The Perforce Sample Depot

SUMMARY

The Perforce Sample Depot provides you with a working example of a Perforce Server that can be used for testing or training. The Sample Depot demonstrates a typical depot organization along with some sensible naming conventions. It provides enough files and revision history to enable you to perform interesting and meaningful SCM tasks.

DETAILS

The Sample Depot contains several example projects, such as Jam, a software build tool written in C. The Sample Depot is not, however, intended to be a current archive of source code. For the latest Jam source code, see the Jam project in the Perforce Public Depot.

The Sample Depot demonstrates several methods for arranging your source code or Web development repository. Both the source code and Web development directories are organized to support a "mainline" development model. Perforce advocates use of a mainline model for concurrent development. More information on the mainline model can be found in white papers on the Perforce Web site. In particular, see the High-level Best Practices in Software Configuration Management and Software Life-Cycle  Modeling white papers. For further reference, see the book Practical Perforce.

The Sample Depot requires a Perforce Server version 2005.2 or later. Installation instructions are below.

The Sample Depot is organized as follows: Software Development Projects //depot/Jam //depot/Jamgraph //depot/Talkhouse Web Site Development //depot/www Miscellaneous Shared Files //depot/Misc

Software Development Branching Methodology The Sample Depot contains three software development projects: Jam, Jamgraph, and Talkhouse. Ongoing development work occurs in the MAIN branch under each software project's name. For example: //depot/Jam/MAIN //depot/Jamgraph/MAIN or, in the case of the Talkhouse project, a main-dev branch: //depot/Talkhouse/main-dev Branches are created for feature development. Such branches isolate development work that might destabilize the MAIN branch. For example: //depot/Jamgraph/DEV When code is ready for release, a release branch is created under the project name. For example: //depot/Jam/REL2.1 //depot/Jam/REL2.2 //depot/Jamgraph/REL1.0 //depot/Talkhouse/rel1.0 //depot/Talkhouse/rel1.5

Web Site Branching Methodology For Web site development, the example workflow is as follows. Web page authors edit files under: //depot/www/dev Files are copied to a staging area for final review before going live: //depot/www/review After passing review, files are copied to a live branch for publishing: //depot/www/live For a discussion of various strategies for using Perforce for Web site development, see Web Content Management with Perforce.

Miscellaneous Shared Files Perforce can be used to store files that are shared between your development and corporate staff. For example, manuals and marketing documents are stored in the following path: //depot/Misc Word documents, Excel spread sheets, and Powerpoint slides can be managed using the Perforce Plug-in for Microsoft Office (P4OFC) available from our Web site.

Installation

The installation of the Sample Depot assumes that you have first installed a Perforce Server and client application. A 2005.2 or later version Perforce Server is required. To download Perforce for your platform, go to the Perforce Downloads page. For instructions on how to install Perforce, see the Ten Minute Test Drive page.

To install and use the Sample Depot:

1. Download the Sample Depot from our ftp site. The Sample Depot is contained in a .zip file:
   

   ftp://ftp.perforce.com/perforce/tools/sampledepot.zip

   The size of the sampledepot.zip file is about 1.9MB and this file uncompresses to just over 5MB.

2. Uncompress the sampledepot.zip file using a standard compression utility such as unzip or WinZip. For example, on Windows, select Start > Program Files > Accessories > Command Prompt from the menu. When the DOS command shell appears, issue the following command:

   cd C:\<sampledepot.zip directory>
   unzip sampledepot.zip

   Again, if you don't have the unzip program on your computer, use WinZip or another compression utility that can extract .zip format files.

   When the sampledepot.zip file is uncompressed, it creates a directory named PerforceSample. The PerforceSample directory contains three items:

   checkpoint	# a file containing Perforce metadata
   depot	# a directory containing Perforce archive files
   readme.html	# a description of the Sample Depot including installation instructions

   The PerforceSample directory is referred to as your P4ROOT location.

3. Copy the p4d executable to the PerforceSample directory.

   copy p4d.exe "C:\PerforceSample"
   cd "C:\PerforceSample"

4. To create your sample Perforce database, restore the checkpoint file by issuing the following command where C:\PerforceSample is replaced by the location of the PerforceSample directory:

   p4d -r C:\PerforceSample -jr C:\PerforceSample\checkpoint

   The preceding step creates the Perforce database files in your C:\PerforceSample (P4ROOT) directory. Your Perforce database is now installed.

5. To ensure that the database format is consistent with the Perforce Server version that you are using, cd to your P4ROOT directory and issue the following command:

   p4d -r "C:\PerforceSample" -xu

   You will see the message, "...upgrades done".

6. Start the Perforce Server.

   On Windows, start the Perforce Server by issuing the following command at the command prompt:

   p4d -r C:\PerforceSample -p 1492

   When the server starts, it displays the message "Perforce Server starting...". The Perforce Server is now started and listening for client connections on port number 1492. The command prompt will not return until you stop Perforce.

   NOTE: The DOS command shell window remains open and appears inactive when the Perforce Server is running and listening for client connections. For the purpose of simplicity, this installation example uses the command shell start method. In most cases, however, Windows users start the Perforce Server as a Windows Service, not from a DOS command shell.

   On Unix, assuming you unzipped the sampledepot.zip file in your /tmp directory, start your Perforce Server by issuing the following command:

   p4d -r /tmp/PerforceSample -p 1492 -d
   

You are now ready to use Perforce Sample Depot! You can inspect the contents of the Sample Depot using either P4V, a graphical user interface, or P4, the command line interface. Specify your server as localhost or the name of your machine. Choose port 1492. Specify your name as the user, or use the supplied user, bruno, with no password. Create your own client workspace, or create a directory c:\bruno_ws and use the supplied bruno_ws user.

To verify your connection to the Sample Depot using P4, open a new command shell instance and issue the following command:

p4 -p 1492 info

For help with Perforce command syntax and options, issue the following command:

p4 -p 1492 help

To stop the Perforce Server, issue the following command:

p4 -p 1492 admin stop

For basic instructions on using P4V to connect a Perforce Server, see the Ten Minute Test Drive, or consult the P4V Help menu.

For additional information on setting up the Perforce Server or using Perforce applications, see the main documentation page on our Web site. If you encounter any problems installing or using the Sample Depot, please contact Perforce Support at support@perforce.com.