p4lib status

Mature; has been heavily used in a commercial product for over 3 years. Limited in the coverage of the Perforce Client API.

This fork in compatible with both Python 2.7 and Python 3.4. Might be compatible with other Python 3.x versions.

Compatibility with Python 3 starts with v0.9.6

px status

Hasn't been updated in a while so is showing its age in some places (e.g. 'px annotate' was added before p4 grew an annotate command).

px has not been updated after v0.9.5 and is probably not working starting with version v0.9.6.

px

Perforce is a source code control system (like CVS or Subversion). The standard command-line command for working with Perforce is p4. px is a wrapper around p4. It provides all the functionality of p4 (defering work to it) plus it extends some standard p4 commands and adds a few new ones. If you are a Perforce user you might find these extensions useful.

p4lib

p4lib.py is a Python interface to the Perforce client application. If you are a Python programmer and script Perforce you might find this module helpful. Currently, most common commands (though your definition of "common" may differ from mine) are supported. The p4lib.py module docstring says exactly which -- read it [TODO/url/to/p4lib.py here] or run:

pydoc p4lib

Note: p4lib.py is a pure-Python wrapper that shells-out to p4. I.e. it is not using Perforce's C++ P4Client API. This has the benefit of not requiring binary builds (hence works on a lot of platforms easily) and the drawback of not automatically supporting the whole set of p4 client commands.

An unrelated benefit of p4lib.py is that it attempts to provide a somewhat Pythonic interface to the p4 client commands. YMMV.

Getting Started with p4lib.py

If you do any Python scripting of Perforce, then p4lib.py might be of interest to you. As mentioned above, not all Perforce client API commands are supported so you should make sure it has the ones you need first. The p4lib.py module docstring will tell you:

pydoc p4lib

All interaction is done via a "P4" instance:

>>> import p4lib
>>> p4 = p4lib.P4(OPTIONS)
>>> result = p4.COMMAND(OPTIONS)

For example, to open a file for editing:

>>> import p4lib
>>> p4 = p4lib.P4()
>>> p4.edit("cb.py")
[{'comment': 'opened for edit', 
  'notes': [], 
  'rev': 77, 
  'depotFile': '//depot/main/Apps/Komodo-devel/src/codeintel/cb.py'}]

To verify that that file was actually opened:

>>> p4.opened("./...")
[{'rev': 77, 
  'action': 'edit', 
  'type': 'text', 
  'depotFile': '//depot/main/Apps/Komodo-devel/src/codeintel/cb.py', 
  'change': 'default'}]

The docstrings for each command should describe all you need to know to use them. Either read pydoc output:

pydoc p4lib

or play around in the interactive shell:

>>> help(p4.edit)

Getting Started with px

As with the p4 command itself, the built-in documentation for px is pretty good. (Please send me feedback if you find this isn't true!) px should feel and act like using p4. To see the px extensions, enter px help px:

$ px help px
'px' entensions to 'p4':

px --help
    Add px-specific help output to the usual 'p4 -h' and 'p4 -?'.
    See 'px help usage'.

px -V, --version
    Print px-specific version information in addition to the usage
    'p4 -V' output.  See 'px help usage'.

px -g ...
    Format input/output as *un*marshalled Python objects. Compare to
    the usual 'p4 -G ...'.  See 'px help usage'.

px annotate ...
    Identify last change to each line in given file, like 'cvs
    annotate' or 'p4pr.pl'.  See 'px help annotate'.

px backout ...
    Provide all the general steps for rolling back a perforce
    change as described in Perforce technote 14.  See 'px help
    backout'.

px changes -d ...
    Print the full 'p4 describe -du' output for each listed change.
    See 'px help changes'.

px diff -sn --skip ...
    List local files not in the p4 depot. Useful for importing new
    files into a depot via 'px diff -sn --skip ./... | px -x - add'.
    See 'px help diff'.

px diff -c <change> ...
    Limit diffing to files opened in the given pending change.  See
    'px help diff'.

px genpatch [<change>]
    Generate a patch (usable by the GNU 'patch' program) from a
    pending or submitted chagelist.  See 'px help genpatch'.

Personally, the extensions that I find most useful are:

1. px changes -d

   This is very useful for grepping through a lot of changes to a particular file or area. For example:

    px changes -d ./... | less
   

2. px backout CHANGENUM

   The full procedure for backing out a check-in to Perforce is described in Tech Note 14. This can be tedious to work through. px backout does a decent job of handling all these steps for you.

3. px diff -sn

   Ever want to know what new files in your client area you've forgotten to p4 add. This will tell you.

   Also, this command simplifies the instructions for Perforce Tech Note 12 for importing a directory tree and part of Tech Note 2 for working offline to not have to give platform-specific commands:

    px diff -sn ./... | px -x - add
    px diff -sd ./... | px -x - delete
    px diff -se ./... | px -x - edit
   

Change Log

v0.9.6

• First version compatible with Python 2.7 and Python 3.4.
• Arguments designing switches now take boolean and no more 0/1 int values. This is a breaking change if you used 0/1 int values, as the command won't take them. If you already used boolean values, leaning on the fact that True/False are converted to 1/0, then you're safe.
• p4lib can add() files with the p4 restricted '@' char.

v0.9.5

• Fix a problem identified by "j w" where p4.edit(<path>, change=123) would fail if the path was already open and part of another pending change.
• Fixes for 'p4 fstat' parsing if process output uses '\r\n' EOLs.
• Fix http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=73103 (Perforce submit form does not match same submit from command line).

v0.9.4

• Diff output parsing fix.
• p4 describe output parsing fix.

v0.9.3

• Add p4.fstat().

v0.9.2

• A fix from Aku Levola so that 'p4 diff -sn ./...' works with filenames that have a '#' in them.

v0.9.1

• Fix shebang line in 'px'

v0.9.0

• Change version attributes and semantics. Before: had a version tuple. After: version is a string, version_info is a tuple.

v0.8.3

• The break-up-large-sets change in 0.8.2 introduced a bug w.r.t adding up retvals (doesn't work if retval is None). Fix that.

v0.8.2

• Add somewhat of HACK fix for doing p4.opened(), p4.sync() and p4.resolve() with a large set of files. The test case is whether 'px backout 177241' on the ActiveState Perforce repository works. Before this the back would hang on Linux and Mac OS X.

v0.8.1

• Add px.exe to the distro (and to repo) to fix install on Windows

v0.8.0

• Move hosting of px/p4lib.py to trentm.com. Tweaks to associated bits (README.txt, etc.)
• Fix 'px' usage of os.wait(). (Was this an os.wait() API change?)

v0.7.2:

• Avoid a possible hang when running commands use "*" in the filespec. See test/test_hang.py for details.
• Change _raw output to return unsplit output.

v0.7.1:

• Add '_raw' option to each P4 command to change the return value to be the unprocessed results from running p4.

v0.7.0:

• [Backward incompatibility] Drop 'optv' method of passing p4 options to P4 constructor. Instead use named keyword args. Also add optional keyword args to every P4 command to allow overriding the instances p4 options for a specific command. This may break p4lib.P4() usage. To quickly convert one may use this pattern: Change usages of:

   p4lib.P4(optv-argument)
  

  to:

   p4 = p4lib.P4( **p4lib.parseOptv(self.__p4optv) )
  

v0.6.8:

• Add interfaces in p4lib.py to 'p4 label', 'p4 labels', 'p4 flush', 'p4 branch', 'p4 branches'.
• Fix bug in p4lib.py interface to 'p4 have' where files containing " - " could not be handled.

v0.6.7:

• Add interface to 'p4 client' and 'p4 clients' in p4lib.py.
• Fix bugs in 'px genpatch' where opened files without changes or non-existant added files could not be handled.

v0.6.6:

• first public release