Remove a file from Perforce control without deleting from workspace? - perforce

Is there a way to remove files/directories from Perforce's control without deleting the file from the client workspace?
I'm indifferent about what happens to the files/dirs in the repository, I want to ensure that they ARE NOT removed from my local workspace.
Thanks.

Try
p4 delete -k <file>
It will update the server, but not touch the workspace.
http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.current/manuals/cmdref/delete.html

If you're not connected to a server that supports the -k switch on the delete command, you can create a new workspace that has a different root, delete the files from there, then switch back to your original workspace. Because the new workspace has a different root, the files in your original workspace won't be touched.

You can shelve the files and then delete the "shelved files" in perforce, your local files should be intact.

Related

How to do I get files I deleted locally but didn't commit the changes?

I have deleted some files/folders in my local machine but I did not commit the changes to repository.
How to get the deleted files back?
I am not getting the deleted files after performing the p4 sync -f. Why I am not getting the deleted files after the force sync?
If you haven't reverted the changes Perforce will still think you want to delete those files so won't restore them.
You need to go to the pending changelist and do a "revert" on those files to get them back.
Use the "p4 revert" command:
p4 revert -c default //...
This "revert[s] every file open in the default changelist to its pre-opened state."
Source
If you don't want to revert all the files, move the files you want to revert to a separate changelist and use the "-c" option.
If you only have a few files to revert you can specify the name of the file:
p4 revert lib/libopenssl.a include/openssl.h
for example, reverts exactly those two files (thanks to Bryan).

how to sync the perforce client only with the files of a particular change list using p4 sync command

I'm trying to sync only the files modified in a particular change list to p4v.
Suppose in a perforce directory //demo/test I have 10 files out of which only 3 are modified as part of change list number 1234. I want only 3 files to be synced up. I have tried below options but it did not work.
p4 sync //demo/test...#1234;
This command says the files are updated but i don't see the files synced up.
p4 sync -f //demo/test...#1234;
This command is syncing all 10 files in the directory.
Use
p4 sync //demo/test...#1234,1234
or
p4 sync //demo/test...#=1234
When running tests like these, remember that 'p4 sync' won't sync a file that you already have, which is why you found the need to run 'p4 sync -f' to force the files to be sent even though the server knows you already have them. If you want to clear the server's memory of the files that you have, you can run
p4 sync //demo/test...#none
which will remove all the (p4-managed) files matching '//demo/test...' from your workspace, and then 'p4 sync' will bring them back the next time.
Oh, and since 'test' is a directory, the pattern
//demo/test/...
is preferred to
//demo/test...
since '//demo/test/...' matches only the files in the test directory, while '//demo/test...' will also match the files in the '//demo/test1', '//demo/test-and-set', and '//demo/testarossa' directories (if those should happen to exist).

I've deleted all the files in my directory. How can I get them back?

I'm new to Perforce and, to be honest, I'm hating it.
I had about 20 files in my c:\workspaces\perforce directory and I selected all of them and hit the delete key.
They were all checked in before I deleted them.
I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to get them back (Perforce is sooooo unintuitive) but there's nothing that stands out to a n00b like me to.
How can I get the latest revisions back into the directory from Perforce?
You need to do a force sync.
On the command line:
$> p4 sync -f
In the P4V GUI:
Right-click on the directory to update
Select 'Get Revision'
In the dialog, check 'Force operation'
Click 'Get Revision'
The perforce server keeps track of which files you pulled in last time. This is done so that, the next sync only brings in the files which have changes since the last sync, instead of all the files once again.
To override this behavior, you need to use the -f option.
The -f flag forces resynchronization even if the client already has
the file, and overwriting any writable files. This flag doesn't
affect open files.
If you're using the command line client, you can run this command from the directory where you want to sync up:
p4 sync -f ...
You might also want to check the list of opened files, since sync -f will not be bringing in changes corresponding to those files (even if you have deleted them).
This command should list all the opened files:
p4 opened ...
If you have any files listed in the above list, which you had deleted as well, you should revert them before running sync -f.
p4 revert <FILE1> <FILE2>
p4 sync -f ...
If you're using p4v, you could follow the steps mentioned by dwinkle:
1. Right click the folder in your workspace
2. Choose `Get Revision` in the context menu.
3. Choose `Get Latest revision`
4. Check `Force Operation (replace file even if you already have the revision specified)
5. Click on `Get Revision` button to fetch the files.
To look at the list of opened files using p4v, you would have to look at your list of pending changelists. You should be looking in the default changelist, if you have not put the files in any speficic changelist. Right click on files that you see there that you had deleted earlier, and choose Revert.
if you have files checked out, and then deleted. You need to revert(p4 revert -a //...) the folder before you get latest forced (p4 sync -f).
An alternative:
p4 reconcile
p4 revert //...
If you don't care about the old client, one solution would be to pull down a new client:
p4 newclient
p4 sync
If you want the client to have the same name, you can do a forced sync as others have mentioned:
p4 sync -f
If you want the client to have the same name, but your directory is no longer recognized as a p4 workspace, you will need to delete the client and then recreate it.
p4 -c <client_name> client -d <client_name>
p4 newclient
Right click on parent directory.
Click "Reconcile" in context menu.
Let a new change list be created.
Right click changelist.
Revert change.
In my case I tried everything and I couldn't get all of my files to revert, so I tried deleting them and then I couldn't get all of them back. I restarted my pc, and tried numerous solutions found online. In the end my problem was solved by one or all of the following: upgrading to the latest P4V application, running the application with elevated permissions, and going to lunch after forcing get latest.
If you wasted half of a day. You may want to try the above.
I've deleted all the files in my directory. How can I get them back?
One wrinkle to this that I just stumbled over is that if you remove the directory you can't just use p4 sync -f to get it back. I wanted a complete clean version of the directory so I did a:
rm -rf directory1
However when I did a p4 sync -f directory1 on it, it spits out:
directory1 - no such file(s).
What I found that works is to recover a file inside of the directory first:
p4 sync -f directory1/some-file
You will have to know the name of one of the files inside of the missing directory which you can get using:
p4 files //depot/some/path/directory1/\*
Once you get one of the filenames, do:
p4 sync -f directory1/some-file
This should create the directory1 directory. Then you can do a full sync inside of the created directory:
cd directory1
p4 sync -f ...
Hope this helps someone else.

Perforce adding a folder to depot

I am new to Perforce. Could you add a new folder under the branch in the depot? I also tried to add one in my workplace but how could I get it to the depot? Do I have to do a merge/integrate or something?
Thanks.
p4 add doesn't support recursive add .
Here's a unix shell work-around to run from within the root folder you want to add:
find . -type f -print | p4 -x - add
If your server version is 2012.1 or later, you can use the reconcile command to do this, with full wildcard support:
p4 reconcile //depot/path/to/folder/...
From your local workspace, create your folder and a file you want to go inside it. Then either mark it as add from the visual client, or go into the folder from the command line, and type...
p4 add ./new_folder/new_file_name.ext
When you submit, the new file and folder will be in your repository. This assumes that new_folder is a subfolder of your existing workspace. Please let me know if it isn't and I'll update my answer.
Above command will add files under default changelist. And later if you want to see the if files are really added in default changelist
p4 opened
And for the submission of opened files, under the default changelist, to depot
p4 submit
Use command
p4 add directory_to_be_added/...
This will recursively add all contents starting drom "directory_to_be_added"
To add files from a directory in perforce
p4 reconcile -f -c [changeList] -a <dir_path_to add>
I had a situation that I need to add entire folder with files having wildcard name, so had to do it through command line using -f (force), I used "dir /b /s /a-d | p4 -x - add -f"
If you are using p4v to add a folder recursively, you need to click on:
"Connection" -> "Edit Current Workspace"
then manually add the mapping of the new folder to your depot.
Then go to your "Workspace" view and right click on the root folder, click "Mark for Add" and comment. All the files under it should show up in the new pending change list.

p4 sync issue: Unable to sync all files after changing mapping and deleting folder

I wanted to change the path of mapping in perforce client
For ex:
//depot/a/... /home/user/xyz/...
to
//depot/a/... /home/user/p4/xyz/...
After changing the path using p4 client, I have deleted folder xyz using rm -rf.
Then ran p4 sync but I think some files are not getting synced to new path p4/xyz/.
The server thinks that the workspace/client already has the #head revision of these files and does not need to sync them again.
You can try using -f option to force a refresh however that is taking a hammer to problem that just needs a pair of pliers.
I would try a p4 sync -k //depot/a/...#none to update the server 'have' list. Type [p4 help sync][1] for more information about the command.
Try using the force (-f) flag. See documentation.
There should also be a checkbox in the GUI, if you're using the visual client.
Same problem here and none of the solution worked. It turns out that file I was trying to sync was p4 opened. Once I reverted that back using p4 revert it synced back.
Below solution works for me.
p4 sync -f //depot/a/...
What I did is,synced the whole base directory,directory which contains all my files and folders.
-f is necessary because it will actually copy, which doesn't happen in normal sync situation(try doing ls on file for confirmation).
In case of a single file rm -rf situation you can do
p4 sync -f path/to/file

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