[p4] How do YOU identify the code set for a release?

[Robert Cowham]

> The key point is that there is no obvious equivalent of svn 
> switch in perforce... Yes you can branch on the server with 
> -v but as Steve said you can't work on it unless you get it 
> on the disk, so you're going to have to do the disk copy one 
> way or another. Probably svn switch could be done with some 
> view spec manipulation and sync -k...

Doing a local copy of files and sync -k is certainly worth considering in
some casese I would have thought (might require diff -se as a backup
afterwards). Depends on speed of local copy vs. network.

> But the way we addressed this problem of branching very large 
> codebases is to come up with a custom tool that implemented a 
> form of sparse branching, which we call shelving. Only those 
> files that are different from the "trunk" are actually 
> branched (a la clearcase)... This makes the branch useless in 
> of itself, you can only work on the files after unshelving... 
> At which point you can commit (deliver the branch) or 
> reshelve again...

I know this is an interesting subject - and much in demand these days. Would
be nice to see more support for it in the product but I have some hopes on
this front. Have seen several "roll your own" implementations.

Robert