<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 3.2 final//en">
<html>
<head>
<title>Perforce Basics</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="perforcehelp.css">
</head>
<body>
<h1>Introduction to Perforce</h1>
<h2>Basic Terminology </h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Depot</b>: the central repository where file revisions are stored and
managed by the Perforce Server.</li>
<li> <b>Workspace</b>: the area on your computer where you work with your copies
of files that are under Perforce control.</li>
<li><b>Perforce Server</b>: the program that manages file revisions.</li>
<li><b>Changelist</b>: A group of files, with a description explaining how you’ve
changed them (for example, “Fix bug #123”). Changelists are assigned
numbers by the Perforce Server so you can track them. Changelists enable you to group related files and submit them together.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following diagram shows the relationship between workspace and depot.
<p><img src="../images/basics.png" >
<h2>Basic Tasks</h2>
<ul>
<li><b>Retrieve</b> a file: Retrieve a copy of a file version from the depot. <b>Note:</b> Perforce also uses the term "sync" to mean "retrieve a file." This usage is different from the Eclipse term "synchronize."</li>
<li> <b>Check out</b>: enables you to change the file.
<li> <b>Mark</b> for add or delete: indicates that the file is added to or deleted from the depot when the changelist is submitted .</li>
<li> <b>Revert</b> a file: Discard any changes you have made to an open file.
If you open a file for edit and make changes, then change your mind and revert
the file, Perforce reloads the last version you got from the depot and discards
your changes.</li>
<li> <b>Submit</b> a changelist: Update the depot to reflect any changes you’ve
made to files in the changelist. Submitting is an all-or-nothing operation: if there’s
a problem submitting one file in a changelist, none of the other files in
the changelist are updated.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Perforce File Decorations</h2>
<p>File decorations indicate status as follows.</p>
<table width="36%" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="25%"><img src="../images/add.png" width="7" height="7"></td>
<td width="75%">Marked for add</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="25%"><img src="../images/delete.png" width="7" height="7"></td>
<td width="75%">Marked for delete</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="25%" height="8"><img src="../images/edit.png" width="7" height="7"></td>
<td width="75%" height="8">Checked out by you</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="25%"><img src="../images/edit_other.png" width="7" height="7"></td>
<td width="75%">Checked out by another user</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="25%"><img src="../images/lock.png" width="7" height="7"></td>
<td width="75%">Locked</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="25%"><img src="../images/notsync.png" width="7" height="7"></td>
<td width="75%">Version in workspace is not latest version</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="25%"><img src="../images/sync.png" width="7" height="7"></td>
<td width="75%">Workspace version is up to date</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="25%"><img src="../images/unresolved.png" width="7" height="7"><br>
</td>
<td width="75%">Needs resolve <br>
(conflicting changes have been made)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>For more details about configuring P4Eclipse, see <a href="preferences.html">Setting Preferences</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><img src="../images/perforcelogo.png" alt="Copyright Perforce Software 2003-2012. All Rights Reserved." ></p>
<p><font size="-2">This product includes software developed by the Eclipse Project
(http://www.eclipse.org/). </font> </p>
</body>
</html>