CODEWITHSUNDEEP
perforceperforce-client-spec
Paul J. Lucas
Paul J. Lucas

Reputation: 7151

Mapping same part of Perforce depot to multiple places?

Is it possible to map the same part of a depot to two (or more) different places?

//depot/branches/foo/... //my_client/foo/...
//depot/branches/foo/... //my_client/foo1/...

The reason I want this is to be able to make unrelated and non-overlapping changes to the same file(s) simultaneously.

(If they were different files, I could simply use different change-lists in a single mapping, of course.)

Upvotes: 2

Views: 1799

Answers (2)

Samwise
Samwise

Reputation: 71574

A given client view can only have one of a given depot file at a given time. That said, here are three possible ways to make two different changes to the same file at the same time:

1) Do your two changes need to both exist on your client machine simultaneously? If not, when you want to pause work on your first change, "shelve" it, revert your local file, and then make your second change. You can have any number of "shelved" versions of a file (in different changelists) associated with a single client, but only the "open" file is actually present in the workspace.

2) Do you in fact need both files on your machine, but not necessarily need to run Perforce commands on them simultaneously (like merge changes between them, diff them vs each other, submit them both as a single change, etc)? If so, having multiple client specs is a good option. Make sure they have different roots (hence different local filesystem locations), and use P4CONFIG files so that you'll automatically use the client spec that matches your working directory.

3) Do you need both files and want the ability to version different sets of changes to them simultaneously, diff the two variants, and merge changes between them? If so, you want to make a new branch. Do:

p4 integ //depot/branches/foo/... //depot/branches/foo1/...
p4 submit

Now there are two sets of files in the depot and in your workspace; you can make independent changes to them, and use "p4 integ" later to merge those changes between them (in either direction) as desired.

Upvotes: 5

P4Shimada
P4Shimada

Reputation: 803

Bryan's suggestion is a good option for what you would like to accomplish.

In terms of overlay mappings in a client workspace, Perforce allows you to map multiple depots to the same workspace location as documented here:

http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.current/manuals/p4guide/chapter.configuration.html#configuration.refine_workspace.map_diff_depot_locations

Upvotes: 0

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