Uploading delta changes to perforce and label - perforce

Question

Every month I need to sync big chunk of files from git and upload it to perforce and create a p4 label with all files uploaded, and from p4 I do builds, this is odd but we cannot change this now. so far I am uploading the files to new directory in p4 every time and creating label with all uploaded files, so I get a clean label for "this month's build" though most of the files didn't change compared to last month's upload, this happens through shell script, is there a way to upload only the delta changes and create label with old files (not uploaded as it didn't change) + changed/brand new files uploaded? any high level directions will help, thanks.

Answer 1

Do I understand correctly that "I am uploading the files to new directory in p4 every time" means that, each time you perform a 'p4 submit', the files in your changelist are actually different file names, not just newer revisions of the same files?
That is, if you did 'p4 describe' of the first changelist you submitted, would it look like:
//depot/dir/r1/A.c#1
//depot/dir/r1/B.c#1
//depot/dir/r1/C.c#1
while the next time you ran your tool, and did a 'p4 describe' of the changelist, it would look like:
//depot/dir/r2/A.c#1
//depot/dir/r2/B.c#1
//depot/dir/r2/C.c#1
If that is what you are doing, then if you could instead copy the files to the same location each time, so that the first time your tool ran you got:
//depot/dir/A.c#1
//depot/dir/B.c#1
//depot/dir/C.c#1
and the second time your tool ran you got:
//depot/dir/A.c#2
//depot/dir/B.c#2
//depot/dir/C.c#2
If you did things that way, then you could use the 'revertunchanged' feature of Perforce, and the files that were unchanged from the previous run of your tool would not be submitted, and the revision number would not change, so that over time you might get:
//depot/dir/A.c#7
//depot/dir/B.c#4
//depot/dir/C.c#19
Each time you run your tool, you can still create a label, because the label includes not just the file name but also the revision number, so the first label you created might include:
//depot/dir/A.c#1
//depot/dir/B.c#1
//depot/dir/C.c#1
while the 19th label you created might include:
//depot/dir/A.c#7
//depot/dir/B.c#4
//depot/dir/C.c#19
Hopefully this will get you pointed in a direction that is more suited to your goals.