Jobmerge.rb.md #1

What It's For
-------------

As of 2006.1 ([change
103651](http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.current/user/relnotes.txt)),
the Perforce server will detect concurrent edits to jobs by comparing
the Date field (or any similar field in your jobspec) of an incoming job
to the current value. If they differ, it means the user was editing an
old version of the job, and they will be rejected with an error message
like "Date is a read-only always field and can't be changed...".

This form-in trigger builds on this method of concurrent edit detection
and the existence of a spec depot to do automated merging when two users
edit a job concurrently. Before the server checks the updated job, the
trigger uses the modified date to set up a simple three-way merge that
preserves edits made to different fields. If it is successful, the
incoming form is replaced with the merge results, which includes an
updated Date field (thereby bypassing the error). If the merge fails
because the same field was edited by both users, the trigger emits a
warning indicating which field is in conflict, but doesn't touch the
spec.

Setup and Details
-----------------

### Requirements

You need
[P4Ruby](http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.current/manuals/p4script/01_ruby.html),
an existing spec depot, and a server that supports form-in triggers.

Note that to find the base of a merge, the trigger will try to do a
print of the spec depot file as of the Date in the spec, so if that
timestamp predates the spec depot, the merge won't work (until the job
is updated and a fresh version is stored with a fresh timestamp).

### Basic Installation

Modify the beginning of the script to supply the required information
about your connection settings and your spec depot.

Add a trigger entry like this:

`Triggers:`\
`      jobmerge form-in job "ruby jobmerge.rb %formfile% %user%"`

### Extra Options

You might have some fields whose values you don't care enough about to
block conflicting edits of, or users who you'd rather lose edits than
encounter errors (e.g. automated processes or any data produced by them
which will just get regenerated anyway). The script lets you resolve
these conflicts ahead of time as follows:

**accept\_yours** specifies an array of fields where it's always okay to
override what's in the db.

**accept\_theirs** specifies an array of fields where it's always okay
to override the user's change.

**ignore\_users** specifies an array of users where it's always okay to
ignore their conflicting edits.

{{ RecentChanges | //guest/sam\_stafford/scripts/jobmerge.rb }}

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