How to obliterate a changelist in perforce - perforce

I can't seem to figure out if there is a way to obliterate a changelist in perforce. The p4 obliterate is the key but it seem to require the file name. In my erroneous changelist there are lots of files so its not feasible to type them in. Can I obliterate by the changelist? I do see a similar question but they seem to do by file names + revision.
Note in my case I am obliterating the latest submission so I know there is nothing after it that's why its safe. I just need to grab it by changelist and not the 100+ files by name.

Try this:
p4 obliterate //...#=changelist
The //... lets it run over any file (incredibly dangerous!) but the #= revision specifier limits it to the specific files included in that changelist.

As a full answer, you will need to do this on command line, I don't see any way through UI.
To invoke command line go the perforce installation folder (usualy C:\Program Files\Perforce) and start windows command window here.
You will need to set the environment for command line so it works with your source database. I wish there was a way to start this from Perforce UI but I can't find it there. That way it would have probably set the environment variables already for you.
Run p4 Set command to see the environment variables and their current values (essentially perforce settings).
You will probably need to change p4port and p4passwd.
p4 set p4port=<your-src-server>:1666 // to configure server
Similarly change perforce password and username if needed. Now you should be able to connect to perforce server through command line.
Now you issue the obliterate command.

Related

Recover deleted files from Perforce

I deleted a file from Perforce in the last month. Is there a way to retrieve it from P4?
If so, what command can I use?
Note: I'm not the admin for p4. And I don't want the file back in P4 but I just want it in my local workspace.
Also, I don't know the exact timeframe when I deleted it in last month...What command can I run?
I'm running P4 on windows. I'll appreciate if someone can provide equivalent command for windows
Thanks!
When you delete a file in Perforce, it creates a "deleted" revision, but the archive file is still there.
In the Perforce P4V GUI in the depot veiw, there is a filter symbol on top of the explore pane .
Click on this and select "Show Deleted Depot Files".
Find the file you want to restore and right-click on it. Select "Rollback..." and revert it to the previous revision of that file (before it was deleted.)
By default it will create a new changelist, be sure to select the one you want if you already have one.
On the command line:
p4 sync //depot/folder/subfolder/filename#changelist
You can use either the command line or the GUI, from the command line p4 sync -f forces the files to be resynchronized. For more information see the Perforce Knowledge Base.
If you haven't committed the change list of deleted files to the repository, right click on the folder containing the deleted files in p4v and choose Get Revision. Be sure to check Force Operation and then Click Get Revision. Then the deleted files will be restored from p4 server.
ref: https://forums.perforce.com/index.php?/topic/1479-how-to-restore-files-deleted-in-p4c-workspace/#entry4726

Perforce Revert Shows "file(s) not opened on this client"

I'm trying to open an existing Perforce application. I made some local changes, like deleting files, which I want to undo (that is, I want my local copy to exactly match the repository once more -- delete added files, restore deleted files, and undo changes).
When I try to revert using the p4v gui client, I see this error:
file(s) not opened on this client
What am I doing wrong?
I did manage to revert all the changed files, but not the added/removed files.
Edit: I did the following:
Connect to a Perforce server using p4v
Map a directory to my local file system (lets say C:\Perforce)
Get the latest version of the repository
Go to C:\Perforce in Windows Explorer
Delete some files and folders
Add some files and folders
I would like to get back to the "pristine" state, the copy of exactly what's on the server when I got the latest version of the repository for the first time.
By the looks of the edited description you added and deleted files directly on the filesystem and not through perforce. Therefore Perforce doesn't know anything about those changes so there is nothing to revert. Typically when you want to add a file you use 'p4 add" (or the equivalent p4v operation), and when you delete, you should use 'p4 delete' (or again, the equivalent p4v operation).
Really, the best option to get back to a pristine state is to nuke the local copy of the code in c:\perforce (in windows explorer), go to p4v, right click the area you want to sync, and choose "Get Revision..." and in the subsequent dialog, make sure that the "force operation" checkbox is checked. This will tell Perforce that you want a new copy of everything regardless of whether you had it synced or not.
You can also run "reconcile offline work" in p4v. Right click the depot area and choose that option. It will scan through the local folder structure and give you a report of what files have been added that don't exist in perforce, what files were deleted, and what files were modified. From that dialog, you can right click on local files that don't exist in perforce and delete them, or you can 'p4 add' them. You can also sync deleted files.
HTH.
Just an extra not to point out another cause for this.
If the file name contains an unusual character that cannot be translated correctly the name on the client will never match that on the server.
The solution in this case is to spot that character in the file name (it will be a question mark emblem on Linux) and use a wildcard to help identify the file to the server so it can delete it etc (p4 deleting the file is a way to go).
This answer may not be your case. This happened to me when I edited the files on my local disk without logging into p4.
A quick fix at commandline is:
p4 login # make sure you've logged in
p4 edit <filename> # let p4 know you've edited the file
p4 revert <filename> # revert to "pristine" state
You can use p4 reconcile -w to restore your client to the state of the server. There is an alias called clean, which is also available in P4V on the right-click context menu as Clean....
There are several additional flags to control whether added and deleted files are deleted or restored, respectively.
The -w flag forces the workspace files to be updated to match the
depot rather than opening them so that the depot can be updated to
match the workspace. The -a, -d, and -e flags when used with -w
update workspace files as follows:
-a Files with no corresponding depot file are deleted.
-d Depot files not in the workspace are added.
-e Modified files are restored to the last version synced.

"Actually, Perforce I don't want you tracking that file after all ..." how do I get Perforce to listen?

Sometimes I "Mark for Add" and add files to Perforce which I actually didn't want Perforce to worry about.
Is there a way to revert it so it just goes back to showing in P4V as an "untracked" item?
See my example:
I've added mil.ico and mil3.ico by mistake. I just want them to go back to looking like test.ico, ie. ignored by Perforce:
Even if I save a copy of the files, then delete, then put them back (all of which is a serious bore), P4V still knows they have a history and marks them as shown:
I just want Perforce to leave a file alone when I tell it to.
If you want to remove the last traces of the files from perforce, your only chance is through p4 obliterate. This will irreversibly remove file revisions or even file's complete history from perforce and will only work with administrator privileges. I don't know if obliterate is available through p4v, on the command line you would issue:
cd directory_of_accident
p4 obliterate accidentally_submitted_file
and if it looks like you and perforce agree on the file to forget
p4 obliterate -y accidentally_submitted_file
to seal the issue.
You can delete the items from the Perforce depot. Keep in mind Perforce will want to delete your local copy of that file so you should save it off in a different location, delete the file in Perforce and move the local version back.
Are you looking at your file structure through the Depot tab or the Workspace tab? It looks like it may be your Depot tab.
Try going to your Workspace tab then click on the Filter icon (looks more like a funnel) and ensure that "Show Files Not in Depot" is selected.
Hopefully looking through the Workspace tab, as opposed to Depot, will hide the deleted files, and selecting the appropriate filters will show your non-Perforce files.

In Perforce command line, how to diff a file reopened for add?

Suppose you open a file for branch to another place (without submitting), and then reopen it for add and make some edits. I would like to diff this edited version against its branch source in a script.
p4 diff2 is no good because one of the versions is in the client.
p4 diff is no good because it can only diff against the "corresponding" version of the file in the depot, which a branched unsubmitted file doesn't have yet.
Is there a way, or is the only option to just grab the two files and diff them using a third-party tool?
Sadly, you're on the money here, you'd need to use a third party diff tool to do this because, as you rightly pointed out, until you've submitted the initial integration to the depot, it doesn't have a copy against which to diff. If you go down this route you'd obviously not be able to access files directly in the depot though, you'd need to have both files on the client PC and specify their paths explicity.
ninesided is correct that you need to have both files on the client PC.
But there are shortcuts:
If you're using P4V, choose "Diff Against..." from the context or Tools menu. For 1st Path, choose the old location and select "Latest Revision'. For 2nd path, choose the new location and select "Workspace revision on local disk".
The work of selecting the paths can be made easier if you can get both files to appear in the same pane and Ctrl-click to multi-select. e.g. use the Workspace tree pane or open the source file for edit temporarily in order to get it listed in the Pending files pane.
P4V accomplishes this by running 'p4 print -o' on the depot file to create a temporary file on the client PC, then passing that temporary file to the diff application. If you need a textual diff, you can either configure P4V to run a textual diffing application, or run p4 print -o and diff yourself.

In perforce, how do I remove pending changes for NEW/ADDED files not submitted?

I am trying to remove a pending changelist in perforce. All the files (20 old) are new but have not be committed/submitted yet. So in p4Win, they show a RED + cross. I am failing to remove these files from the change list. How do I go about getting rid of these files?
Thanks for the answers to right-click and revert. I have tried that but it fails with the example error strings below.
Operation: user-revert
Librarian digest source/.../foo.c failed.
RCS checkout 1.715484 failed!
RCS no such revision 1.715484!
//source/.../foo.c#1 - was add, reverted
I've also tried the p4 revert command but it fails with same error(s).
Fixed with "revert -k" by perforce support group. They suspect it may be due to overlay values in the client workspace but have not been very specific.
How are you trying to remove the files?
It's been a while since I used Perforce in anger but I seem to remember that you just had to right click and revert the file.
I've just tried this and it worked OK for me (the programmer's lament!). It uses the following p4 command:
p4 revert //depot/test.txt
Where test.txt is the name of the test file.
Update
Does the new file still exist locally on your hard drive?
Does the path where the file would be in the depot still exist? ie. what's in the "..." of your path.
Revert files, right-click on file in change list and select revert, this will remove added files.
Maybe try Perforce support at this stage.
To remove all added files in current and sub directories:
p4 revert ...
In my case this happened because the RCS files (the actual files with ,v extension in the depot that contain all the revision information) were literally missing the information for the revision in question. I was able to restore the files from backup.
I had the same problem, I had added the .exe files but wanted to exclude them afterwards. The perforce documentation helped:
http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.current/manuals/p4eclipse/topics/adding.html
Excluding Files from Source Control
Important: you cannot exclude files after you have placed them under
Perforce control. If you have files opened in a changelist and you
want to exclude them from Perforce control, revert them from the
changelist before excluding them.
Worked like a charm.

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