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git/contrib/fast-import/git-p4.txt
Simon Hausmann a844b7406f Document some implementation details, for the curious... :)
Signed-off-by: Simon Hausmann <simon@lst.de>
2007-05-07 20:14:17 +02:00

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git-p4 - Perforce <-> Git converter using git-fast-import
Usage
=====
git-p4 supports two main modes: Importing from Perforce to a Git repository is
done using "git-p4 sync" or "git-p4 rebase". Submitting changes from Git back
to Perforce is done using "git-p4 submit".
Importing
=========
You can simply start with
git-p4 clone //depot/path/project
or
git-p4 clone //depot/path/project myproject
This will create an empty git repository in a subdirectory called "project" (or
"myproject" with the second command), import the head revision from the
specified perforce path into a git "p4" branch, create a master branch off it
and check it out. If you want the entire history (not just the head revision) then
you can simply append a "@all" to the depot path:
git-p4 clone //depot/project/main@all myproject
If you want more control you can also use the git-p4 sync command directly:
mkdir repo-git
cd repo-git
git init
git-p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot
This will import the current head revision of the specified depot path into a
"p4" branch of your git repository. You can use the --branch=mybranch option
to use a different branch.
If you want to import the entire history of a given depot path just use
git-p4 sync //path/in/depot@all
To achieve optimal compression you may want to run 'git repack -a -d -f' after
a big import. This may take a while.
Support for Perforce integrations is still work in progress. Don't bother
trying it unless you want to hack on it :)
Incremental Imports
===================
After an initial import you can easily synchronize your git repository with
newer changes from the Perforce depot by just calling
git-p4 sync
in your git repository. By default the "p4" branch is updated.
It is recommended to run 'git repack -a -d -f' from time to time when using
incremental imports to optimally combine the individual git packs that each
incremental import creates through the use of git-fast-import.
Updating
========
A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the Perforce depot
and merge them with local uncommitted changes. The recommended way is to use
git's rebase mechanism to preserve linear history. git-p4 provides a convenient
git-p4 rebase
command that calls git-p4 sync followed by git rebase to rebase the current
working branch.
Submitting
==========
git-p4 has support for submitting changes from a git repository back to the
Perforce depot. This requires a Perforce checkout separate to your git
repository. To submit all changes that are in the current git branch but not in
the "p4" branch (or "origin" if "p4" doesn't exist) simply call
git-p4 submit
in your git repository. If you want to submit changes in a specific branch that
is not your current git branch you can also pass that as an argument:
git-p4 submit mytopicbranch
You can override the reference branch with the --origin=mysourcebranch option.
If a submit fails you may have to "p4 resolve" and submit manually. You can
continue importing the remaining changes with
git-p4 submit --continue
After submitting you should sync your perforce import branch ("p4" or "origin")
from Perforce using git-p4's sync command.
Example
=======
# Clone a repository
git-p4 clone //depot/path/project
# Enter the newly cloned directory
cd project
# Do some work...
vi foo.h
# ... and commit locally to gi
git commit foo.h
# In the meantime somebody submitted changes to the Perforce depot. Rebase your latest
# changes against the latest changes in Perforce:
git-p4 rebase
# Submit your locally committed changes back to Perforce
git-p4 submit
# ... and synchronize with Perforce
git-p4 rebase
Implementation Details...
=========================
* Changesets from Perforce are imported using git fast-import.
* The import does not require anything from the Perforce client view as it just uses
"p4 print //depot/path/file#revision" to get the actual file contents.
* Every imported changeset has a special [git-p4...] line at the
end of the log message that gives information about the corresponding
Perforce change number and is also used by git-p4 itself to find out
where to continue importing when doing incremental imports.
Basically when syncing it extracts the perforce change number of the
latest commit in the "p4" branch and uses "p4 changes //depot/path/...@changenum,#head"
to find out which changes need to be imported.
* git-p4 submit uses "git rev-list" to pick the commits between the "p4" branch
and the current branch.
The commits themselves are applied using git diff-tree ... | patch -p1