Perforce Defect Tracking Integration User's Guide

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Overview of the software
  • 2.1. A typical workflow using the P4DTI
  • 2.2. How the P4DTI enforces the defect tracker's rules
  • 2.3. Other restrictions on using the P4DTI
• 3. Creating an issue
• 4. Finding issues assigned to you
  • 4.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 4.2. From the Perforce command line
• 5. Editing an issue
  • 5.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 5.2. From the Perforce command line
• 6. Starting work and linking it to issues
  • 6.1. Setting your user jobview
  • 6.2. Using the Perforce Windows GUI to start work and link it to issues
  • 6.3. Using the Perforce command line to start work and link it to issues
• 7. Submitting partial work while keeping issues
• 8. Submitting completed work and resolving issues
  • 8.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 8.2. From the Perforce command line
  • 8.3. Using the Perforce development environment plug-ins
• 9. Linking already-completed work to an issue
  • 9.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 9.2. From the Perforce command line
• 10. Finding the changes linked to an issue
  • 10.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 10.2. From the Perforce command line
  • 10.3. Using the defect tracker
• 11. Finding the issues linked with a change
  • 11.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 11.2. From the Perforce command line
• 12. Finding the files affected by an issue
  • 12.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 12.2. From the Perforce command line
• 13. Finding out how files have been affected by issues
• 14. Finding the issues you're working on
  • 14.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 14.2. From the Perforce command line
• 15. Finding out where an issue is being worked on and by whom
  • 15.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI
  • 15.2. From the Perforce command line
• 16. Finding out which issues have been fixed in a release
• A. References
• B. Document history
• Glossary

1. Introduction

This manual is the Perforce Defect Tracking Integration User's Guide. It teaches the use of the Perforce Defect Tracking Integration; detailed instructions on using Perforce and your defect tracker aren't given here. If you need more information on using Perforce, please see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide, the Perforce Command Reference, or the Perforce on-line help system. If you need more information on using your defect tracking system, please see the manuals for the system or consult your defect tracking administrator.

If you're administering the Perforce Defect Tracking Integration (P4DTI), you'll need our Perforce Defect Tracking Integration Administrator's Guide. If you're installing the P4DTI, the Administrator's Guide is the place to start.

2. Overview of the software

The P4DTI makes the defect tracker's records appear as jobs in Perforce. You can work with jobs more or less just as described in the Perforce manuals, and your changes are reflected in the defect tracker. This saves you having to switch between Perforce and the defect tracker to do your work. For information on how to work with jobs in Perforce, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

Perforce has a mechanism for linking changelists to jobs. The P4DTI links the changelists to defect tracker issues as well, so you don't need to switch to the defect tracker and copy out information about your changes. Linking also allows you to:

1. Record work done for a particular reason.
2. Find out which work has been integrated into a codeline.
3. Determine which issues have been addressed by a particular version of the source code.
4. Find out what changed in order to resolve an issue.
5. Find out which defect tracker issues have influenced a file, so that you can understand the reasons for its design.

The P4DTI makes the links to changelists appear in the defect tracker, making it easy to see what was done or is currently being done to resolve a defect.

See the Perforce Defect Tracking Integration Administrator's Guide for an overview of how the P4DTI works.

2.1. A typical workflow using the P4DTI

A typical organization might use the P4DTI in the following way:

1. The development manager assigns a defect tracking issue to a developer.
2. The developer notices the issue in her list of jobs.
3. The developer analyzes the issue and updates the job. Her analysis is replicated back to the defect tracker and appears there too.
4. The developer checks out some files to work on to fix the problem, and links her pending work to the job. The link is replicated back to the defect tracker, and her colleagues can tell that the issue is being worked on, by whom, and where.
5. The developer finishes fixing the defect and submits her changelist. The job status changes, and this change causes a corresponding change in the defect tracker, so that the issue is marked as "resolved" and moved on to the test group for verifying.
6. The test group checks that the issue is resolved, and also runs tests on the areas of the system that were changed to make sure they weren't damaged.

For information about your organization's workflow policy, or how you should use the P4DTI, consult your manager or the P4DTI administrator.

2.2. How the P4DTI enforces the defect tracker's rules

If you do something in Perforce that the defect tracker doesn't allow--for example, if your action causes an error, or if it's forbidden by the defect tracker's rules--then the replicator undoes the change in Perforce when it next wakes up, and sends you an e-mail message explaining what happened. The e-mail message contains your changes, so you won't have lost them.

An example of such an e-mail message is shown in figure 1.

Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 08:12:20 +0100 (BST)
From: p4dti-replicator0@company.domain
To: Job owner <rb@company.domain>, Job changer <gdr@company.domain>,
        P4DTI administrator <admin@company.domain>
Subject: (P4DTI-8603)  Job 'BUG00007' overwritten by issue 'BUG00007'.

(P4DTI-8658)  This is an automatically generated e-mail from the Perforce Defect
Tracking Integration replicator 'replicator0'.

(P4DTI-8512)  The replicator failed to replicate Perforce job 'BUG00007' to
defect tracker issue 'BUG00007', because of the following problem:

(P4DTI-6142)  No transition from state 'assigned' to state 'verified'.

(P4DTI-8614)  The replicator has therefore overwritten Perforce job 'BUG00007'
with defect tracker issue 'BUG00007'.  See section 2.2 of the P4DTI User Guide
for more information.

(P4DTI-8625)  The job looked like this before being overwritten:

Date: 2001/07/31 08:05:45
Description:
	It says 'foot' where it should say 'metre'.
Job: BUG00007
Owner: rb
P4DTI-filespecs:
P4DTI-issue-id: 7
P4DTI-rid: replicator0
P4DTI-user: gdr
Priority: Low
Severity: Medium
State: verified
Title: It uses imperial measurements

(P4DTI-8523)  Here's a full Python traceback:
...

(P4DTI-8534)  If you are having continued problems, please contact your P4DTI
administrator <admin@company.domain>.

Notes on figure 1:

1. This paragraph gives the reason why the change to the job couldn't be replicated to the defect tracker. The code at the start of the paragraph is a unique message identifier that can be used to look up that message in section 11.2 of the Perforce Defect Tracking Integration Administrator's Guide.

   In this case the problem is that <gdr@company.domain> changed the status of the job from "assigned" to "verified", but this was forbidden in the defect tracker. The remedy is to follow the defect tracker's workflow.

2. This section shows the Perforce job as it was after the forbidden change had been made, but before it was undone.

   The P4DTI reverses all changes, even if some of them would have been allowed. For example, if <gdr@company.domain> has changed Priority from "High" to "Low" as well as Status from "assigned" to "verified" then both of these fields will be set back even though the change to Priority may have been allowed on its own.

3. This section gives a complete traceback at the point in the code where the problem was discovered. This traceback allows Perforce support to track down defects in the code that prevent replication. Under normal use you can ignore this.

The P4DTI undoes the change to the job, but it doesn't undo any fixes, even if it was a fix that caused the forbidden change to the job. That's because there needs to be a way to add retrospective fixes in Perforce (see section 9, "Linking already-completed work to an issue") even if the retrospective fix would violate the defect tracker's workflow.

2.3. Other restrictions on using the P4DTI

Your organization might have a policy about which changelists to link with issues. For example, some organizations might want only the final check-in of a fix linked, and some might want all the intermediate stages linked. Your organization's policy may not allow some of the procedures in this manual; for information about your organization's policy, consult your manager or the P4DTI administrator.

3. Creating an issue

Create issues in the defect tracker as normal. Each organization has its own policies for how to create issues, so if you need instructions, consult your defect tracker administrator.

You can't create issues by creating jobs in Perforce.

4. Finding issues assigned to you

You can use the defect tracker to see a list of issues assigned to you in the normal way. In addition, your defect tracker might be configured to send you e-mail messages when issues are assigned to you.

You can also use Perforce to see the issues assigned to you, by setting a jobview that matches the jobs representing these issues. For detailed instructions on specifying a jobview, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

The correct choice of jobview depends on which defect tracker you're using, how the P4DTI has been configured, and what workflow you use. Ask your P4DTI administrator if you have trouble specifying the jobview you want. If you're using standard fields and workflows in your defect tracker, then the jobviews in table 1 should be suitable.

Section 4.1 explains how to use a jobview to view jobs assigned to you in the Perforce Windows GUI. Section 4.2 explains how to use a jobview to view jobs assigned to you from the Perforce command line. Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of viewing the list of jobs assigned to you from the Web GUI (P4Web) or any of the development environment plug-ins.

4.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To find issues assigned to you, follow these steps:

1. Choose Job > View Jobs. This selects the Perforce Jobs pane.
2. Choose Job > Filter and enter a jobview. This procedure restricts the jobs you see to those matching the jobview, as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2. Viewing jobs assigned to you from the Perforce Windows GUI

4.2. From the Perforce command line

To find issues assigned to you, enter the command p4 jobs -e "jobview" with an appropriate jobview (see table 1).

5. Editing an issue

You can edit an issue by editing the contents of the job in Perforce. Your changes are replicated back to the defect tracker. This procedure is useful when you want to:

• add more description to the job record.
• write notes about how the job was fixed, what else needs to be done, and so on.
• correct something in the job record.
• change the job status.
• add a note to the issue and change its status. For example, there might be a work-around that you need to tell people about, rather than fixing anything in the code.
• send the issue back to your manager because you can't do it for some reason.

If you change the issue in a way that the defect tracker doesn't allow--for example, if your action causes an error, or if it's forbidden by the defect tracker workflow--then the replicator undoes the change in Perforce when it next wakes up, and sends you an e-mail message explaining what happened. The e-mail message contains your changes, so you won't have lost them.

To change an issue, edit the job in Perforce as described in the following subsections. Depending on your organization's policies, you might need to add some text explaining why you've edited the job. (If you have made changes and have already submitted them, you need to link them to the job using the method described in Section 9, "Linking already-completed work to an issue".)

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of editing an issue from the Web GUI (P4Web) or any of the development environment plug-ins.

5.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To edit an issue, follow these steps:

1. Select the job you need to edit.
2. Choose Job > Edit Spec jobname.
3. Edit the job appropriately. (For an example of editing a job, see figure 3).

Figure 3. Editing a job using the Perforce Windows GUI

5.2. From the Perforce command line

To edit an issue from the Perforce command line, enter a p4 job command and edit the job appropriately. For example, the following command opens a form in your editor that allows you to edit the job BUG00094:

p4 job BUG00094

For more information, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

6. Starting work and linking it to issues

The P4DTI allows you to link your work in progress to an issue. This link records your intentions and so has several advantages:

• you can find out later why you have files checked out. For instructions, see Section 14, "Finding the issues you're working on".
• you can find out later where you're working on an issue. For instructions, see Section 15, "Finding out where an issue is being worked on and by whom".
• other people can find out who's working on an issue and where. For instructions, see Section 15, "Finding out where an issue is being worked on and by whom".

To gain these advantages, you first need to set up a user jobview as described in Section 6.1, and then create a pending changelist containing your edits and link it to a Perforce job, as described in Section 6.2 (for the Perforce Windows GUI) or Section 6.3 (for the Perforce command line). The link will show up in the defect tracker. For more information, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

Note that you can only ever link a changelist with an issue once. If you link it with the same issue again using a different keyword, the effect is just to change the keyword.

Perforce 2001.1 has no way of handling numbered pending changelists from the Web GUI (P4Web) or any of the development environment plug-ins, so this method is not available from those interfaces.

6.1. Setting your user jobview

To set your user jobview in the Perforce Windows GUI, follow these steps:

1. Choose User > Edit spqr (where "spqr" is your Perforce userid).
2. Type a jobview into the JobView field (see section 4 for advice on choosing a jobview).

To set your user jobview from the Perforce command line, follow these steps:

1. Edit your user spec by typing p4 user.
2. Add a JobView field to your user spec if you don't yet have one.
3. Enter a jobview into the JobView field (see section 4 for advice on choosing a jobview)

6.2. Using the Perforce Windows GUI to start work and link it to issues

To start work and link it to an issue, follow these steps:

1. Choose Changelist > View Pending Changelists. This selects the Pending Perforce Changelists pane.
2. Choose Changelist > New. This brings up the dialog shown in figure 4.
3. Enter a description of the changes you're making in the Description field.
4. Uncheck any edits that you don't want to include in the Filespecs list. (The Filespecs list is the list of edits from the default changelist.)
5. Check the boxes next to the names of the jobs with which you want to link your edits. (If the list of jobs doesn't show up, then cancel the dialog, press F5, and try again.)
6. Choose the status to which you want to change those jobs from the JobStatus menu. The statuses are changed when the changelist is submitted.
7. Click Update to create the changelist.

You can also add more links to jobs by selecting the changelist, choosing Changelist > Edit Spec, and repeating the steps above.

To add more links and set the status of the jobs to "closed", follow these steps:

1. Select the changelist that you want to link.
2. Choose Changelist > Add Job Fix.
3. Select the set of jobs you want to link the changelist with in the dialog. (See figure 11 for an example.)
4. Click OK.

Note that the list of jobs in this dialog is not related to your user jobview. It's the same list as in the Perforce Jobs pane. (See figure 2 for an example of the Perforce Jobs pane).

To add more edits to the changelist later, drag the edits from other changelists.

To check out files for edit, drag them from the depot view.

To delete links to jobs, select the link inside the changelist and choose Changelist > Remove Job Fix.

Figure 4. Creating a new changelist and linking it to jobs

6.3. Using the Perforce command line to start work and link it to issues

To start work and link it to an issue, follow these steps:

1. Create a new pending changelist with your changes by using the following command:

   p4 change -s

   This command opens a change specification in your editor. With the "-s" option, a list of jobs that match your jobview appears in the text form (see figure 7). Don't forget the -s option to the p4 change command. This was new in Perforce 2000.2.
2. Enter a description of your changes under the "Description" heading, as usual.
3. Delete any edits that you don't want to include from the Filespecs list. (The Filespecs list is the list of edits from the default changelist.)

4. Edit the keyword next to the names of the jobs you want linked with the change. When the change is submitted, the change is linked with the jobs, and the job statuses change to match this keyword. Jobs that have the keyword "ignore" won't be changed or linked.

   For example, your jobspec might match three jobs which show up as shown in figure 5. (If it doesn't look like this, then either you don't have a jobview set or else you forget the -s option).

   Figure 5. Jobs section of a new change form.

   Jobs: BUG00001 ignore # The division operator gets its BUG00002 ignore # There's no delete command BUG00003 ignore # When -O3 is specified, some loo

   Suppose that your change fixes BUG00001, partially fixes BUG00002 (so leaving it open), and is unrelated to BUG00003. Then you'd edit the form to look as shown in figure 6.

   Figure 6. Jobs section of a change form, showing intended effect of submitting the changelist.

   Jobs: BUG00001 closed # The division operator gets its BUG00002 open # There's no delete command BUG00003 ignore # When -O3 is specified, some loo

5. Add similar lines to the Jobs section of the form for other jobs you want to link. Delete lines for jobs you don't want linked.
6. Close your editor to create a pending changelist with the jobs linked.

When you submit a pending changelist later, the status of the linked jobs changes as specified. (To submit a pending changelist, use a command like p4 submit -c changelist).

You can also add more links to jobs by using the following command:

p4 change -s changelist

where changelist is the number of the changelist you created above. Don't forget the -s option to the p4 change command. This was new in Perforce 2000.2.

To link pending changelists with jobs, use a command like the following:

p4 fix -s resolved -c 3004 ENH00034 BUG00094

(where "resolved" is the status you want the jobs to change to, "3004" is the pending changelist number, and "ENH00034" and "BUG00094" are the jobs you want to link the changelist with).

To add more edits to the changelist later, use the -c option to many Perforce commands, or move the edits from other changelists using the p4 reopen -c command. For more information, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

To remove links, use a command like the following:

p4 fix -d -c 3004 ENH00034 BUG00094

(where "resolved" is the status you want the jobs to change to, "3004" is the pending changelist number, and "ENH00034" and "BUG00094" are the jobs you want to remove the link from).

# A Perforce Change Specification....

Change:	new

Client:	newton-skylark

User:	newton

Status:	new

Description:
	<enter description here>

Jobs:
	BUG00003 ignore	# When -O3 is specified, some loo
	BUG00001 ignore	# The division operator gets its
	BUG00002 ignore	# There's no delete command

Files:
	//depot/project/editor/src/buffer.c	# edit
	//depot/project/editor/src/buffer.h	# edit

7. Submitting partial work while keeping issues

You can submit a change and link it to an issue without changing the issue status. This procedure allows an organization to track partially completed work that's related to an issue, as well as the final submission that resolves it.

Note: Your organization's policy regarding links between changes and issues might not allow you to use this feature. For more information, consult your manager or P4DTI administrator.

If you're linking intermediate stages of changelists with issues, you probably don't want to change the status of the issue. The way to do this is to link the changelist with the issue as usual, but with the same status as the issue currently has. For example, in Perforce you can use the p4 fix command with the "-s" argument set to the current status of that issue. When linking the final check-in, the "-s" argument is something like "fixed" or "resolved" or perhaps "closed".

To submit partial work while keeping issues, follow the procedures described in Section 8, except that, when fixing the job, set the status to the job's current status, rather than to the resolved status.

8. Submitting completed work and resolving issues

Once you have completed work on a job, you can use Perforce to submit the associated changelist, link the changelist to the job, and change the job status, all at the same time.

Make sure your jobview is set before you follow the procedures in this section. See Section 6.1, "Setting your user jobview".

Perforce 2001.1 has no way of linking submitted changelists with jobs from the Web GUI (P4Web).

8.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To submit completed work and resolve issues, follow these steps:

1. Choose Changelist > View Pending Changelists. This selects the Pending Perforce Changelists pane.
2. Select the changelist you want to submit.
3. Choose Changelist > Submit. This command opens the dialog shown in figure 8.
4. Enter a description of the changes you're making in the Description field.
5. Check the boxes next to the names of the jobs with which you want to link your edits. (If the list of jobs doesn't show up, then cancel the dialog, press F5, and try again.)
6. Select the status to which you want to change those jobs from the JobStatus menu.
7. Click Submit to submit the changelist, link to the jobs, and change the job statuses.

Figure 8. Selecting jobs to link when submitting from the Perforce Windows GUI with a jobview set

8.2. From the Perforce command line

If the edits you want to link are on your default changelist, follow these steps to submit completed work and resolve issues:

1. Enter the command

   p4 submit -s

   This command opens a change specification in your editor. With the "-s" option, a list of jobs that match your jobview appears in the text form. (See figure 7 for an example.) Don't forget the -s option to the p4 change command. This was new in Perforce 2000.2.
2. Enter a description of your changes under the "Description" heading, as usual.
3. Edit the keyword next to the names of the jobs you want linked with the change. The change is linked with the jobs, and the job statuses are changed to match this keyword. Jobs that have the keyword "ignore" won't be changed or linked.
4. Add similar lines for other jobs you want to link. Delete lines for jobs you don't want linked.
5. Close your editor to submit the change, link the jobs, and change their statuses.

If the edits you want to link are on a pending changelist, follow these steps:

1. Edit the changelist as described in Section 6.3, "Using the Perforce command line to start work and link it to issues".

2. Submit the changelist by entering the command

   p4 submit -c changelist

8.3. Using the Perforce development environment plug-ins

To submit completed work and resolve issues, follow these steps:

1. Begin your usual check-in procedure. When the check-in dialog opens, leave the check-in comment blank and click OK. This procedure opens a second, more detailed, dialog that includes a list of jobs to choose from. (See figure 9 for an example.)
2. Enter a description of your changes, as usual.
3. Delete the jobs you don't want to link with your changelist from the list. You may also add similar lines for other jobs you want to link.
4. Enter the new status for the jobs in the JobStatus field.
5. Click OK to submit the changes.

When you submit your changelist, the status of the jobs you left in the form is updated to match the JobStatus field and the changelist is linked with them with that status.

Figure 9. Selecting jobs to link when submitting from Visual Studio

9. Linking already-completed work to an issue

You can use Perforce to link a change that you've already made with a issue you've been assigned. For example, suppose you realize that a change you made yesterday also resolves some issues you've been assigned to work on today. You can record this information in the defect tracking system and get rid of those issues.

Note: The defect tracker's workflow might prevent you from linking to an issue that you don't own. If you try, the P4DTI removes your link and sends you e-mail.

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of linking submitted changelists with jobs from the Web GUI (P4Web) or any of the development environment plug-ins.

9.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To link already-completed work to an issue, follow these steps:

1. Choose Changelist > View Submitted Changelists to view the Submitted Perforce Changelists pane. (See figure 10 for an example.)
2. Select the changelist that you want to link.
3. Choose Changelist > Add Job Fix.
4. Select the set of jobs you want to link with the changelist in the dialog box that opens. (See figure 11 for an example.)
5. If you're using P4Win release 2001.1 or later, select the status to which you want to change those jobs from the Job Status menu. (If you're using an earlier P4Win release, then those jobs will simply be closed: you don't get an opportunity to specify their status.)
6. Click OK.

Figure 10. Viewing the submitted changelists

Figure 11. Adding a job fix

9.2. From the Perforce command line

To link already-completed work to an issue from the Perforce command line, enter a p4 fix command. For example, the following command links changelist 4096 with issues ENH00023 and BUG001239 and changes their status to "resolved":

p4 fix -s resolved -c 4096 ENH00023 BUG001239

If you don't specify a "-s" option, the issue status is changed to "closed".

10. Finding the changes linked to an issue

You can use Perforce or the defect tracker to see the changes resulting from an issue, as described in the following subsections. This procedure is useful if you need to:

• find out what was done about a bug
• verify that an issue has been dealt with correctly
• check that all the changes linked with the issue are properly justified
• see what areas of the code have changed so that you can direct testing at those areas

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of finding the changes resulting from an issue from the Windows GUI, the Web GUI (P4Web), or any of the development environment plug-ins.

10.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To find the changes linked to an issue, follow these steps:

1. Choose Job > View Jobs. This selects the Perforce Jobs pane. (See figure 2 for an example.)
2. Select the job you want to know about.
3. Choose Job > Describe jobname.
4. Click the Show Fixes button. (If there are changelists linked with the job, then this button appears at the bottom of the job description window.)
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the job to see the linked changes under the "Fixes" heading, as shown in figure 12.
6. Right-click on the changelist number and choose Describe Changelist to get a full description of a change.

Figure 12. Finding linked changes from the Perforce Windows GUI

10.2. From the Perforce command line

To find the changes linked with an issue, enter a p4 fixes command. For example, the following command lists the changes resulting from issue ENH00034:

p4 fixes -j ENH00034

For details, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

10.3. Using the defect tracker

In TeamTrack, look in the "Version Control" section of the case form to find the changes linked with an issue (see figure 13). If you don't see the Version Control section, follow these steps to display it:

1. Click the User button.
2. Check the Version Control check box under the Other Display Options heading.
3. Click the Save Profile button.

Figure 13. The changes linked with a TeamTrack case

In Bugzilla, look in the "Perforce replication" section of the bug form to find the changes linked with an issue (see figure 14). If you don't see the Perforce replication section, contact your P4DTI administrator.

Figure 14. The changes linked with a Bugzilla bug

11. Finding the issues linked with a change

You can use Perforce to see the issues linked with a changelist.

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of finding the issues linked with a changelist from the Web GUI (P4Web) or any of the development environment plug-ins.

11.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To find the issues linked with a change, follow these steps:

1. Select the changelist you're interested in.
2. Choose Changelist > Describe Changelist number.
3. Look under the Jobs Fixed heading to see the issues linked with this changelist. (See figure 15 for an example.)

Figure 15. Finding linked issues from the Perforce Windows GUI

11.2. From the Perforce command line

To find the issues linked with a change, enter a p4 fixes command. For example, the following command finds the issues linked with changelist 4339:

p4 fixes -c 4339

For details, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

12. Finding the files affected by an issue

You can use Perforce to find out which files were changed in order to fix an issue. To do this, you first need to find out the changelists linked with the issue, as described in Section 11, "Finding the issues linked with a change".

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of finding files that were checked in for an issue from the Web GUI (P4Web), or any of the development environment plug-ins.

12.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To find the files affected by an issue, follow these steps:

1. Find out the changelists linked with the issue, as described in Section 11, "Finding the issues linked with a change".
2. Choose Changelist > View Submitted Changelists to view the Submitted Perforce Changelists pane. (See figure 10 for an example.)
3. Select the changelist you're interested in.
4. Choose Changelist > Describe Changelist number.
5. Look under the "Affected files" heading to see the list of affected files (see figure 15).

12.2. From the Perforce command line

To find the files affected by an issue, follow these steps:

1. Find out the changelists linked with the issue, as described in Section 11, "Finding the issues linked with a change".

2. Enter a p4 describe command at the Perforce command line. For example, the following command outputs a list of the files that were checked in to fix the issue and the diffs for those files:

   p4 describe 4339

   For more information, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

13. Finding out how files have been affected by issues

You can use the Perforce command line to find the issues linked with particular files. This procedure is very useful for finding out which issues have affected files in the past.

To find out how a file has been affected by an issue, enter a p4 fixes or a p4 jobs command at the Perforce command line. For example, the following command lists the links and changelists for the files with a ".c" extension in the "/depot/foo/bar" directory:

p4 fixes //depot/foo/bar/*.c

The following command lists all the issues that have been linked to all the files with a ".c" extension in the "/depot/foo/bar" directory:

p4 jobs //depot/foo/bar/*.c

For more information, see the Perforce Command Line User's Guide.

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of finding issues linked with files from the Windows GUI, the Web GUI (P4Web), or any of the development environment plug-ins.

14. Finding the issues you're working on

If you've been linking your work with issues as described in Section 6, you can find out which issues you're working on. This procedure is useful when, for example, you are resuming work on a project after a few days away and can't quite remember which issues you were last working on.

To find who's working on an issue, or issues you were working on in a different workspace, see Section 15, "Finding out where an issue is being worked on and by whom".)

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of finding issues being worked on in a particular workspace from the Web GUI (P4Web) or any of the development environment plug-ins.

14.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To find the issues you're working on, follow these steps:

1. Choose Changelist > View Pending Changelists. This selects the Pending Perforce Changelists pane.
2. Click on the plus (+) symbol to expand the list of pending changelists for your client.
3. Expand the pending changelists by clicking on their plus symbols. The jobs you were working on show up with an icon of a wrench in the list of edits.

14.2. From the Perforce command line

To find out what you were working on, use a combination of the p4 changes and p4 fixes commands. For example, the following command finds your pending changelists:

p4 changes -s pending | grep username

The following command then shows the issues you were working on in that changelist:

p4 fixes -c changelist

15. Finding out where an issue is being worked on and by whom

If other people at your organization are linking their work with issues as described in Section 6, you can find out who's working on an issue and in which workspace. This procedure is useful when you know that someone is working on an issue but you don't know who or where their work is--they might be on vacation, or have left the company, or perhaps it's you and you've just forgotten all about it.

To find out which issues you were working on in a particular workspace, see Section 14, "Finding the issues you're working on".

Perforce 2001.1 does not provide a way of finding the workspace in which a issue is being worked on from the Web GUI (P4Web) or any of the development environment plug-ins.

15.1. In the Perforce Windows GUI

To find out where an issue is being worked on, follow these steps:

1. Choose Job > View Jobs. This selects the Perforce Jobs pane. (See figure 2 for an example.)
2. Select the job you want to know about.
3. Choose Job > Describe jobname.
4. Click the Show Fixes button. (If there are changelists linked with the job, then this button appears at the bottom of the job description window.)
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the job to see the linked changes under the Fixes heading, as shown in figure 12. You can't tell the difference between pending and submitted changelists in the Fixes list, so you need to compare the linked changes in this job with the changelists in the Pending Perforce Changelists pane.
6. Choose Changelist > View Pending Changelists. This selects the Pending Perforce Changelists pane.
7. Look at the "Pending Changelists (other clients)" list to see if any of the linked changes from the Fixes list appear here. If so, the change tells you the user and client (workspace).

15.2. From the Perforce command line

To find out where an issue is being worked on, use a combination of the p4 fixes and p4 changes commands. For example, the following commands list the changelists that are linked to BUG0743 and the list of pending changelists:

p4 fixes -j BUG0743
p4 changes -s pending

Any changelists that appear in both lists are work in progress, and this tells you the user and client (workspace) where the work is happening.

16. Finding out which issues have been fixed in a release

Once you have the P4DTI running successfully and all developers are conscientiously creating fix records in Perforce (see sections 6 to 9), then it is possible to automatically generate lists of fixed and open issues for a release.

To discover which issues have been fixed in a release, issue the command:

p4 fixes -i files-contributing-to-the-release

To specify the files contributing to the release:

1. If each release has its own branch, use a filespec like //depot/project/foo/release/2.7/....
2. If releases are identified by a changelevel on a branch, use a filespec like //depot/project/foo/version/2/...@12345.
3. If releases are identified by labels, use a filespec like //depot/project/foo/...@release-2.7.

This generates a list of fixes in the source contributing to the release. From this list you need to extract the fixes that actually closed the job, because there may be fixes that don't actually close the job; see section 7. Then you need to remove duplicate entries, because there may be several fixes that close a job. On Unix systems you can do this with a command like:

p4 fixes -i files-contributing-to-the-release |
grep -v '\)$' | cut -f 1 -d ' ' | sort -u

if jobs are closed by fixing them to 'closed', or with a command like

p4 fixes -i files-contributing-to-the-release |
grep '(closed-state)$' | cut -f 1 -d ' ' | sort -u

if jobs are closed by fixing them to closed-state. (There are two alternatives here because the p4 fixes command has one format for fixes to "closed" and another for fixes to any other status.)

This allows you to work out the jobs fixed in a release of a product. Then:

• You can work out the issues newly fixed in a release (to put in release notes, for example) by taking the difference between the issues fixed in that release and the issues fixed in the previous release.
• You can work out which issues are known in a release by taking the difference between the issues fixed in that release and the total list of issues for that project or product.

A. References

B. Document History

Glossary

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