Using Perforce's Command Line Interface

Run p4 help to get command line help directly in your terminal.

Configuring your Perforce connection

The recommended approach is to use a P4CONFIG file. Assume in these examples that your Perforce workspace is called my_ws, your P4HOST setting is my_depot, and your Perforce user name is joe_coder.

Windows

Assume that your workspace is located in the directory c:\p4\my_ws.

p4 set P4CONFIG=p4config.txt
cd c:\p4\my_ws
echo P4PORT=perforce.assembla.com:1666 >> p4config.txt
echo P4HOST=my_depot >> p4config.txt
echo P4USER=joe_coder >> p4config.txt
echo P4CLIENT=my_ws >> p4config.txt

Be sure to use the real values for all of these settings; you can find them in the Instructions tab of your Perforce repository in your Assembla space.

Linux and Mac

Assume that your workspace is located in the directory ~/my_ws.

echo "export P4CONFIG=p4config.txt" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
cd ~/my_ws
echo "P4PORT=perforce.assembla.com:1666" >> p4config.txt
echo "P4HOST=my_depot" >> p4config.txt
echo "P4USER=joe_coder" >> p4config.txt
echo "P4CLIENT=my_ws" >> p4config.txt

Be sure to use the real values for all of these settings; you can find them in the Instructions tab of your Perforce repository in your Assembla space.

To get started with a brand new depot

Run 'p4 info' to make sure you can connect
Login with 'p4 login' using your Assembla password
Create a client for the main stream by running 'p4 client -S //depot/main -o | p4 client -i'

Start working! Your new depot is empty. You can create new code or import existing code.

Adding content

To add new content or import existing content, go to an appropriate directory in your Perforce workspace, create or copy the content, and submit it to your Perforce repository. For example, assume you've created a workspace in the directory c:\p4\my_ws, and you want to import some code you have saved under c:\temp\code.

cd c:\p4\my_ws
robocopy /mir c:\temp\code src
p4 reconcile src\...
p4 submit -d "importing code"

On non-Windows platforms, that would be:

cd ~/p4/my_ws
cp -r /tmp/code src
p4 reconcile src/...
p4 submit -d "importing code"