Perforce

Perforce is a great version control system which I've been using at work since 2005 (well, strictly speaking, I started using it in 2004, but that was just casual usage). On this page, I'll list some hints on Perforce, which I tend to forget on how to do. If other folks can find this scratchpad useful too, that's a bonus :-)

View the diff of a given change id

$ p4 describe 35297

View the diff of a given change id that is shelved

$ p4 describe -S 35297

Ask perforce if a certain change has been integrated

$ p4 integrate -n -b mybranch-2.0 -s @35297,35297

See pending changelists

$ p4 changelists -s pending -u myuser

See all changes within a certain date span

This is how you check all changes in the source tree (from where you stand) between the first of January 2011 and the first of February the same year:

$ p4 changes ...@2011/01/01,2011/02/01

Checkout all files you've edited locally

Checkout all files you've edited locally but have forgotten to run p4 edit on first:

$ p4 diff -se ... | xargs p4 edit

TAB completion

I've created BASH completion for all p4 commands, you can get the completion file here.

With it in place, you can do:

Auto completion of commands

$ p4 c[TAB][TAB]
change       changelists  client       counter
changelist   changes      clients      counters

Auto completion of branches

$ p4 integrate -b plugins-comm[TAB][TAB]
plugins-common-1.1     plugins-community-3.1  plugins-community-3.4
plugins-community      plugins-community-3.2  plugins-community-3.5
plugins-community-3.0  plugins-community-3.3  plugins-community-3.6

The branch list is cached, in case you were wondering :-) See ~/.p4.d.

Auto completion of users

$ p4 changes -u s[TAB][TAB]

saa shah shud soku stbe sym sai shaon sms sta support

The user list is cached, in case you were wondering :-) See ~/.p4.d.

Auto completion of command specific options

$ p4 integrate -[TAB][TAB]
-b   -d   -Ds  -f   -i   -n   -r   -t
-c   -Di  -Dt  -h   -I   -o   -s   -v

Auto completion of depot paths

$ p4 print //depot/[TAB][TAB]
//depot/BETA      //depot/core      //depot/projects  //depot/tools
//depot/branches  //depot/escenic   //depot/ps
//depot/BUILD     //depot/main      //depot/RELEASE

Coloured diff

# apt-get install colordiff

Then add the following to your .bashrc:

export P4DIFF=colordiff

Once you've evaluated your .p4config or .bashrc, you'll get your diffs in wonderful colours.

~ /home 🏠 ~ talks 💬 ~ bash ~ craftsmanship ~ db ~ dongxi ~ emacs ~ escenic ~ iam ~ java ~ js ~ language ~ latex ~ ldap ~ life ~ linux ~ llm ~ mac-os-x ~ mt-foo ~ network ~ norsk ~ python ~ quotes ~ running ~ security ~ travel ~ unix ~ various ~ vcs ~ webdesign ~ windows ~ discoveries ~ cv 🧙 ~
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