We have a code base which is downloaded from internet (GitHub repository). Updating process is following:
p4 Checkout existing version
Download new version from internet and extract it over old version
p4 Revert unchanged files
p4 Submit changes
Problem with this approach is that files which are not present in downloaded repo (removed from GitHub repo) are still present in file system and considered as unchanged. Revert unchanged files will revert them back and keep in depot/workspace. This is particular problem for Java files since we compile by specify root folder. Remaining file is unreferenced in new source but you can't see it.
p4 clean has option -d
Deleted files: Find those files in the depot that do not exist in your workspace and add them to the workspace.
but I am looking for opposite
Find those files in the workspace that do not exist in your depot and delete them from the depot.
If I delete whole folder structure from file system, workspace goes out of sync.
How to find/mark for delete files which are not present in new folder structure?
This is my typically recommended workflow for this use case:
Start with an empty workspace
Extract the current version of the tree into the workspace
p4 flush to the revision you want to use as the base (if you've made no changes to this branch on the Perforce side, you can just use the default #head)
p4 reconcile to open all files for the appropriate action
p4 submit
To elaborate on step 3: the "base" should be whatever revision the two trees were last in sync at. If this is a one-way operation, it's always just the latest revision (which came directly from github). If you're making changes on both sides, you should have a separate branch on the Perforce side for your github imports, and only use it for imports; then do one-way merges from there into your development mainline so you can resolve differences with all the right history tracking.
I'm new to using perforce. I was just copying files to perforce to the server for version control and sharing files. Although those 36 gigabytes of data were gone. All disappeared from my disk, nowhere to be found and reverting did not work. So is there anything I could do to restore my files?
If you submit files to Perforce, the server has safe copies of them, and you can get them back at any time just by running p4 sync.
End users are not permitted to permanently delete submitted files from a Perforce server, so under most circumstances once you submit something to Perforce it's safe forever.
Normally the administrator of a Perforce server will maintain backups so that even if the server is compromised somehow (e.g. a hardware failure or an admin mistake), the files can be recovered.
Some basic troubleshooting steps:
Does the server think you already have the files because you deleted them from a synced workspace without opening them for delete? Try p4 clean to restore your workspace to the state that you last synced/submitted.
Are the files deleted at the head revision? Try syncing to an older revision.
Did the files ever make it to the server? Try p4 files //... to see a list of all the files on the server.
P4 calls "Librarian checkout" issues on folders (and files in it) that are not present in the depot tree BUT present on the perforce server - in from of empty folders.
If I try to obliterate (files or files with changelist) with p4 obliterate it tells me "No records to delete", when I'm using the Administration client it just cannot locate those when using obliterate option.
This in general prevents me from syncing with new workspaces, as it seems like upon syncing p4 fails to sync the files that were copied from other streams and points to revisions that are not there.
Example:
Librarian checkout D:\streamdepot/STREAM_NAME/unity/PROJECT_X/assets/objects/vehicles/materials/e_smallcorridor_01_cords_d.mat failed.
open for read: D:\streamdepot/STREAM_NAME/unity/PROJECT_X/assets/objects/vehicles/materials/e_smallcorridor_01_cords_d.mat,d\1.9789.gz: The system cannot find the file specified.
STREAM_NAME doesn't exists, and revision 9789 doesn't exist in history.
Thanks for any help in that matter!
I am new to perforce. I need clarification on the below.
I have created workspace and by mistake i have checked out the entire project(all files). I have not done any changes in the local workspace. After some days i tried to get latest revision from the server it shows some merger conflict error.
Now, How can i release the checked out files without affecting remote files. Will it affect remote files if i do revert operation locally.
Thanks for your kind advice.
Selva
If you haven't made any changes then simply reverting the checkout will "release the checked out files". This will not affect any files checked out or modified elsewhere as it is simply an operation that works on your copies of the files.
Any operation you can do will only affect your local copies and the files in the depot. You cannot directly affect files on other people's machines.
I'm using Perforce P4V, the graphical tool, to interface with my Perforce server here at work. I have a project I added to the depot and I accidentally deleted it from my workspace on my local computer, problem is when I use the Get Revision Action (the GUI equivalent of sync), the files don't get updated, i.e. I can see the files on the server that I want, but they won't sync correctly with my local PC. It's frustrating me that the files aren't getting pulled from the server. What I'm assuming should be happening is if files are altered in anyway on my local PC, I should be able to grab the revision from the server, which then pulls the data to my local PC and overwrites the changes locally on my PC, but that isn't happening. Is there something I'm missing?
Perforce keeps track of the files that it thinks that you have on your local workstation. If you delete those files locally (and don't "tell" perforce about it), then Perforce will still think that you have those files. If you want to get them back, you need to "force sync" the files. In p4v, you can use the "Get Revision..." item and in the subsequent dialog, you can check the "force operation" checkbox to tell Perforce to give you all the files again regardless of whether Perforce thinks that you need them.
Just to complete the information, if you ever do want to remove the files locally, you can do so through p4v by choosing the "Remove from Workspace" item. Doing so will remove the files locally as well as tell perforce that you no longer have those files so that next time you sync, those files will be retrieved from the server.
Like other people have mentioned, one solution is to do a "force sync" the entire depot which is basically overwriting everything from server into your local. The downside to this is that it could take a LONG time to finish if you are working on a big depot.
Another alternative is to compare your local workspace with the server, then only force sync the files that are missing from your workspace.
p4 diff -sd //Depot/path/… | p4 -x – sync -f
-sd option: Show only the names of unopened files that are missing from the client workspace, but present in the depot.
There are more options (sa/se/etc.) available if -sd is not what you need. see here.
credits for the command goes to this blog.
They won't update because according to Perforce you still have the files on your local machine.
You need to use the "Get Revison..." option and enable the "Force Operation" option.
This will tell Perforce to refresh all the files even those it thinks you have the latest version of.
"Get Revision" will update only files that are not opened (checked out) even when "Force Operation" is enabled. You should revert all files marked as checked out in that workspace, and then use "Get Revision" with "Force Operation"
I did as you suggested, but I kept getting the message that the files were still open for edit and cannot be deleted, when trying Remove from Workspace.
Also, Get Revision returned with a message that no files were updated.
What I ended up having to do was Revert the files, then do the Get Revision action, that solved the problem.
For people coming into this question, this worked for me on the mac command line ...
cd into your local perforce workspace - the base directory of the checked out files that you are working on.
p4 sync -f
-f is to force the sync.
This can also come in handy when you restore a mac from a time machine backup.
https://www.perforce.com/perforce/r12.1/manuals/cmdref/sync.html
Check out the file, change it a little bit and then revert. Perforce will replace the local file with the latest revision.