Introduction

P4Maven is a Maven SCM provider using P4Java developed and open sourced by Perforce under BSD license in 1/2011. In 6/2014, P4Maven was refactor to provide the following improvements:

Auto discover existing Perforce client of a given source tree User is no longer required to configure the client name via Java system properties.
Client are persisted and shared by multiple commands
Auto generated clients are destroyed after each JVM session (ie auto cleanup).
Full integration with Maven SCM and Release plugin. User now can release Maven project with Perforce SCM using one command ( mvn -B release:preare release:perform)
Comply with Maven Scm's Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK)
Added Lots of Maven Plugin Integration Tests.

Due to large changes to the codebase, this provider and its accompany plugin have a new groupId and aritifactId - com.perforce.p4maven:p4maven-provider and com.perforce.p4maven:p4maven-mojo respectively. It also has a more comprehensive URL format.

This provider is not the same provider developed at Apache Maven SCM team, which uses p4 command line to interact with Perforce server.

SCM URL

The general format for a Perforce P4Maven SCM URL is

scm:p4:[protocol:][[username[:password]@]hostname:port:]//depot/path/to/project

SCM URL Examples

Generic URL to work with multiple sites using Perforce proxy nodes. The host and protocol properties must be configured using global configuration.

scm:p4://depot/path/to/project

Single Perforce server with no proxy

scm:p4:host://depot/path/to/project
scm:p4:ssl:host:3666://depot/path/to/project

Testing only due to exposure of credentials

scm:p4:ssl:user:password@host:3666://depot/path/to/project

Notes:

'tcp' is implicitly used when protocol field is not given. See Perforce documentation to see a list of supported protocols. However, as of this writing P4Maven provider supports only 'tcp' and 'ssl' protocols

Provider Global Configuration

User can configure provide global configurations using:

External ${user.home}/.m2/p4maven-settings.xml
External environment variables
External Java system properties

The XML configuration has the following format

<p4maven-settings>
  <key>value</key>
  <key>value</key>
  [...]
</p4maven-settings>

These settings are always overridable from command line using Java system properties (ie -Dkey=value ) if allow. They are overridable from system environment only when existing values are empty if allow.

*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| p4maven-settings Key  | ENV Key   | System Property | Type   | Default | Description                              |
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| p4Port                | P4PORT    | P4PORT          |String  | null    | P4PORT info                              |
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| jobs                  | N/A       | P4JOBS    or    |String  | null    | List of Perforce Job ID separated by space
|                       |           | p4jobs          |        |         | for any submit action like checkin
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| N/A                   | N/A       | P4CLIENT  or    |String  | null    | A client name for SCM operations. If not
|                       |           | p4client        |        |         | given, it is self discovered or generated.
|                       |           |                 |        |         | Not predictable when use with multiple SCM paths.
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| charset               | P4CHARSET | P4CHARSET       |String  | null    | Server connection charset
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| N/A                   | N/A       | P4VERBOSE or    |String  | null    | A client name for SCM operations. If not
|                       |           | p4verbose       |        |         | given, it is self discovered or generated.
|                       |           |                 |        |         | Not predictable when use with multiple SCM paths.
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| lockTag               | N/A       | N/A             |boolean | true    | Lock the created label at tag action
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| allowTagUpdate        | N/A       | N/A             |boolean | true    | Allow the re-used of existing tag at tag action
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| strictClientDiscovery | N/A       | strictClient    |boolean | false   | Whether the discovered client must have
|                       |           | Discovery       |        |         | its host field matches with the current host
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+
| checkStaledConnection | N/A       | N/A             |boolean | false   | Check for staled connection. Should turn
|                       |           |                 |        |         | on for session longer then login session
*-----------------------+-----------+-----------------+--------+---------+------------------------------------------+

Working with Maven SCM and Release Plugins

Check out the source tree with a known client.

Add this provider to plugin dependency

<build> <defaultGoal>install</defaultGoal> <pluginManagement> <plugins> [...]  <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-release-plugin</artifactId> [...] <dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>com.perforce.p4maven</groupId> <artifactId>p4maven-provider</artifactId> <version>${p4maven.version}</version> </dependency> </dependencies> [...] </plugin>

  <!-- add this if scm plugin will be used with your project -->
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-scm-plugin</artifactId>
    [...]
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.perforce.p4maven</groupId>
        <artifactId>p4maven-provider</artifactId>
        <version>${p4maven.version}</version>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    [...]
  </plugin>

  <!-- add this if buildnumber plugin will be used with your project -->
  <plugin>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
    <artifactId>buildnumber-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    [...]
    <dependencies>
      <dependency>
        <groupId>com.perforce.p4maven</groupId>
        <artifactId>p4maven-provider</artifactId>
        <version>${p4maven.version}</version>
      </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    [...]
  </plugin>

  [...]
</plugins>

</pluginManagement> [...] </build>

Configure SCM element in your project top level pom. Here are a couple of examples

<scm> <connection>scm:p4:workshop.perforce.com:1666://guest/dantran/p4maven</connection> <developerConnection>scm:p4:workshop.perforce.com:1666://guest/dantran/p4maven</developerConnection> <url>https://swarm.workshop.perforce.com/files/guest/dantran/p4maven</url> </scm>

<scm> <connection>scm:p4://guest/dantran/p4maven</connection> <developerConnection>scm:p4://guest/dantran/p4maven</developerConnection> <url>https://swarm.workshop.perforce.com/files/guest/dantran/p4maven</url> </scm>
The credential can be configured using plugin's specific properties or hide it under your local's settings.xml via server element

<settings> ... <servers> <server> <id>hostname:port</id>  <username>username</username> <password>password</password>  </server> </servers> </settings>

About

Introduction

SCM URL

SCM URL Examples

Provider Global Configuration

Working with Maven SCM and Release Plugins