GIT-P4(1)

📦
version 2.56.0 · 9 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 GIT-P4(1) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the Git Manual page for git-p4 — the bridge that lets you import from and submit to Perforce repositories while living your best Git life. No cap, it's giving "two worlds, one workflow." ✨

🎀 NAME 🎀

git-p4 — import from and submit to Perforce repositories. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

git p4 clone [<sync-options>] [<clone-options>] <p4-depot-path>...
git p4 sync [<sync-options>] [<p4-depot-path>...]
git p4 rebase
git p4 submit [<submit-options>] [<master-branch-name>]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This command provides a way to interact with p4 repositories using Git. Literally the whole point. 🫶

So here's the deal: you create a new Git repository from an existing p4 repository using git p4 clone, and you give it one or more p4 depot paths. Then you incorporate new commits from p4 changes with git p4 sync. The sync command is also used to include new branches from other p4 depot paths. You submit Git changes back to p4 using git p4 submit. And git p4 rebase does a sync plus rebases the current branch onto the updated p4 remote branch. iconic behavior, honestly 🌈

💜 EXAMPLES 💜

  • Clone a repository:
$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project
  • Do some work in the newly created Git repository:
$ cd project
$ vi foo.h
$ git commit -a -m "edited foo.h"
  • Update the Git repository with recent changes from p4, rebasing your work on top:
$ git p4 rebase
  • Submit your commits back to p4:
$ git p4 submit

👑 COMMANDS 👑

🌱 Clone 🌱

Generally, git p4 clone is used to create a new Git directory from an existing p4 repository:

$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project

This:

  1. Creates an empty Git repository in a subdirectory called project.
  2. Imports the full contents of the head revision from the given p4 depot path into a single commit in the Git branch refs/remotes/p4/master.
  3. Creates a local branch, master from this remote and checks it out.

To reproduce the entire p4 history in Git, use the @all modifier on the depot path:

$ git p4 clone //depot/path/project@all

full lore mode: activated. 💀✨

🦋 Sync 🦋

As development continues in the p4 repository, those changes can be included in the Git repository using:

$ git p4 sync

This command finds new changes in p4 and imports them as Git commits.

P4 repositories can be added to an existing Git repository using git p4 sync too:

$ mkdir repo-git
$ cd repo-git
$ git init
$ git p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot

This imports the specified depot into refs/remotes/p4/master in an existing Git repository. The --branch option can be used to specify a different branch to be used for the p4 content.

If a Git repository includes branches refs/remotes/origin/p4, these will be fetched and consulted first during a git p4 sync. Since importing directly from p4 is considerably slower than pulling changes from a Git remote, this can be useful in a multi-developer environment. ngl, that speed difference is real. 🍓

If there are multiple branches, doing git p4 sync will automatically use the "BRANCH DETECTION" algorithm to try to partition new changes into the right branch. This can be overridden with the --branch option to specify just a single branch to update.

🎀 Rebase 🎀

A common working pattern is to fetch the latest changes from the p4 depot and merge them with local uncommitted changes. Often, the p4 repository is the ultimate location for all code, thus a rebase workflow makes sense. This command does git p4 sync followed by git rebase to move local commits on top of updated p4 changes.

$ git p4 rebase

rebase era. we love a clean history moment. 🫶

💅 Submit 💅

Submitting changes from a Git repository back to the p4 repository requires a separate p4 client workspace. This should be specified using the P4CLIENT environment variable or the Git configuration variable git-p4.client. The p4 client must exist, but the client root will be created and populated if it does not already exist. important little detail, bestie. ⭐

To submit all changes that are in the current Git branch but not in the p4/master branch, use:

$ git p4 submit

To specify a branch other than the current one, use:

$ git p4 submit topicbranch

To specify a single commit or a range of commits, use:

$ git p4 submit --commit <sha1>
$ git p4 submit --commit <sha1..sha1>

The upstream reference is generally refs/remotes/p4/master, but can be overridden using the --origin= command-line option.

The p4 changes will be created as the user invoking git p4 submit. The --preserve-user option will cause ownership to be modified according to the author of the Git commit. This option requires admin privileges in p4, which can be granted using p4 protect.

To shelve changes instead of submitting, use --shelve and --update-shelve:

$ git p4 submit --shelve
$ git p4 submit --update-shelve 1234 --update-shelve 2345

shelve it, don't submit it — a whole mood. 🧚

🌈 Unshelve 🌈

Unshelving will take a shelved P4 changelist, and produce the equivalent git commit in the branch refs/remotes/p4-unshelved/<changelist>.

The git commit is created relative to the current origin revision (HEAD by default). A parent commit is created based on the origin, and then the unshelve commit is created based on that.

The origin revision can be changed with the "--origin" option.

If the target branch in refs/remotes/p4-unshelved already exists, the old one will be renamed.

$ git p4 sync
$ git p4 unshelve 12345
$ git show p4-unshelved/12345
<submit more changes via p4 to the same files>
$ git p4 unshelve 12345
<refuses to unshelve until git is in sync with p4 again>

✨ OPTIONS ✨

General options 🫶

Okay so literally every command except clone takes these. Noted.

  • --git-dir <dir> — sets the GIT_DIR environment variable for you. Peek git(1) if you wanna know more 💜
  • -v, --verbose — more progress info, more (metaphorical) screen time for the little progress messages. she's chatty, we love her 💅

Sync options 🔄

These ones are flexible besties — they work in the initial clone and in all the sync operations that come after. iykyk.

  • --branch <ref> — imports changes into <ref> instead of the default refs/remotes/p4/master. Here's the tea: if <ref> starts with refs/, it's used exactly as-is, no edits. Otherwise, if it doesn't start with p4/, that prefix gets added on. By default, a <ref> that doesn't start with refs/ is treated as the name of a remote-tracking branch (so under refs/remotes/). You can change that whole vibe with --import-local. The default <ref> is "master". Exhibit A — importing a new remote "p4/proj2" into an existing Git repository:
$ git init
$ git p4 sync --branch=refs/remotes/p4/proj2 //depot/proj2
  • --detect-branches — turns on the branch detection algorithm so it can find new paths in p4. Full lore is down in "BRANCH DETECTION" 👑
  • --changesfile <file> — imports exactly the p4 change numbers listed in file, one per line, no more no less. Normally git p4 goes and inspects the current p4 repository state and figures out which changes it should import — this is you being like "no babe, i'll pick" 💅
  • --silent — no progress info at all. silence. peace. asmr mode 🎀
  • --detect-labels — queries p4 for labels tied to the depot paths and adds them as tags in Git. Limited usefulness ngl, since it only imports labels associated with new changelists. Also, deprecated — she's a legacy queen, respect her but maybe don't build on her 💀
  • --import-labels — imports labels from p4 into Git. that's it, that's the whole job ✨
  • --import-local — by default p4 branches get stored in refs/remotes/p4/, where git-branch(1) and friends treat them as remote-tracking branches. This option instead puts them in refs/heads/p4/. ⚠️ Heads up: future sync operations have to specify --import-local too so they can actually find the p4 branches in refs/heads. don't leave them hanging 😭
  • --max-changes <n> — imports at most n changes, instead of the entire range included in the given revision specifier. Classic move: use @all as the revision specifier, then --max-changes 1000 to import only the last 1000 revisions rather than the whole entire revision history. main character energy: only the recent stuff matters 💖
  • --changes-block-size <n> — the internal block size used when converting a revision specifier like @all into a list of specific change numbers. Instead of one single call to p4 changes to find the full list, there's a sequence of calls to p4 changes -m, each requesting one block of changes of the given size. Default block size is 500, which is usually totally fine fr fr 🦋
  • --keep-path — so normally the mapping of file names from the p4 depot path to Git involves removing the entire depot path. With this, the full p4 depot path is retained in Git. Example: path //depot/main/foo/bar.c, when imported from //depot/main/, becomes foo/bar.c. With --keep-path, the Git path is instead depot/main/foo/bar.c. she keeps the whole government name 👑
  • --use-client-spec — uses a client spec to find the list of interesting files in p4. See "CLIENT SPEC" below, i got you 🫶
  • -/ <path> — excludes selected depot paths when cloning or syncing. the little minus slash combo, iconic honestly 💅

Clone options 🍼

These are for the initial clone moment, and they stack with all the sync options up above. it's giving "first day of school".

  • --destination <directory> — where to create the Git repository. If you don't provide it, the last component in the p4 depot path is used to create a new directory. she'll name herself, it's fine ✨
  • --bare — performs a bare clone. See git-clone(1) for the whole story 🌸

Submit options 📤

These ones tweak how git p4 submit behaves. handle with care bestie.

  • --origin <commit> — the upstream location from which commits are identified to submit to p4. By default, this is the most recent p4 commit reachable from HEAD. it works backwards from where you are, cute 🎀
  • -M — detect renames. See git-diff(1). Renames get represented in p4 using explicit move operations. There's no corresponding option to detect copies — but there are variables for both moves and copies. so, options? no. variables? yes. slay 💅
  • --preserve-user — re-authors p4 changes before submitting to p4. ⚠️ Requires p4 admin privileges, so like, ask permission before you go changing who authored what, fr fr 🙈
  • --export-labels — exports tags from Git as p4 labels. Tags found in Git get applied to the perforce working directory. giving them a little p4 passport 🌈
  • -n, --dry-run — shows just what commits would be submitted to p4; changes no state in Git or p4. the ultimate "look but don't touch" 😌
  • --prepare-p4-only — applies a commit to the p4 workspace, opening, adding and deleting files in p4 just like a normal submit operation. But it does not issue the final p4 submit — instead it prints a message about how to submit manually or revert. ⚠️ This option always stops after the first (oldest) commit, and Git tags are not exported to p4. so close yet so far 😭
  • --shelve — instead of submitting, creates a series of shelved changelists. After creating each shelve, the relevant files are reverted/deleted. If you have multiple commits pending, multiple shelves will be created. it's a whole shelf aesthetic 🧚
  • --update-shelve CHANGELIST — updates an existing shelved changelist with this commit. Implies --shelve. Repeat for multiple shelved changelists, go off 👑
  • --conflict=(ask|skip|quit) — conflicts can happen when applying a commit to p4 (the drama 💀). When that happens, the default behavior ("ask") prompts whether to skip this commit and continue, or quit. This option bypasses the prompt entirely, so conflicting commits get automatically skipped, or it quits trying to apply commits — no prompting, no emotional labor 💅
  • --branch <branch> — after submitting, sync this named branch instead of the default p4/master. See the "Sync options" section above for more info 🫶
  • --commit (<sha1>|<sha1>..<sha1>) — submits only the specified commit or range of commits, instead of the full list of changes that are in the current Git branch. precision bestie 🔥
  • --disable-rebase — disables the automatic rebase after all commits have been successfully submitted. Can also be set with git-p4.disableRebase. no rebase, no stress ✨
  • --disable-p4sync — disables the automatic sync of p4/master from Perforce after commits have been submitted. Implies --disable-rebase. Can also be set with git-p4.disableP4Sync. Sync with origin/master still goes ahead if possible. she still shows up to that one 🫶

🪝 HOOKS FOR SUBMIT 🪝

p4-pre-submit

The p4-pre-submit hook runs if it exists and is executable. It takes no parameters and nothing from standard input. Exiting with non-zero status from this script prevents git p4 submit from launching. You can bypass it with the --no-verify command line option.

One usage scenario is to run unit tests in the hook. tests before commit, as she should 👑

p4-prepare-changelist

The p4-prepare-changelist hook runs right after preparing the default changelist message and before the editor is started. It takes one parameter — the name of the file that contains the changelist text. Exiting with a non-zero status from the script aborts the whole process.

The purpose of the hook is to edit the message file in place, and ⚠️ it is not suppressed by the --no-verify option. This hook is called even if --prepare-p4-only is set. she shows up regardless, unbothered 💅

p4-changelist

The p4-changelist hook runs after the changelist message has been edited by the user. It can be bypassed with the --no-verify option. It takes a single parameter: the name of the file that holds the proposed changelist text. Exiting with a non-zero status causes the command to abort.

The hook is allowed to edit the changelist file and can be used to normalize the text into some project standard format. It can also be used to refuse the Submit after inspecting the message file. gatekeeping, but make it professional 🎀

p4-post-changelist

The p4-post-changelist hook is invoked after the submit has successfully occurred in P4. It takes no parameters and is meant primarily for notification — it cannot affect the outcome of the git p4 submit action. she's just here to tell you it's done, no take-backsies 😌

okay so lowkey these next two little sections live under the HOOKS FOR SUBMIT heading in this page and i'm not gonna lie bestie that's just where they put them, i don't make the rules 💅

Rebase options

These options modify git p4 rebase behavior.

  • --import-labels — imports p4 labels. that's the whole thing, she's a one-liner icon ✨

Unshelve options

  • --origin — sets the git refspec against which the shelved P4 changelist is compared. Defaults to p4/master. 🦋

📍 DEPOT PATH SYNTAX 📍

The p4 depot path argument to git p4 sync and git p4 clone can be one or more space-separated p4 depot paths, with an optional p4 revision specifier on the end. okay so, the lineup:

  • "//depot/my/project" — imports one commit with all files in the #head change under that tree. just the now, no history 🎀
  • "//depot/my/project@all" — imports one commit for each change in the history of that depot path. the whole backstory, every era 👑
  • "//depot/my/project@1,6" — imports only changes 1 through 6. a very specific era 💅
  • "//depot/proj1@all //depot/proj2@all" — imports all changes from both named depot paths into a single repository. Only files below these directories are included. There is not a subdirectory in Git for each "proj1" and "proj2". You must use the --destination option when specifying more than one depot path. The revision specifier must be specified identically on each depot path. If there are files in the depot paths with the same name, the path with the most recently updated version of the file is the one that appears in Git. most recent wins, it's giving survival of the freshest 🔥

See p4 help revisions for the full syntax of p4 revision specifiers.

🧚 CLIENT SPEC 🧚

The p4 client specification is maintained with the p4 client command and contains — among other fields — a View that specifies how the depot is mapped into the client repository. The clone and sync commands can consult the client spec when given the --use-client-spec option, or when the useClientSpec variable is true. After git p4 clone, the useClientSpec variable is automatically set in the repository configuration file. This lets future git p4 submit commands work properly — the submit command looks only at the variable and does not have a command-line option. so like, it remembers for you 🫶

The full syntax for a p4 view is documented in p4 help views. git p4 knows only a subset of the view syntax. It understands multi-line mappings, overlays with +, exclusions with - and double-quotes around whitespace. Of the possible wildcards, git p4 only handles ..., and only when it is at the end of the path. git p4 will complain if it encounters an unhandled wildcard. she has limits, okay, she's honest about them 💀

⚠️ Bugs in the implementation of overlap mappings exist. If multiple depot paths map through overlays to the same location in the repository, git p4 can choose the wrong one. This is hard to solve without dedicating a client spec just for git p4. consider yourself warned bestie 😭

The name of the client can be given to git p4 in multiple ways. The variable git-p4.client takes precedence if it exists. Otherwise, normal p4 mechanisms of determining the client are used: environment variable P4CLIENT, a file referenced by P4CONFIG, or the local host name. first come first served, in that order 🌸

🌿 BRANCH DETECTION 🌿

Okay bestie, this is the part where p4 and Git have very different vibes, and you gotta respect it. P4 doesn't even have the same concept of a branch as Git does 💀. Instead, p4 organizes its content as a directory tree, where — by convention — different logical branches just live in different locations in the tree. That's it, that's the system. The p4 branch command is what maintains mappings between different areas in the tree, and it's how p4 indicates that content is related. And git p4 can use those mappings to figure out branch relationships for you. Iconic teamwork, honestly 🫶.

So: if you have a repository where all the branches of interest exist as subdirectories of a single depot path, you can use --detect-branches when cloning or syncing and have git p4 automatically find subdirectories in p4, and generate these as branches in Git. Literally does the detective work for you 🔍✨.

For example, if the P4 repository structure is:

//depot/main/...
//depot/branch1/...

And p4 branch -o branch1 shows a View line that looks like:

//depot/main/... //depot/branch1/...

Then this git p4 clone command:

git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all

produces a separate branch in refs/remotes/p4/ for //depot/main, called master, and one for //depot/branch1 called depot/branch1. Two branches, one command, zero tears 💅.

However — and this is the plot twist 🎀 — it is not necessary to create branches in p4 to be able to use them like branches. Because it is difficult to infer branch relationships automatically, a Git configuration setting git-p4.branchList can be used to explicitly identify branch relationships. It is a list of "source:destination" pairs, like a simple p4 branch specification, where the "source" and "destination" are the path elements in the p4 repository. The example above relied on the presence of the p4 branch. Without p4 branches, the same result will occur with:

git init depot
cd depot
git config git-p4.branchList main:branch1
git p4 clone --detect-branches //depot@all .

See? Same outcome, you just told Git the relationship yourself instead of letting p4 spill the tea ☕. No cap, this config line is lowkey the main character here 👑.

⚡ PERFORMANCE ⚡

Okay so here's the tea on speed 🍓. The fast-import mechanism used by git p4 creates one pack file for each invocation of git p4 sync. Every single one. So if you sync a lot, you're gonna accumulate pack files like unread texts 😭.

Normally, Git garbage compression (git-gc(1)) automatically compresses these to fewer pack files — bless it, it's doing its best 🧚. But if you want that extra glow-up, explicit invocation of git repack -adf may improve performance. Key word: may. Don't come for me if it doesn't, it's literally what the page says 💀✨.

💖 CONFIGURATION VARIABLES 💖

Okay bestie, this is the fun part — all the config settings you can use to tweak how git p4 behaves. They all live in the git-p4 section, no cap. 🎀

✨ General variables ✨

  • git-p4.user — the user passed to every p4 command as -u <user>. You can use the environment variable P4USER instead if that's more your vibe. 💅
  • git-p4.password — the password passed to every p4 command as -P <password>. The environment variable P4PASS can be used instead.
  • git-p4.port — the port passed to every p4 command as -p <port>. The environment variable P4PORT can be used instead.
  • git-p4.host — the host passed to every p4 command as -h <host>. The environment variable P4HOST can be used instead.
  • git-p4.client — the client passed to every p4 command as -c <client>, client spec included and everything. 🫶
  • git-p4.retries — how many times to retry a p4 command (like, notably p4 sync) if the network times out. Default is 3. Set it to 0 to disable retries entirely, or if your p4 version doesn't support them (anything pre 2012.2, ancient fr). 😭

🌸 Clone and sync variables 🌸

  • git-p4.syncFromOrigin — importing commits from other Git repos is so much faster than pulling them from p4, so there's a whole mechanism for finding p4 changes in Git remotes first. If branches exist under refs/remote/origin/p4, those get fetched and used when syncing from p4. Set this to false to turn that behavior off. ⭐
  • git-p4.branchUser — one phase of branch detection is looking through p4 branches to find new ones to import, and by default all branches get inspected. This option limits the search to just the branches owned by the single user named in the variable. 🦋
  • git-p4.branchList — the list of branches to import when branch detection is enabled. Each entry should be a pair of branch names separated by a colon (:). This example declares that both branchA and branchB were created from main:
git config       git-p4.branchList main:branchA
git config --add git-p4.branchList main:branchB
  • git-p4.ignoredP4Labels — list of p4 labels to ignore. This gets built automatically as unimportable labels get discovered. 🙈
  • git-p4.importLabels — import p4 labels into git, as per --import-labels.
  • git-p4.labelImportRegexp — only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be imported. Default value is [a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$.
  • git-p4.useClientSpec — says the p4 client spec should be used to identify which p4 depot paths you care about. Equivalent to specifying the --use-client-spec option (go read the "CLIENT SPEC" section above 👀). This variable is a boolean, not the name of a p4 client, so don't get it twisted.
  • git-p4.pathEncoding — Perforce keeps the encoding of a path as given by the originating OS, but Git expects paths encoded as UTF-8. Use this config to tell git-p4 what encoding Perforce used for the paths; it's then used to transcode them to UTF-8. For example, Perforce on Windows often uses "cp1252" to encode path names. If this option is passed into a p4 clone request, it is persisted in the resulting new git repo. 💾
  • git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy — Perforce keeps the encoding of changelist descriptions and user full names as stored by the client on a given OS. The p4v client uses the OS-local encoding, so different users can end up storing different changelist descriptions or user full names in different encodings, in the same depot. Git tolerates inconsistent/incorrect encodings in commit messages and author names, but expects them to be specified in utf-8. git-p4 has three different decoding strategies for handling this encoding uncertainty in Perforce:
    • passthrough — simply passes the original bytes through from Perforce to git, creating usable but incorrectly-encoded data when the Perforce data is encoded as anything other than utf-8.
    • strict — expects the Perforce data to be encoded as utf-8, and fails to import when that isn't true. 💀
    • fallback — attempts to interpret the data as utf-8, and otherwise falls back to using a secondary encoding — by default the common windows encoding cp-1252 — with upper-range bytes escaped if decoding with the fallback encoding also fails.

Under python2 the default strategy is passthrough for historical reasons, and under python3 the default is fallback. When strict is selected and decoding fails, the error message will propose changing this config parameter as a workaround. If this option is passed into a p4 clone request, it is persisted into the resulting new git repo.

  • git-p4.metadataFallbackEncoding — specify the fallback encoding to use when decoding Perforce author names and changelist descriptions using the fallback strategy (see git-p4.metadataDecodingStrategy). The fallback encoding is only used when decoding as utf-8 fails. Defaults to cp1252, a common windows encoding. If this option is passed into a p4 clone request, it is persisted into the resulting new git repo.
  • git-p4.largeFileSystem — specify the system used for large (binary) files. Heads up bestie: large file systems do not support the git p4 submit command. Only Git LFS is implemented right now (see https://git-lfs.github.com/ for more info). Download and install the Git LFS command line extension to use this option, then configure it like this:
git config       git-p4.largeFileSystem GitLFS
  • git-p4.largeFileExtensions — all files matching a file extension in the list will be processed by the large file system. Do not prefix the extensions with . 👑
  • git-p4.largeFileThreshold — all files with an uncompressed size exceeding the threshold get processed by the large file system. By default the threshold is defined in bytes; add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
  • git-p4.largeFileCompressedThreshold — all files with a compressed size exceeding the threshold get processed by the large file system. Fair warning: this option might slow down your clone/sync process. By default the threshold is defined in bytes; add the suffix k, m, or g to change the unit.
  • git-p4.largeFilePush — boolean that defines whether large files are automatically pushed to a server. 🔥
  • git-p4.keepEmptyCommits — a changelist that contains only excluded files will be imported as an empty commit if this boolean option is set to true.
  • git-p4.mapUser — map a P4 user to a name and email address in Git. Use a string with the following format to create a mapping:
git config --add git-p4.mapUser "p4user = First Last <mail@address.com>"

A mapping overrides any user information from P4, and mappings for multiple P4 users can be defined. 🎀

💅 Submit variables 💅

  • git-p4.detectRenames — detect renames. See git-diff(1). This can be true, false, or a score as expected by git diff -M.
  • git-p4.detectCopies — detect copies. See git-diff(1). This can be true, false, or a score as expected by git diff -C.
  • git-p4.detectCopiesHarder — detect copies harder. See git-diff(1). A boolean.
  • git-p4.preserveUser — on submit, re-author changes to reflect the Git author, regardless of who invokes git p4 submit.
  • git-p4.allowMissingP4Users — when preserveUser is true, git p4 normally dies if it can't find an author in the p4 user map. This setting submits the change regardless. 😤
  • git-p4.skipSubmitEdit — the submit process invokes the editor before each p4 change is submitted. If this setting is true, though, the editing step is skipped.
  • git-p4.skipSubmitEditCheck — after editing the p4 change message, git p4 makes sure the description really was changed by looking at the file modification time. This option disables that test.
  • git-p4.allowSubmit — by default, any branch can be used as the source for a git p4 submit operation. This config variable, if set, permits only the named branches to be used as submit sources. Branch names must be the short names (no "refs/heads/"), and should be separated by commas (","), with no spaces.
  • git-p4.skipUserNameCheck — if the user running git p4 submit doesn't exist in the p4 user map, git p4 exits. This option can be used to force submission regardless. 🙈
  • git-p4.attemptRCSCleanup — if enabled, git p4 submit will attempt to clean up RCS keywords ($Header$, etc). Otherwise those cause merge conflicts and prevent the submit from going ahead. Heads up: this option should be considered experimental at present. 💀
  • git-p4.exportLabels — export Git tags to p4 labels, as per --export-labels.
  • git-p4.labelExportRegexp — only p4 labels matching this regular expression will be exported. Default value is [a-zA-Z0-9_\-.]+$.
  • git-p4.conflict — specify submit behavior when a conflict with p4 is found, as per --conflict. Default behavior is ask.
  • git-p4.disableRebase — do not rebase the tree against p4/master following a submit.
  • git-p4.disableP4Sync — do not sync p4/master with Perforce following a submit. Implies git-p4.disableRebase. 🫶

🧚 IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS 🧚

The lore, bestie. 🍓

  • Changesets from p4 are imported using Git fast-import.
  • Cloning or syncing does not require a p4 client; file contents are collected using p4 print. Slay.
  • Submitting does require a p4 client, and it's not in the same location as the Git repository. Patches are applied, one at a time, to this p4 client and submitted from there.
  • Each commit imported by git p4 has a line at the end of the log message indicating the p4 depot location and change number. That line is used by later git p4 sync operations to know which p4 changes are new. ⭐

🌈 GIT 🌈

Part of the git(1) suite. Obviously. 👑

And that's the whole page, bestie — you ate that. 💅✨ This vibe check was brought to you by Git 2.56.0, dated 2026-09-27. Now go forth and git p4 responsibly. 🫶🎀💖

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