The Perforce Public Depot Tutorial

 



About This Tutorial

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The instructions in this tutorial are for registered Public Depot contributors only. See the Public Depot home page for more information.

Because the bulk of the Public Depot is populated by Perforce-related content, we expect the typical contributor to be an experienced Perforce user. However, Jam/MR contributors may not necessarily be familiar wth Perforce, so this tutorial was written to be useful to new Perforce users as well as experienced users.

The tutorial examples use p4, Perforce's command line interface. You can click on the book icon next to each command to go to the command reference section that describes it.

Complete documentation for all Perforce commands and programs is available on our technical documentation page.

If you're using P4Win, our Windows GUI, you'll want to have a copy of our p4 to P4Win Translation Guide handy so you can look up the GUI equivalents of the commands shown here. The Translation Guide can be downloaded from our technical documentation page.



Setting Up Your Environment

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Before you can use Perforce with the Public Depot you'll need to set these environment variables:

P4PORT To use the Public Depot, set this to public.perforce.com:1666
P4USER Set this to your registered Public Depot user name. For example, Cary Grant's registered user name is cary_grant.
P4PASSWD Set this to your Public Depot password.
P4CLIENT Set this to your client workspace name. You can use your Public Depot username for your workspace name as well. E.g., Cary Grant could name his client workspace cary_grant.

There are many ways to set environment variables. Two of those ways are shown here, as examples:

  1. Unix users running csh can use setenv:

    % setenv P4PORT public.perforce.com:1666
    % setenv P4USER cary_grant
    % setenv P4PASSWD thornhill
    % setenv P4CLIENT cary_grant

  2. Windows users can use p4 set to set Perforce environment variables in the Windows registry:

    C:\> p4 set P4PORT=public.perforce.com:1666
    C:\> p4 set P4USER=cary_grant
    C:\> p4 set P4PASSWD=thornhill
    C:\> p4 set P4CLIENT=cary_grant


Creating Your Client Workspace

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The first thing you do when you use Perforce is set up a client workspace on your local machine. This setup is only done once. Bring up the client specification form editor, using: 

p4 client
In the editor, you'll see something like the form shown below. The text shown in red is what you must edit to set up your client workspace. The text in green may be edited if you wish: 

Client: cary_grant

Description: 
	Created by cary_grant.

Root:   C:\

Options:	nomodtime noclobber

View:
	//public/...    //cary_grant/...
	//guest/...     //cary_grant/...

When you have modified your client spec, save it and exit the editor. Here's an example of a completed client workspace specification: 

Client: cary_grant

Description: 
	Cary Grant's workspace.
	

Root:   C:\ws

Options:	nomodtime noclobber locked

View:
	//guest/cary_grant/...    //cary_grant/...



Creating Your Guest Branch

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When you register as a Public Depot contributor, you are given write access to your guest branch, but your guest branch is not actually created for you (because we don't know which projects you want to work on). So you must create your own guest branch. It will start out as a clone of one of the projects in the //public path, and you will submit additions or changes to it.

For example, if Cary Grant wanted to contribute enhancements to some of the Perforce utilities, he'd start out by branching the //public/perforce/utils project into his //guest/cary_grant branch. Here's how he'd do it:

First, open the files for branching: 

p4 integ -v //public/perforce/utils/... //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/...
(The "-v" flag speeds up the operation by opening "virtual" files -- that is, these files are opened, but will not be copied to and from your workspace.)

Next, submit the opened files: 

p4 submit
Note that these two commands haven't moved any files in or out of Cary Grant's workspace. All they've done is created a set of files in the Public Depot's //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils path that exactly mirror the files in //public/perforce/utils.



Filling Your Workspace

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Once you have set up your workspace and created your guest branch, you can fill your workspace with files from the depot using: 

p4 sync
This copies depot files to your workspace. For example, when Gary Grant runs p4 sync, files from the //guest/gary_grant branch are copied into his local c:\ws directory. When it's done, his workspace is "in sync" with the depot.

Note:



Working on Files

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Once you have filled your workspace, you can work on files. You can edit files, add files, delete files, and revert files to their original state.

Note:

Editing files

To edit files, use the p4 edit command on them. For example, here Cary Grant opens two P4DB source files for editing: 

cd c:\ws\perforce\utils\p4db

p4 edit index.cgi chb.cgi

Now these files are "opened for edit". Once opened for edit, files become writeable, so you can edit them, or modify them by any other means.

Adding new files

To add new files, create them first, with an editor or other tool. You must create them in a directory under your workspace root. Then use the p4 add command on them.

For example, Cary Grant is adding a new file to the P4DB suite. First he creates the file with vi, then adds it: 

cd c:\ws\perforce\utils\p4db
vi jbv.cgi 

p4 add jbv.cgi

p4 add "opens files for add", which tells Perforce you plan to add them to the depot.

Deleting files

To delete files: 

p4 delete fdv.cgi fv.cgi flv.cgi

This removes the files from your workspace, and makes them "open for delete", which tells Perforce you plan to delete them from the depot. p4 delete only works on files put in your workspace by p4 sync.

Reverting files

If you ever want to undo changes you've made to any of your opened files, use p4 revert. For example: 

p4 revert fdv.cgi flv.cgi

This restores files to their original states and takes them off your changelist.

Warning: p4 revert is IRREVERSIBLE! When you revert a file that was opened for edit, Perforce replaces the file in your workspace with a fresh, read-only version directly from the depot. Any edits you've made to the file will be lost!

Note:

Submitting files

When you are satisfied with the changes in your workspace, you can submit them to the depot with: 

p4 submit



Pulling Changes into Your Branch

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The files in your guest branch are insulated from the files in the //public path they were branched from. From time to time, files in //public will be added as Public Depot project curators integrate changes from guest branches. If the project you made your branch from gets updated, you will need to pull those updates into your own guest branch.

So Cary Grant, for example, has been working on his P4DB enhancement. As you recall, his guest branch files were originally branched from the //public/perforce/utils path. To find out if any changes need to be pulled from that path into his own guest branch, Cary uses:

If he sees files listed, he knows he'll have to pull changes into his guest branch. Here's how he does it:

  1. He submits (or reverts) any opened files in his workspace.

  2. He opens files for integration in his workspace using: 

    p4 integ //public/perforce/utils/... //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/...
    (This is the same as the command above, without the -n. It's also exactly the same as the command that created his branch, without the -v.)

  3. He resolves the opened files using: 

    p4 resolve

  4. He submits the opened, resolved files with: 

    p4 submit

At this point, Cary Grant's guest branch is fully integrated. That is, all changes in //public/perforce/utils have been pulled into //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils.



Submitting A Changelist

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As you open files with p4 edit, p4 add, and p4 delete, you are building up a changelist. A changelist is also created when you open files with p4 integ. However, until you submit your changelist, files in the depot are unaffected by your intended changes. "Submitting" sends modified file content from your workspace to the depot, and updates depot versions of the files.

To submit your changelist, use: 

p4 submit
This puts you in an editor form, where you must replace the string "<enter description here>" with a valid description of the changes you are submitting. Cary Grant's changelist form looks like: 

Change: new

Client: cary_grant

User:   cary_grant

Status: new

Description: 
    Added job searching to the P4DB browser.	

Files:
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/index.cgi  # edit
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/chb.cgi    # edit
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/jbv.cgi    # add
    //guest/cary_grant/perforce/utils/p4db/fv.cgi     # delete

When you are done typing the description, save the file and exit the editor. Your changelist will be submitted and the depot files updated.

Note that all files in all guest branches are readable to everyone, so as soon as you submit your changelist, other contributors can see and review your changes.



Resolving Files

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Resolving is how you merge specific changes from one file to another. For each file, you'll see stats like: 

    c:\ws\perforce\utils\p4db\index.cgi - merging //public/perforce/utils/p4db/index.cgi#7
    Diff chunks: 0 yours + 2 theirs + 0 both + 0 conflicting
...and a prompt like: 
    Accept(a) Edit(e) Diff(d) Merge (m) Skip(s) Help(?) [at]:
Follow the prompt's advised action by hitting return. The prompt shows [in square brackets] which action it advises you to take.

Note:



Publishing Your Changes

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As a contributor, you may only submit changes to your own branch in the //guest depot. To have your changes "published", you must ask a project curator to integrate them from your branch to the //public depot.

To request publication:



Sharing Development

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If you and other registered Public Depot contributors would like to share development on a project, you can designate one of your guest branches as a shared branch. The owner of the shared branch should email opensource@perforce.com requesting that his or her branch be opened for shared development, and naming the other contributors who should be granted write access to that branch.

For contributors working in a shared branch, all of the above instructions apply, with these caveats:



Being A Project Curator

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If you are a curator of a project in the Public Depot (and you know who you are) your first responsibility is to maintain an index.html file at the top level of the project subdirectory in the //public path. This document should at least describe the purpose of the project, and list your name and email address. (Or, for spam-proofing, your decodable email address.)

Your second responsibility is to "publish" contributions to the project by integrating changes from guest branches into the //public project path. You'll receive email requests to publish contributions. When you receive a request:

  1. Make sure the contributor's guest branch is up to date with the public project path.

  2. Review the changes in question for functionality and appropriateness for your project.

  3. Integrate the changes from the guest branch into the public project path.

For example, say you are the curator of the //public/perforce/utils project and you get email from Cary Grant requesting that you publish his enhancements to the P4DB browser. Here are some tips for reviewing and integrating his contribution:




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