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What is the Server Deployment Package (SDP)?

Supported Open Source Software

When deployed or certified by Perforce P4 Consulting, the core functionality of the SDP is officially supported by Perforce Support, except for files in the Unsupported directory tree (which are community supported).

The SDP is open source software (see the LICENSE), and accepts contributions (pending code review) from the user community.

Documentation References

The following documentation is included in the SDP:

  • Release Notes (PDF | HTML) - Learn What's New 2026.1, see summarized Change History, and more.
  • SDP_Guide.Unix (PDF | HTML) - Detailed documentation for SDP on UNIX/Linux.
  • SDP_Legacy_Upgrades.Unix (PDF | HTML) - Detailed documentation for upgrading SDP from pre-2020.1 versions. Once on SDP 2020.1, upgrades to newer versions are simplified with sdp_upgrade.sh.
  • SDP_Guide.Windows (PDF | HTML) - Detailed documentation for SDP on Windows.
  • SDP_Failover_Guide (PDF | HTML) - Targeted document with information you need to know when executing a failover for which you have prepared (on UNIX/Linux or Windows). The SDP guides contain more information for planning for failover.
  • SDP_Developer_Guide (PDF | HTML) - Information about working on and contributing to the SDP.

Features and Benefits

The following describes some of the many features and benefits of using the SDP to manage P4.

Optimal Performance, Data Safety, and Simplified Backup

The SDP provides a standard structure for operating Perforce that is optimized for performance, scalability, and ease of backup. The SDP Guide includes documentation that promotes volume layout and storage architecture best practices.

A key SDP feature is that it maintains an offline copy of live databases. This has many benefits:

  • Zero downtime for daily metadata checkpoint operations.
  • Greater data safety and redundancy with an extra copy of metadata.
  • Faster alternative path to recovery, bypassing checkpoint replays.
  • Ability to swap live with regenerated databases with minimal downtime.
  • Faster edge seed checkpoint creation.
  • Edge reseed or recovery with minimized downtime.

To simplify backup, all digital assets are in a single directory. Live databases that should not be backed up directly live in another, and active log files in another. For any scale environment, this makes it easy to back up the server's critical data. These directories are a natural fit for storage volume mount points, with the layout promoting best performance and data safety.

Best Practice Configurables

The SDP also maintains, on an ongoing basis, a set of best-practices configuration settings (e.g. 'configurables' and environment settings) suited to production environments, which often differ from p4d defaults.

High Availability (HA)

The SDP supports a variety of methods for achieving high availability that benefit simple, single-server environments and sophisticated global enterprise environments, and all in between. Standardized and documented recovery procedures, offline databases, and optional replication (made easier with the SDP) all make HA easier to achieve.

There is more detailed discussions and references in the SDP Guides noted above.

Disaster Recovery (DR)

Just as with HA, the SDP makes it easier to implement robust, reliable DR strategies.

There is more detailed discussions and references in the SDP Guides noted above.

Fast and Safe Upgrades

The SDP makes upgrades of P4 server products fast and easy, regardless of the scale of your environment. By taking advantage of the offline database structure, the SDP enables upgrades with just a few minutes of downtime (enough to do a journal rotation).

Production Focus

The p4d executable, without any configuration, is optimized for evaluation and demonstration purposes. While it has many features that can make it reliable and robust, many of those features must be configured. The SDP is intended to be used for production environments or more realistic Proof of Concept installations.

Sophistication Simplified - Replicas, Edges, Proxies, Brokers

In addition to the basics, the SDP provides structure, standards, guidance, and automation that greatly simplify deployment and management of sophisticated P4 global topologies. For example, the SDP includes tools that greatly simplify complex tasks such as:

  • Adding new replicas and edge servers to a topology
  • Checkpointing master and edge servers without down time for users
  • Providing a consistent way to upgrade core P4 components in a global topology.

Multi-Instance Management

The SDP supports operation of multiple instances of P4 on a machine, allowing each instance to have differing configuration, e.g. different:

  • Versions of software components (p4d, p4broker, etc.)
  • Case Sensitivity setting (sensitive/insensitive)
  • Unicode setting (enabled/disabled)

Shell Environment Management

The SDP provides standard mechanism for defining a controlled shell environment. This benefits p4d and other Perforce software products directly, and also provides good examples of controlling the environment for supporting automation.

Perforce Automation Standards

The SDP defines a standard for installing and configuring derived APIs. For example, Python is built with P4Python in /p4/common/python, and Perl with P4Perl in /p4/common/perl.

Extending SDP in a Supported Way

Most Perforce P4 customers use the SDP as-is. Others benefit by incorporating concepts and ideas from the SDP into their own environments, e.g. for development of custom policy enforcement triggers, systems integrations, promoting or enforcing local naming conventions, etc. The site directory (/p4/common/site) is provided for this purpose. For more information, see The Site Directory.

Helm Management System

The Helm Management System (HMS) is a separate, community-supported product that builds on the SDP. This is likely to be of interest at installations with sophisticated global topologies and/or a fleet of SDP instances to manage.

Training

Perforce offers Battle School Workshop, a hands-on training environment that simulates a realistic global P4 topology, including failure scenarios, for learning and practicing SDP administration. Contact Perforce Consulting (p4consulting@perforce.com) for more information.

Platform Support

The P4 SDP 2026.1 supports the following operating systems.

Supported Platforms

Operating System SDP Support Status Notes
RHEL/Rocky Linux 8.10+ S Supported.
RHEL/Rocky Linux 9.x S Supported.
RHEL/Rocky Linux 10.x S Supported.
Ubuntu Linux 22.04 LTS Release (Jammy Jellyfish) S Supported.
Ubuntu Linux 24.04 LTS Release (Noble Numbat) S Supported.
SLES Linux 15 SPx S Supported.
Windows L Supported.

Support Codes

  • S: Support, actively tested and included one or more automated regression test suites. Platform-specific issues are within normal SDP support scope.
  • L: Limited support; not actively tested but known or expected to function. Platform-specific issues may be investigated on a case-by-case basis.
  • U: Unsupported; not tested and no support commitment. Platform-specific issues may be declined or deferred.

Other Platforms

Operating System SDP Support Status Notes
Amazon Linux 2023 L Limited. Not actively tested, but expected to work.
Amazon Linux 2 U Unsupported. This went EOL on June 30, 2026.
CentOS 8 Stream Linux U Unsupported. CentOS Stream is not actively tested with SDP and is not recommended for production SDP deployments.
CentOS/RHEL Linux 6.9 U Unsupported. EOL.
CentOS/RHEL Linux 7.9+ U Unsupported. This went EOL on June 30, 2024.
Fedora Linux U Unsupported. Discouraged for production use. Fedora is a fast-moving development-oriented distribution and is not tested with SDP.
macOS 10.14 Mojave U Unsupported. Some early SDP testing was done on macOS. There is no plan to support newer versions of macOS due to lack of demand and significant OS changes.
SLES Linux 12 U Unsupported. EOL. Historical SDP deployments have succeeded, but no ongoing testing is performed.
Ubuntu Linux 26.04 LTS Release (Resolute Raccoon) U Unsupported. Known compatibility issues currently affect SDP operation. Avoid until these issues are resolved.
Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS Release (Focal Fossa) U Unsupported. Standard OS support ended May 31, 2025, ESM available through 2030.
Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS Release (Bionic Beaver) U Unsupported. EOL. Known SDP compatibility issues exist with the default shell environment.
Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS Release (Xenial) U Unsupported. EOL.

Platform Support Disclaimer

Platform support status reflects SDP testing and support policy, not necessarily the support status of the underlying operating system provider.

Need Support on Other Platforms?

If you need support on an unlisted or non-Linux platform, ask Perforce P4 Consulting (p4consulting@perforce.com).

SDP Code Quality

A set of 3 separate automated regression test suites with human and AI-assisted code review processes help ensure code quality. This is supplemented by manual testing, often in a P4 Battle School Workshop training lab environment. Contact Perforce Consulting (p4consulting@perforce.com) for more information.

See more details about the test suite in the Test Suite README file.

# What is the Server Deployment Package (SDP)?

## Supported Open Source Software

*When deployed or certified by Perforce P4 Consulting*, the core functionality of the SDP is officially supported by Perforce Support, except for files in the `Unsupported` directory tree (which are community supported).

The SDP is open source software (see the [LICENSE](LICENSE)), and accepts contributions (pending code review) from the user community.

## Documentation References

The following documentation is included in the SDP:

* Release Notes ([PDF](doc/ReleaseNotes.pdf) | [HTML](/view/p4-sdp/main/doc/ReleaseNotes.html)) - Learn What's New 2026.1, see summarized Change History, and more.
* SDP_Guide.Unix ([PDF](doc/SDP_Guide.Unix.pdf) | [HTML](/view/p4-sdp/main/doc/SDP_Guide.Unix.html)) - Detailed documentation for SDP on UNIX/Linux.
* SDP_Legacy_Upgrades.Unix ([PDF](doc/SDP_Legacy_Upgrades.Unix.pdf) | [HTML](/view/p4-sdp/main/doc/SDP_Legacy_Upgrades.Unix.html)) - Detailed documentation for upgrading SDP from pre-2020.1 versions. Once on SDP 2020.1, upgrades to newer versions are simplified with `sdp_upgrade.sh`.
* SDP_Guide.Windows ([PDF](doc/SDP_Guide.Windows.pdf) | [HTML](/view/p4-sdp/main/doc/SDP_Guide.Windows.html)) - Detailed documentation for SDP on Windows.
* SDP_Failover_Guide ([PDF](doc/SDP_Failover_Guide.pdf) | [HTML](/view/p4-sdp/main/doc/SDP_Failover_Guide.html)) - Targeted document with information you need to know when _executing_ a failover for which you have prepared (on UNIX/Linux or Windows).  The SDP guides contain more information for _planning_ for failover.
* SDP_Developer_Guide ([PDF](doc/SDP_DeveloperGuide.pdf) | [HTML](/view/p4-sdp/main/doc/SDP_DeveloperGuide.html)) - Information about working on and contributing to the SDP.

## Features and Benefits

The following describes some of the many features and benefits of using the SDP to manage P4.

### Optimal Performance, Data Safety, and Simplified Backup

The SDP provides a standard structure for operating Perforce that is optimized for performance, scalability, and ease of backup. The SDP Guide includes documentation that promotes volume layout and storage architecture best practices.

A key SDP feature is that it maintains an offline copy of live databases. This has many benefits:

* **Zero downtime** for daily metadata checkpoint operations.
* Greater data safety and redundancy with an extra copy of metadata.
* Faster alternative path to recovery, bypassing checkpoint replays.
* Ability to swap live with regenerated databases with minimal downtime.
* Faster edge seed checkpoint creation.
* Edge reseed or recovery with minimized downtime.

To simplify backup, all digital assets are in a single directory.  Live databases that should not be backed up directly live in another, and active log files in another.  For any scale environment, this makes it easy to back up the server's critical data.  These directories are a natural fit for storage volume mount points, with the layout promoting best performance and data safety.

### Best Practice Configurables

The SDP also maintains, on an ongoing basis, a set of best-practices configuration settings (e.g. 'configurables' and environment settings) suited to production environments, which often differ from p4d defaults.

### High Availability (HA)

The SDP supports a variety of methods for achieving high availability that benefit simple, single-server environments and sophisticated global enterprise environments, and all in between.  Standardized and documented recovery procedures, offline databases, and optional replication (made easier with the SDP) all make HA easier to achieve.

There is more detailed discussions and references in the SDP Guides noted above.

### Disaster Recovery (DR)

Just as with HA, the SDP makes it easier to implement robust, reliable DR strategies.

There is more detailed discussions and references in the SDP Guides noted above.

### Fast and Safe Upgrades

The SDP makes upgrades of P4 server products fast and easy, regardless of the scale of your environment.  By taking advantage of the offline database structure, the SDP enables upgrades with just a few minutes of downtime (enough to do a journal rotation).

### Production Focus

The p4d executable, without any configuration, is optimized for evaluation and demonstration purposes.  While it has many features that can make it reliable and robust, many of those features must be configured.  The SDP is intended to be used for production environments or more realistic Proof of Concept installations.

### Sophistication Simplified - Replicas, Edges, Proxies, Brokers

In addition to the basics, the SDP provides **structure**, **standards**, **guidance**, and **automation** that greatly simplify deployment and management of sophisticated P4 global topologies.  For example, the SDP includes tools that greatly simplify complex tasks such as:

* Adding new replicas and edge servers to a topology
* Checkpointing master and edge servers without down time for users
* Providing a consistent way to upgrade core P4 components in a global topology.

### Multi-Instance Management

The SDP supports operation of multiple instances of P4 on a machine, allowing each instance to have differing configuration, e.g. different:

* Versions of software components (p4d, p4broker, etc.)
* Case Sensitivity setting (sensitive/insensitive)
* Unicode setting (enabled/disabled)

### Shell Environment Management

The SDP provides standard mechanism for defining a controlled shell environment.  This benefits p4d and other Perforce software products directly, and also provides good examples of controlling the environment for supporting automation.

### Perforce Automation Standards

The SDP defines a standard for installing and configuring derived APIs.  For example, Python is built with P4Python in /p4/common/python, and Perl with P4Perl in /p4/common/perl.

### Extending SDP in a Supported Way

Most Perforce P4 customers use the SDP as-is.  Others benefit by incorporating concepts and ideas from the SDP into their own environments, e.g. for development of custom policy enforcement triggers, systems integrations, promoting or enforcing local naming conventions, etc. The `site` directory (`/p4/common/site`) is provided for this purpose.  For more information, see [The Site Directory](/view/p4-sdp/main/doc/TheSiteDirectory.html).

### Helm Management System

The [Helm Management System (HMS)](https://swarm.workshop.perforce.com/projects/perforce_software-hms) is a separate, community-supported product that builds on the SDP.  This is likely to be of interest at installations with sophisticated global topologies and/or a fleet of SDP instances to manage.

### Training

Perforce offers Battle School Workshop, a hands-on training environment that simulates a realistic global P4 topology, including failure scenarios, for learning and practicing SDP administration. Contact Perforce Consulting (p4consulting@perforce.com) for more information.

## Platform Support

The P4 SDP 2026.1 supports the following operating systems.

### Supported Platforms

Operating System | SDP Support Status | Notes
--- | --- | ---
RHEL/Rocky Linux 8.10+ | S | **Supported**.
RHEL/Rocky Linux 9.x | S | **Supported**.
RHEL/Rocky Linux 10.x | S | **Supported**.
Ubuntu Linux 22.04 LTS Release (Jammy Jellyfish)| S| **Supported**.
Ubuntu Linux 24.04 LTS Release (Noble Numbat)| S| **Supported**.
SLES Linux 15 SPx | S | **Supported**.
Windows | L | **Supported**.

### Support Codes

* **S**: Support, actively tested and included one or more automated regression test suites. Platform-specific issues are within normal SDP support scope.
* **L**: Limited support; not actively tested but known or expected to function. Platform-specific issues may be investigated on a case-by-case basis.
* **U**: Unsupported; not tested and no support commitment. Platform-specific issues may be declined or deferred.

### Other Platforms

Operating System | SDP Support Status | Notes
--- | --- | ---
Amazon Linux 2023| L | **Limited**. Not actively tested, but expected to work.
Amazon Linux 2| U | **Unsupported**. This went EOL on June 30, 2026.
CentOS 8 Stream Linux | U | **Unsupported**. CentOS Stream is not actively tested with SDP and is not recommended for production SDP deployments.
CentOS/RHEL Linux 6.9 | U | **Unsupported**. EOL.
CentOS/RHEL Linux 7.9+ | U | **Unsupported**.  This went EOL on June 30, 2024.
Fedora Linux | U | **Unsupported**. Discouraged for production use. Fedora is a fast-moving development-oriented distribution and is not tested with SDP.
macOS 10.14 Mojave | U | **Unsupported**. Some early SDP testing was done on macOS. There is no plan to support newer versions of macOS due to lack of demand and significant OS changes.
SLES Linux 12 | U | **Unsupported**. EOL. Historical SDP deployments have succeeded, but no ongoing testing is performed.
Ubuntu Linux 26.04 LTS Release (Resolute Raccoon)| U| **Unsupported**. Known compatibility issues currently affect SDP operation. Avoid until these issues are resolved.
Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS Release (Focal Fossa)| U | **Unsupported**. Standard OS support ended May 31, 2025, ESM available through 2030.
Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS Release (Bionic Beaver)| U| **Unsupported**. EOL. Known SDP compatibility issues exist with the default shell environment.
Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS Release (Xenial)| U | **Unsupported**. EOL.

### Platform Support Disclaimer

Platform support status reflects SDP testing and support policy, not necessarily the support status of the underlying operating system provider.

### Need Support on Other Platforms?

If you need support on an unlisted or non-Linux platform, ask Perforce P4 Consulting (p4consulting@perforce.com).

## SDP Code Quality

A set of 3 separate automated regression test suites with human and AI-assisted code review processes help ensure code quality. This is supplemented by manual testing, often in a P4 Battle School Workshop training lab environment.  Contact Perforce Consulting (p4consulting@perforce.com) for more information.

See more details about the test suite in the [Test Suite README file](test/README.md).
# Change User Description Committed
#4 33508 Claude (AI Agent by Anthropic) Copy Up: HMS project home page URL (see dev change 33507).

Agent: Claude Sonnet 5 (claude-sonnet-5), via Claude Code.
#3 33478 Claude (AI Agent by Anthropic) Copy Up README.md from dev: main never actually received the site-relative /view/ link fixes, the SDP_Developer_Guide->SDP_DeveloperGuide filename fix, or the missing-open-paren fixes from the 2026-09-03 A/B-tested Swarm rendering fix.

Root cause: that fix was made directly in dev (and manually in r26.1.0.BETA) but never Copied Up into main -- the only main-side README.md edit since then (change 33463) was an unrelated platform-support text fix, and the subsequent Merge Down (33464) only pulled main's changes DOWN into dev, it doesn't push dev's changes up. This also explains why the same regression appeared in r26.1.0.BETA: today's earlier Copy-Up-from-main into BETA (change 33471) faithfully propagated main's stale, never-fixed content over BETA's previously-correct manually-patched copy.

Agent: Claude Sonnet 5 (claude-sonnet-5), via Claude Code.
#2 33463 Claude (AI Agent by Anthropic) Fill in SDP 2026.1 GA Change History, fix a duplicate/typo'd rebranding bullet, and fix stale platform-support text in README.md.

ReleaseNotes.adoc: populated the real 'Jobs Fixed' list for SDP 2026.1
GA from JIRA (fixVersion=2026.1, closed issues only -- excluded SDP-1170
(deferred), SDP-1385 (the not-yet-executed Swarm retarget itself), and
SDP-1386 (stretch, not done)), 7 issues total. Also removed a duplicate
'What's New' bullet about rebranding (two near-identical bullets, one
with a 'brancing' typo).

README.md: 'Platform Support' section said 'The P4 SDP 2025.2 support the
folllowing operating systems' -- fixed to 2026.1 and the grammar/typo.

Agent: Claude Code, Model: Claude Sonnet 5 (claude-sonnet-5), operating as bot_Claude_Anthropic.
#1 33433 Claude (AI Agent by Anthropic) Copy Up from //p4-sdp/dev into //p4-sdp/main.

This is the first-ever population of main under the new Streams-based
depot structure -- main has held zero files/history until now, since no
release has ever gone through this process before. 463 files, covering
the entire 2026.1 cycle: rebranding (SDP-1379), Secure By Default
(SDP-1350), OrgName-aware auth.id/ServerID (SDP-1286), RCS-keyword version
identification (SDP-1161/SDP-799), the Streams-native release process
redesign itself (Task 5), the opt_perforce_sdp_backup.sh false-error fix,
the P4D 2026.1 test-suite targeting, refreshed P4*.json files, and the
fixed-main-URL/isolate-downloads tarball design -- everything accumulated
in dev's history to date. Isolated paths (ai_dev_support/, Version,
doc/*.html, doc/*.pdf, doc/gen/*.man.txt, doc/gen/sdp_install.cfg,
Unsupported/doc/*.html, Unsupported/doc/*.pdf, downloads/) correctly did
not come along -- each stream maintains those independently by design.

Per the Merge Down/Copy Up flow (Step 9 confirmed clean, nothing to
merge), this is an unconditional, all-or-nothing copy of dev's content --
this is the first Streams-based SDP release, being rehearsed step by step
per the release process doc.

Agent: Claude Code, Model: Claude Sonnet 5 (claude-sonnet-5), operating as bot_Claude_Anthropic.
//p4-sdp/dev/README.md
#6 33409 Claude (AI Agent by Anthropic) Copy Up from //p4-sdp/dev_rebrand into //p4-sdp/dev.

This is the first promotion of dev_rebrand's work into dev since
dev_rebrand was created (2025-05-24) -- 303 files, covering the entire
2026.1 rebranding effort (SDP-1379), the Secure By Default adaptation
(SDP-1350), OrgName-aware auth.id/ServerID (SDP-1286), RCS-keyword
version identification (SDP-1161/SDP-799), and the Streams-native release
process redesign (Task 5) done this session, plus everything else
accumulated in dev_rebrand's history before this session.

Per the Merge Down/Copy Up flow, this is intentionally a full,
unconditional blast-replace of dev's content from dev_rebrand -- all
selectivity/care happened in the preceding Merge Down (dev -> dev_rebrand,
changes 33407-33408), which absorbed Robert Cowham's independent dev-side
work first so nothing of his is lost by this Copy Up.

Two files are worth calling out since they might look alarming in
isolation:
- tools/mdcu.sh is deleted -- intentional, retired this session in favor
  of the two direct Streams commands now documented in
  doc/ReleaseProcessOverview.md.
- tools/ReleaseProcessOverview.md is deleted -- this is a stale relic of
  a file move dev_rebrand made back in 2025-05-24 (tools/ -> doc/) that
  was never previously propagated to dev; the current, fully-rewritten
  doc/ReleaseProcessOverview.md is added/updated correctly by this same
  changelist.
#5 33099 C. Thomas Tyler It Begins!
 Potentially the final merge of SDP from Classic to Streams!

This aligns with SDP 2025.2 Patch 1.

p4 merge -b SDP_Classic_to_Streams

p4 resovle -n | wc -l
46

p4 resolve -as

p4 resovle -n | wc -l
0

p4 submit
#4 32998 C. Thomas Tyler SDP Merge from Classic to Streams:
p4 -s merge -b SDP_Classic_to_Streams
p4 -s resolve -as
p4 -s submit
#3 32480 C. Thomas Tyler Routine merge for SDP from Classic to Streams, done with:

p4 merge -b SDP_Classic_to_Streams
p4 resolve -as

  The automatic-safe resolve handled all files; neither '-am' nor interative resolves were needed.
#2 31688 C. Thomas Tyler Merged changes from SDP 2025.1 release to //p4-sdp/dev stream.

p4 merge -b SDP_Classic_to_Streams
p4 resolve -as
#1 31397 C. Thomas Tyler Populate -b SDP_Classic_to_Streams -s //guest/perforce_software/sdp/...@31368.
//guest/perforce_software/sdp/dev/README.md
#30 31208 C. Thomas Tyler Merged down hot patch to web docs only (no functional change).
#29 30395 C. Thomas Tyler Merge down README.md fix.
#28 30379 C. Thomas Tyler Updated README.md for 2024.1 release.

Removed the generated README.html file due to issues with rendered HTML format.
The automated rendering via Helix Swarm is rather nice.
#27 30000 C. Thomas Tyler Refined Release Notes and top-level README.md file in preparation
for coming 2023.2 release.

Adjusted Makefile in doc directory to also generate top-level
README.html from top-level README.md file so that the HTML file is
reliably updated in the SDP release process.

Updated :revnumber: and :revdate: docs in AsciiDoc files to
indicate that the are still current.

Avoiding regen of ReleaseNotes.pdf binary file since that will
need at least one more update before shipping SDP 2023.2.
#26 29963 C. Thomas Tyler Merge down from main.
#25 29932 C. Thomas Tyler Merge down @29916 from main:

Removed mention of Helix Installer while we resolve issues around inexperienced users managing to zap their existing repository.

#review-29933
#24 29915 Robert Cowham Remove reference to Helix Installer for now.
#23 28861 C. Thomas Tyler Merged patch to README.md.
#22 28852 C. Thomas Tyler Release notes corrections and tweaks to SDP home page
related to the major version change..
#21 28385 C. Thomas Tyler Updated README for coming r21.2 release.

Enhanced product description to emphazise key SDP benefits, better
describing the value of the Offline DB.

#review-28386
#20 27482 C. Thomas Tyler README.md updates:
* Added Documentation References section, with less clutter and easier links to PDF/HTML versions of key docs, including the upgrade guide.
* Enhanced "Sophistication Simplified" section.
* Simplified Support status text.
* General grammer corrections.
* Removed a broken link.
* Simpflified Contribing sections.
* Enhanced formatting/TOC levels, moved several sections under new "Features and Benefits" section.

#review-27483
#19 27444 C. Thomas Tyler Fixed issue with broken doc links.
#18 27015 C. Thomas Tyler Replaced notes in README.md re: upgrading SDP with ref to new SDP Upgrade Guide doc.

The doc URL references not-yet-existing SDP r20.1 branch.
#17 26781 Robert Cowham Reference new docs.
#16 26652 Robert Cowham This is Tom's change:

Introduced new 'Unsupported' directory to clarify that some files
in the SDP are not officially supported. These files are samples for
illustration, to provide examples, or are deprecated but not yet
ready for removal from the package.

The Maintenance and many SDP triggers have been moved under here,
along with other SDP scripts and triggers.

Added comments to p4_vars indicating that it should not be edited
directly. Added reference to an optional site_global_vars file that,
if it exists, will be sourced to provide global user settings
without needing to edit p4_vars.

As an exception to the refactoring, the totalusers.py Maintenance
script will be moved to indicate that it is supported.

Removed settings to support long-sunset P4Web from supported structure.

Structure under new .../Unsupported folder is:
   Samples/bin             Sample scripts.
   Samples/triggers        Sample trigger scripts.
   Samples/triggers/tests  Sample trigger script tests.
   Samples/broker          Sample broker filter scripts.
   Deprecated/triggers     Deprecated triggers.

To Do in a subsequent change: Make corresponding doc changes.
#15 26595 C. Thomas Tyler Minor updates to README.md, WIP.
#14 25591 C. Thomas Tyler Clarified that Maintenance folder scripts are samples and are
NOT officially supported.

Updated references to HMS now that it has been split back out
into a separate product.
#13 25155 Robert Cowham Refer to test/README.md
#12 25043 C. Thomas Tyler Prepared patch SDP/MultiArch/2018.1/23583.p2

Changes:
* In README, moved 'Supported Open Source Software' section
to the top of the page, to make Support position more visible.
* Copyright updated to 2019.
* Cleanup of excess script recreate_db_sync_replica.sh
* Re-removal of previously deleted script recreate_db_checkpoint.sh,
and corresponding removal from test suite.
* This patch tarball will also contain some Docker test suite updates
already staged in main.

By-passing review to trigger an automated test.
#11 24511 C. Thomas Tyler Fixed an obvious doc typo in README files.
 Bypassing code
review.
#10 23353 C. Thomas Tyler Fixed typo/grammatical error.
#9 23315 C. Thomas Tyler Overhauled SDP README page to better convey its value, and
much more strongly promote the SDP.

This also documents the the nature of offical Perforce Support
for the SDP, and the limitations of that Support to core SDP
functionality.
#8 16784 C. Thomas Tyler Routine Merge Down to dev from main using:
p4 -s merge -n -b perforce_software-sdp-dev
#7 15797 C. Thomas Tyler Routine    Merge Down to dev from main for SDP.
#6 13729 C. Thomas Tyler Tweaked formatting on README.md.
#5 12028 C. Thomas Tyler Refreshed SDP dev branch, merging down from main.
#4 11535 Russell C. Jackson (Rusty) Updated dev from main.
#3 11463 Russell C. Jackson (Rusty) Updated dev to prepare for Summit agreed changes.
#2 11038 Robert Cowham Catchup from Main
#1 10638 C. Thomas Tyler Populate perforce_software-sdp-dev.
//guest/perforce_software/sdp/main/README.md
#1 10611 C. Thomas Tyler Added README file for the SDP in The Workshop.