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<div class="container"><button name="toc" type="button" class="toc"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-list"></span></button><span class="logo"><a href="http://www.perforce.com/documentation"></a></span><h1><a href="index.html" class="title"><span class="brand"></span><span class="guide-title">P4Convert: User Guide</span><span class="guide-subtitle">
(April 2015)
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<h1 class="title">What is p4convert for?</h1>
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<p>
The p4convert conversion tool imports data from Subversion or CVS and
reconstructs the file revision history in Perforce. For CVS the data is
read from the CVSROOT and for Subversion data is read from a dump file.
Data is added to Perforce in one of two ways:
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<h2 class="title" style="clear: both">Import Mode (front door)</h2>
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<p>
Revisions are imported into a running Perforce Server. The Perforce
Server could be new or contain existing data, but it must be running.
Subversion revisions are added sequentially; file content is 'imported'
and metadata such as file attributes, descriptions, dates and usernames
are added to the Perforce changelist. CVS data is sorted into
changeslists, based on available metadata such as date/time, author,
change descriptions and file actions.
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<p>
The recommended use of Import Mode is to start a new Perforce server to
import each set of changes into a Perforce changelist. Using this
method will produce a one-to-one mapping of Subversion revision numbers
to Perforce changelists and a reproducible set of CVS changes. The new
Perforce server can be used in isolation to confirm the success of the
migration and then merged with an existing Perforce Server using the
<span class="application">PerfMerge++</span> tool.
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