[p4] When do labels degrade Perforce performance?

[Robert Cowham]

What's your script language of choice?
 
The simplest way is to do as you say - create file and pipe it in.
 
>From DOS:
 
C:\bruno_ws\Jam\MAIN\src>echo Label: L2 > l2.txt
 
C:\bruno_ws\Jam\MAIN\src>echo Revision: @801 >> l2.txt
 
C:\bruno_ws\Jam\MAIN\src>echo View: >> l2.txt
 
C:\bruno_ws\Jam\MAIN\src>echo   //depot/Jam/MAIN/... >> l2.txt
 
C:\bruno_ws\Jam\MAIN\src>p4 label -i < l2.txt        <======== key command
Label L2 saved.
 
C:\bruno_ws\Jam\MAIN\src>p4 label -o l2
# A Perforce Label Specification.
#

Label:  L2
 
Update: 2007/09/21 17:20:28
 
Access: 2007/09/21 17:20:28
 
Options:        unlocked
 
Revision:       @801
 
View:
        //depot/Jam/MAIN/...

 
Obviously if you wish to set Owner: and Description: fields you can.
 
Does that help?
 
Robert


  _____  

From: Brian Jones [mailto:caneridge at gmail.com] 
Sent: 21 September 2007 16:42
To: Robert Cowham
Cc: perforce-user at perforce.com
Subject: Re: [p4] When do labels degrade Perforce performance?


Robert,

It looks like dynamic labels are created using a form. I'm still a bit
stumped on how to create these forms using an automated process. Is the
process to essentially create a text file containing the filled out form and
then supply that to the label command? 

Brian


On 9/21/07, Robert Cowham <robert at vaccaperna.co.uk> wrote: 

Depending on how you use them, the new dynamic labels is a very nice
feature.

This effectively makes a label an alias for a changelist.


C:\bruno_ws>p4 label -o l1
# A Perforce Label Specification. 
Label:  l1

Revision:       @800

View:
        //depot/Jam/MAIN/...

The above label is an alias for changelist 800 in the view, thus:

        p4 files //depot/Jam/MAIN/... at 800

Is the same as: 

        p4 files @l1

In addition, with a spec depot, you can versioning of the labels.

The only problem with the above type of label is that it doesn't show up in
the output of the command:

        p4 labels //depot/Jam/MAIN/...

Since this does a scan of db.label which has no entries - a real shame.

The static labels cause db.label file to have an entry for every file in
every label. Obviously this can get big after a while. Depending on how you 
use the labels will depend on what performance issues they can cause.

Robert

> -----Original Message-----
> From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com
<mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com> 
> [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Brian Jones
> Sent: 20 September 2007 15:40
> To: perforce-user at perforce.com
> Subject: [p4] When do labels degrade Perforce performance?
>
> Does anyone have any quantitative information on how and when
> labels impact Perforce performance?
>
> Page 129 of the 2007.2 Admin manual states:
>
> "Repeated references to large labels can be particularly
> costly. Commands that refer to files using labels as
> revisions will scan the whole label once for each file argument." 
>
> I just started working with Perforce this year. I have a lot
> of experience with other SCM tools. I've searched the forums,
> knowledge base, net, and user docs for information on how
> labels impact Perforce performance but have not found much
> satisfactory information. With non-changelist based SCM
> systems it is a common practice to label every build. With
> Perforce though, this is a bad idea. That being said, there 
> are still cases where labels are very helpful as they give a
> human readable name to something in the absence of changelist
> aliases. I would really like to better understand in real
> terms how labels impact performance and where the performance 
> limits are in their use.
>
> Brian Jones
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