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NAME

c4 - CVSish wrapper for perforce p4 program

SYNOPSIS

    c4        help

    c4        client-create -t <template> <client>
    c4        client-delete -d -f <client>
    c4 [-n]   update
    c4        unknown

    c4 <any p4 command>
       i.e.:  c4 add <file>
              c4 delete <file>
              c4 diff <file>                         

DESCRIPTION

C4 allows a default user, see the ENVIRONMENT section.

When passed a filename on any c4 command, c4 makes the filename absolute, with all symlinks reduced, and chdir's if possible to the first such filename. If the argument is a directory, a /... is appended. This makes it a lot more likely that perforce commands will work when issued from outside a client area. (For example: c4 add /my/area/boo/blaz.) For this to work best, your p4 ClientRoot should point to the area that is physically on the disk, with all symlinks resolved.

When a client is created in a special way, C4 makes p4 seem more like cvs by having all files writable by default. C4 adds several commands (update/client_create) to support this, see the COMMANDS section.

COMMANDS

Any command not listed here is passed directly to perforce.

change-max [files...]

Return the maximum change number present in the current client or passed list of files.

ci

Alias for c4 submit.

commit

Alias for c4 submit.

client-create [-t template] <client>

Create a client specification, making sure it gets named, and setting the clobber, allwrite, and rmdir attributes as required for c4 update. Also, create a .p4config file with the name of the client in it.

client-delete -d <client>

Delete a client specification in a way which leaves the database as clean as possible. Consists of the following steps:

    p4 revert ... to make sure no files are left open.

    p4 client to edit the spec to remove any View: lines.

    p4 sync to remove the views that were deleted from the file system.

    p4 client -d to remove the client spec.

    rm .p4config to cleanup the local directory.

rm [-c changelist] file...

Alias for c4 delete.

submit [-p4] [-f] [normal p4 args]

This performs a p4 submit.

Under c4 style management, it prints an error if the area is not up to date before submitting. -f overrides this check. Use -f carefully as edited files may not yet be opened for editing as they would be if the update was done.

Under traditional management, or with the -p4 flag, calls the normal p4 submit command.

sync [-p4] [normal p4 args]

This performs a p4 sync.

Under c4 style management, c4 update should be used instead. Under traditional management, or with the -p4 flag, calls the normal p4 sync command.

update [-n] [-a] [-pi] [-rl] [file...]

Update is similar to cvs update. With -n, only the actions to be taken are shown, it does not actually change anything. On an update without a -n, c4 performs the following steps:

    p4 edit any files that have been changed from the version checked out from the depot.

    With the -a option, p4 add any files that are unknown to perforce (? becomes an A.)

    With the -rl option, p4 delete any files that are missing in client (l becomes an R.)

    p4 revert any files that were p4 edited, but now match the version in the depot.

    p4 sync to get recent changes.

    Look for any unknown files not in a .cvsignore file.

A "c4 update -a -rl" will thus issue appropriate adds and deletes to make the depot match the current client view.

Update also prints a summary of each file that is modified in the client area, and with the -pi option, ignored (i) files are listed as well. Lowercase letters are used for actions that were not caused by the user, and are different from cvs letters. Here are the letters, the state causing that message, and what may happen on an update.

    A    (A)dded in client, not yet in depot, stays Add.
    M    (M)odified in client, different from depot, stays Modified.
    R    (R)emoved in client, still in depot, stays Removed.
    U    (U)pdate required, unmodified in client, new version from depot.
    a    Never in client, (a)dded in depot, will appear.
    d    Same in client, (d)eleted in depot, will disappear.
    l    (L)ost in client, exists in depot, will appear.
    m    (m)odified in client, but now matches depot, will be reverted.
    i    (i)gnored and not in depot, and in .cvsignore or global ignores.
    ?    Unknown - Not in depot, not added, not in .cvsignore, no action.

Unknown files (?) should be ignored with a .cvsignore file as described in the FILES section.

unknown [-a] [file...]

Prints files that are not known to perforce, and do not have a .cvsignore line. This is similar to the '?' lines printed by "c4 update -n", however "c4 unknown" may be used with standard perforce clients.

With -a, mark all unknown files to be added to the depot (same as -a option in c4 update.)

ARGUMENTS

--help

Displays this message and program version and exits.

ENVIRONMENT

C4USER_DEFAULT

If specified, when a command is issued and the USER does not have a P4 license, then rather then create a new P4 user, the user in C4USER_DEFAULT will be used. This allows infrequent read-only users to share the same license.

CVSIGNORE

If specified, adds space seperated list of ignores to global ignore list. See .cvsignore below.

FILES

.c4cache

This is a temporary file created and maintained by c4 in the top level of your client area. You may safely delete it, however the next c4 operation may be significantly slower.

.cvsignore

Specifies files that are in the same directory as the .cvsignore that should be ignored; there will be no ?'s printed when a 'c4 update' is executed.

Ignore files are mostly compatible with CVS. The list of global ignores is initialized with:

    *~      #*      .#*     ,*      _$*     *$
    *.old   *.bak   *.BAK   *.orig  *.rej   .del-*
    *.a     *.olb   *.o     *.obj   *.so    *.exe
    *.Z     *.elc   *.ln
    .c4cache     .p4config
    .make.state  .nse_depinfo  .dependency-info
    tags         TAGS
    core

Patterns in the home directory file ~/.cvsignore, or the CVSIGNORE environment variable are appended to this list.

Each directory may have a local '.cvsignore' file. The patterns found in local `.cvsignore' are only valid for the directory that contains them, not for any sub-directories.

In any of the places listed above, a single exclamation mark (`!') clears the ignore list. This can be used if you want to store any file which normally is ignored.

The wildcards * and ? are honored, no other wildcards are currently supported.

As with CVS, comments are NOT supported!

DISTRIBUTION

The latest version is available from CPAN and from http://www.veripool.com/.

Copyright 2002-2005 by Wilson Snyder. This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU Lesser General Public License or the Perl Artistic License.

AUTHORS

Wilson Snyder <wsnyder@wsnyder.org>

SEE ALSO

p4, c4_job_edit, P4::C4