git-p4.keepEmptyCommits
	   A changelist that contains only excluded files will be imported as
	   an empty commit if this boolean option is set to true.

       git-p4.mapUser
	   Map a P4 user to a name and email address in Git. Use a string with
	   the following format to create a mapping:

	       git config --add git-p4.mapUser "p4user = First Last <mail@address.com>"

	   A mapping will override any user information from P4. Mappings for
	   multiple P4 user can be defined.

   Submit variables
       git-p4.detectRenames
	   Detect renames. See git-diff(1). This can be true, false, or a
	   score as expected by git diff -M.

       git-p4.detectCopies
	   Detect copies. See git-diff(1). This can be true, false, or a score
	   as expected by git diff -C.

       git-p4.detectCopiesHarder
	   Detect copies harder. See git-diff(1). A boolean.

       git-p4.preserveUser
	   On submit, re-author changes to reflect the Git author, regardless
	   of who invokes git p4 submit.

       git-p4.allowMissingP4Users
	   When preserveUser is true, git p4 normally dies if it cannot find
	   an author in the p4 user map. This setting submits the change
	   regardless.

       git-p4.skipSubmitEdit
	   The submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change is
	   submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing step is
	   skipped.

       git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck
	   After editing the p4 change message, git p4 makes sure that the
	   description really was changed by looking at the file modification
	   time. This option disables that test.

       git-p4.allowSubmit
	   By default, any branch can be used as the source for a git p4
	   submit operation. This configuration variable, if set, permits only
	   the named branches to be used as submit sources. Branch names must
	   be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be separated by
	   commas (","), with no spaces.

       git-p4.skipUserNameCheck
	   If the user running git p4 submit does not exist in the p4 user
	   map, git p4 exits. This option can be used to force submission
	   regardless.

       git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup
	   If enabled, git p4 submit will attempt to cleanup RCS keywords
	   ($Header$, etc). These would otherwise cause merge conflicts and
	   prevent the submit going ahead. This option should be considered
	   experimental at present.

       git-p4.exportLabels
	   Export Git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels.

       git-p4.labelExportRegexp
	   Only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported.
	   The default value is [a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$.

       git-p4.conflict
	   Specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per
	   --conflict. The default behavior is ask.

       git-p4.disableRebase
	   Do not rebase the tree against p4/master following a submit.

       git-p4.disableP4Sync
	   Do not sync p4/master with Perforce following a submit. Implies
	   git-p4.disableRebase.

IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
       o   Changesets from p4 are imported using Git fast-import.

       o   Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are
	   collected using p4 print.

       o   Submitting requires a p4 client, which is not in the same location
	   as the Git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to this
	   p4 client and submitted from there.

       o   Each commit imported by git p4 has a line at the end of the log
	   message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. This
	   line is used by later git p4 sync operations to know which p4
	   changes are new.

GIT
       Part of the git(1) suite



Git 2.38.4			  05/16/2024			     GIT-P4(1)