Practical Perforce

Chapter 1. Files in the Depot

This chapter describes how Perforce stores files and directories in its repository, the depot. It starts by introducing the syntax that allows you to work with depot files and follows with examples of how to browse the depot and get information. Finally, it touches on file properties and their effect on how Perforce handles file content internally.

Tip

You may be happiest using a GUI (graphical user interface) for your day-to-day work. This book, however, bases most of its examples on P4, the Perforce Command-Line Client. One reason we stick with P4 is simply that it’s easier to create and write about text examples than it is to create and write about screenshots. So don’t take our bias toward P4 as a snub of the Perforce GUI programs. In fact, we’ll point out some P4V features that show you at a glance what P4 would take thousands of lines of output to tell you. On the other hand, the GUIs are somewhat limited—only P4 offers the complete lexicon of Perforce commands. So, while you are encouraged to use a GUI, expect to use the command line from time to time to do the things the GUIs don’t do.

The Perforce Filespec Syntax

Perforce is widely used partly because it is so portable, and part of that portability comes from the platform-independent file syntax it provides. While native platform syntax can be used to refer to workspace files, Perforce provides its own uniform syntax for referring to workspace and depot contents. This syntax is known as a file ...