[p4] Moving Files.

[Stephen Vance]

At 10:06 AM 7/5/2001 -0700, Ganesh Kondal wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>   We have our product source code in perforce server. Now its planned to
>change the whole directory structure..
>
>         so
>
>         Products
>                 /src
>                /com
>                         ....
>
>
>         is going to get moved to
>
>         Products
>                 /src
>                /newname
>                                         ...
>
>         Facts:
>                 All the files under java is going to get moved to a new 
> structure.
>
>         Qn:
>            There is already 4 to 5 revisions for each file. If i move the 
> files to
>a new structure, do i have to start them as new revisions or can i do
>something so that perforce can keep track of the earlier revisions.

There are two approaches that you can take.  The first is easy and uses the 
regular Perforce commands.  Simply 'p4 integ //Products/com/... 
//Products/newname/...' and then 'p4 delete //Products/com/...'.  If the 
changes run deeper, you will need additional commands.  The advantage to 
this is that it uses completely supported Perforce commands.  The 
disadvantage is that you will have to remember to use the -i flag to follow 
the version history across integration history, and if you have branches 
off of com with files checked out, you may have integration issues.

The second approach is checkpoint surgery.  It is possible to checkpoint 
the server, shut it down, perform search and replaces on the checkpoint, 
manually move the depot files, restore from the checkpoint, and restart the 
server.  The result (if done properly) is the same as if the files had 
originally existed in the new location.  The disadvantage is that client 
workspaces (physical storage) will have to be altered for correspondence to 
the depot structure, which could be awkward if things were checked 
out.  The advantage is that you don't have to think about whether the file 
was moved when searching its version history.  I recommend contacting 
Perforce Support if you want to pursue this option.

Steve


Stephen Vance
mailto:steve at vance.com
http://www.vance.com/