I want to migrate source code tree from perforce to git. The source code contains several dev branches scattered across perforce depot, not necessarily in the same directory. for example the structure is something like this -
//depot/dev/project/master
//depot/dev/project/branch1
//depot/dev/project/branch2
//depot/dev/sub-project/branch3
//depot/dev/sub-project/branch4
//depot/patch-project/branch5
//depot/patch-project/special/developern/branch6
I went though git-p4 documentation https://git-scm.com/docs/git-p4 BRANCH DETECTION section and also similar articles http://forums.perforce.com/index.php?/topic/1395-git-p4-and-multiple-branches/.
I am able to migrate branches with history for those which are under immediate parent like
//depot/dev/project/branch1 and
//depot/dev/project/branch2
What I am not able to achieve is how can I migrate all six branches together at once.
I tried running the migration on //depot@all level after specifying the branch specs, however it is failing since perforce server is huge, it gives either maxresults exception or session timeout. Can somebody please guide how this scenario can be handled?
Another option I see is to migrate branches separately (one branch to one git repo) and then merge those all branches into a new git repo. I am not sure if doing this what will be impact/downside.
Thanks and Regards,
Amar Kumbhar.
Summary: It works, git-p4 is a great tool, very intelligent, comes with lot of configurable options. Multiple branches scattered wherever across depot tree migrated successfully. We need to run the import at highest level (topmost) perforce directory that covers all sub-directories or branches of interest. For efficient operation, suggested to use --changesfile option, to explicitly specify changelists to be imported. Also use git-p4.branchUser and git-p4.branchList to explicitly specify branchspecs.
Details: Here I am showing the settings that worked for me. There may be a better way to achieve the goal.
Perforce depot structure: (as mentioned in question)
Perforce client: This is set at highest (topmost) p4 directory. This is very important, otherwise git-p4 may exclude changelists (restricted due to client view) as empty commits.
//depot/... //myp4client/...
Perforce branchspecs: I created a single branchspec that covers all my branches dependency (parent/child) information
$ p4 branch -o test1 | grep "//"
//depot/dev/project/master/... //depot/dev/project/branch1/...
//depot/dev/project/master/... //depot/dev/project/branch2/...
//depot/dev/project/branch1/... //depot/dev/sub-project/branch3/...
//depot/dev/project/branch1/... //depot/dev/sub-project/branch4/...
//depot/dev/project/master/... //depot/patch-project/branch5/...
//depot/patch-project/branch5/... //depot/patch-project/special/developern/branch6
git-p4 config items: Next, I setup an empty git repository and following config items.
mkdir workdir
cd workdir
git init
(** perforce variables)
git config git-p4.user myp4user
git config git-p4.passwowrd myp4password
git config git-p4.port myp4port
git config git-p4.client myp4client
(** force to use perforce client spec)
git config git-p4.useClientSpec true
git config git-p4.client myp4client
( ** restrict to explore branchspecs created only by me)
git config git-p4.branchUser myp4user
( ** branch information, dependency relation, interestingly only last name (directory name in branch path) is required to mention, git-p4 automatically detects/pick what is required i.e. fully expanding the branch name )
git config git-p4.branchList master:branch1
git config --add git-p4.branchList master:branch2
git config --add git-p4.branchList branch1:branch3
git config --add git-p4.branchList branch1:branch4
git config --add git-p4.branchList master:branch5
git config --add git-p4.branchList branch5:branch6
Changelists file: Next, I collected all the changelists, for all branches those I am migrating.
p4 changes //depot/dev/project/master/... | cut -d' ' -f2 >> master.txt
p4 changes //depot/dev/project/branch1/... | cut -d' ' -f2 >> master.txt
p4 changes //depot/dev/project/branch2/... | cut -d' ' -f2 >> master.txt
p4 changes //depot/dev/sub-project/branch3/... | cut -d' ' -f2 >> master.txt
p4 changes //depot/dev/sub-project/branch4/... | cut -d' ' -f2 >> master.txt
p4 changes //depot/patch-project/branch5/... | cut -d' ' -f2 >> master.txt
p4 changes //depot/patch-project/special/developern/branch6/... | cut -d' ' -f2 >> master.txt
sort -n master.txt | uniq > master_sorted.txt
Import: Finally I ran the import as below, I used "sync" and not clone.
cd workdir
../git-p4.py sync //depot/... --detect-branches --verbose --changesfile /home/myp4user/master_sorted.txt
On smaller depots “ ../git-p4.py sync //depot@all --detect-branches --verbose “ shall also work, in that case no need to create changelists file (earlier step)
Once import is finished, I am able to see git-p4 created all remote perforce branches inside single git repository.
git branch -a
remotes/p4/depot/dev/project/master
remotes/p4/depot/dev/project/branch1
remotes/p4/depot/dev/dev/project/branch2
remotes/p4/depot/dev/dev/sub-project/branch3
remotes/p4/depot/dev/dev/sub-project/branch4
remotes/p4/depot/patch-project/branch5
remotes/p4/depot/patch-project/special/developern/branch6
Then I created local branches from remote p4 branches
git checkout -b master remotes/p4/depot/dev/project/master
git checkout -b branch1 remotes/p4/depot/dev/project/branch1
git checkout -b branch2 remotes/p4/depot/dev/dev/project/branch2
git checkout -b branch3 remotes/p4/depot/dev/dev/sub-project/branch3
git checkout -b branch4 remotes/p4/depot/dev/dev/sub-project/branch4
git checkout -b branch5 remotes/p4/depot/patch-project/branch5
git checkout -b branch6 remotes/p4/depot/patch-project/special/developern/branch6
Next I simply added a remote origin and pushed the code into git repo.
Thanks for various pointers/help available in stackoverflow and online.