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perforceperforce-integrate
Bo Liu
Bo Liu

Reputation: 35

Will the Perforce command "p4 copy" keep revision info?

dear all, I am using the Perforce Windows x64 GUI 2014.1888424. Per my test, the answer is NO. It will use the assigned revision number. I found the "integrate" and "branch" commands also don't keep the revision info. Are these commands designed to behavior like this? PS: I know that rename/move will keep the revision info. Would you please give me any hint? Thank you very much!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2416

Answers (1)

Bryan Pendleton
Bryan Pendleton

Reputation: 16359

You didn't describe precisely what test you did, so I'm speculating slightly, but: the Perforce integrate, copy, and merge commands do preserve the overall revision history of the file.

However, many of the commands which display file history do not display the full history by default; you have to specify additional commands to instruct the server to output the history across integrations.

For example, compare the output of

p4 filelog -i

versus

p4 filelog

or

p4 changes -i

versus

p4 changes

for your experiments.

The -i flag tells the server that you want to see the history of the file from prior to the integration or copy from its previous location. Here's how it's described in 'p4 help filelog':

    The -i flag includes inherited file history. If a file was created by
    branching (using 'p4 integrate'), filelog lists the revisions of the
    file's ancestors up to the branch points that led to the specified
    revision.  File history inherited by renaming (using 'p4 move') is
    always displayed regardless of whether -i is specified.

Note that, as you've observed, renaming is indeed handled differently than integ/copy/merge.

As for myself, when I am studying the history of a file, I tend to nearly always use the P4V tool and its supremely powerful Revision Graph and Time Lapse View tools. These tools know how to navigate all sorts of complex integration history, and make studying the history of a file much easier.

Upvotes: 2

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