[p4] Using current directory as client root?

Raja Aluri raja at azulsystems.com
Mon Jan 21 10:01:23 PST 2008 

Jeff,
It's not about trust or reproducibility. It is just about saving time for
developers and qa to save the hassle of syncing to a lable do debugging. It
is just a matter of convenience, nothing else.

Raja
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Jensen [mailto:jjensen at apache.org] 
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 11:57 AM
To: Raja Aluri; 'Roy Smith'
Cc: 'Perforce-User at Perforce. Com'
Subject: RE: [p4] Using current directory as client root?

"Debuggers finding the right sources" is a changelist number or a label in
Perforce.  I have not found a need to leave the source files for a build
around for any duration "just in case" - they are all in Perforce,
obtainable from any client machine that can sync to that changelist or
label, including the build server itself (whether in the usual build area or
a new temp build area for troubleshooting).

If you cannot trust that changelist number or label, then something else is
wrong in your process (e.g. not all original files are source controlled).


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Raja Aluri [mailto:raja at azulsystems.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 11:39 AM
> To: Jeff Jensen; Roy Smith
> Cc: Perforce-User at Perforce. Com
> Subject: RE: [p4] Using current directory as client root?
> 
> I do see the need for a separate directory.
> We use a separate directory per build and leave the previous builds 'as it
> is' (cleanup is a separate step), so that the debuggers can find the right
> sources.
> Raja
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com
> [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Jeff Jensen
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 6:47 AM
> To: 'Roy Smith'
> Cc: 'Perforce-User at Perforce. Com'
> Subject: Re: [p4] Using current directory as client root?
> 
> Is that a self-imposed requirement or inflicted by a build tool?
> 
> While following this thread, I have been wondering about your flexibility
to
> question that original requirement, as it seems the "easiest" solution is
to
> not have it!  I've been curious as to why a subsequent build of the same
> codeline can't use the same dir location...
> 
> Instead, to have scorched earth builds, sync to none (p4 sync #none) and
> then remove the dir.  Then sync to the changelist of choice and proceed.
> 
> That works great if there is no "need" for the prior build source and
target
> dirs to remain for some reason.
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com [mailto:perforce-user-
> > bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Roy Smith
> > Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:05 PM
> > To: Slava Imeshev
> > Cc: Perforce-User at Perforce. Com
> > Subject: Re: [p4] Using current directory as client root?
> >
> > The basic idea we're looking at is for each build run to use a
> > different working directory.
> >
> > On Jan 17, 2008, at 5:13 PM, Slava Imeshev wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > > From: Roy Smith <smith_roy at emc.com>
> > >> We're trying to stay away from copying.
> > >
> > > That's understandable.
> > >
> > > In your requirements, are repeatable build runs expected to use a
> > > different working
> > > directory/client root every time?
> > >
> > > Or, is every codebase supposed to use a different but stable client
> > > root for its builds?
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Slava Imeshev
> > > www.viewtier.com
> > >
> > >
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On Jan 17, 2008, at 3:59 PM, Slava Imeshev wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Roy,
> > >>>
> > >>> Another solution could be having a build system to sync at a
> > >>> default place and then copy the
> > >>> workspace to the required on-demand location, passed as a parameter
> > >>> to the build system at build
> > >>> time.  Or, have each build a custom client root. Both are pretty
> > >>> straightforward and don't require
> > >>> any hacking. Is this something you are looking for?
> > >>>
> > >>> Regards,
> > >>>
> > >>> Slava Imeshev
> > >>> www.viewtier.com
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> --- Dave Lewis <dlewis78731 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> We generally just create a new client for each build.  If a
> > >>>> build was
> > >>>> certified by qa, you could label it as the release if
> > >>>> necessary.  It
> > >>>> never occurred to me that there was anything undesirable about it.
> > >>>> Just my point of view.  Its interesting to rethink these sorts of
> > >>>> things when somebody comes along and says they don't like that.
> > >>>> There
> > >>>> was the issue of cleaning up the clients at some point
> > >>>> afterwards.  I
> > >>>> think, though, that this is fairly straightforward usage
> > >>>> compared to
> > >>>> various other somewhat crooked approaches.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> dave
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Jan 16, 2008 9:47 PM, Roy Smith <smith_roy at emc.com> wrote:
> > >>>>> Yeah, this sounds like mostly what I'm looking for.  It's still
> > >>>>> annoying that you have to create a transient clientspec, though.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> On Jan 16, 2008, at 7:06 PM, Robert Cowham wrote:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> Sounds like that might be addressed by:
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.072/user/relnotes.txt
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Release 2007.2.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Major new functionality in 2007.2
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> New 'p4 sync' option bypasses db.have updates - #111247 **
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>           'p4 sync' now sports a '-p' option.  This allows the
> > >>>>>> user to
> > >>>>>>           sync files without the server keeping track of it.
> > >>>>>> This
> > >>>>>>           option is very useful when populating  build clients
> > >>>>>> or when
> > >>>>>>           publishing content when there is no requirement for
> > >>>>>> saving
> > >>>>>>           the client workspace state.
> > >>>>>>           (Bug #22857).
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> This would require the "create temporary client hack", but
> > >>>>>> perhaps
> > >>>>>> solve the
> > >>>>>> problem??
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Robert
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> > >>>>>>> From: perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com
> > >>>>>>> [mailto:perforce-user-bounces at perforce.com] On Behalf Of Roy
> > >>>>>>> Smith
> > >>>>>>> Sent: 16 January 2008 19:58
> > >>>>>>> To: Perforce User
> > >>>>>>> Subject: [p4] Using current directory as client root?
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> I have a requirement (as part of our build system) to be able
> > >>>>>>> to get a set of files from the repository and have them
> > >>>>>>> written to any arbitrary directory.  Because the root path is
> > >>>>>>> embedded in the client spec, there doesn't seem to be any way
> > >>>>>>> to do this.
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> We've played with all sorts of hacks.  We can create a
> > >>>>>>> symlink from the root path embedded in the client to where we
> > >>>>>>> really want the
> > >>>>>>> files.  We can create and destroy temporary client specs on
> > >>>>>>> the fly.
> > >>>>>>> But all these seem like hacks.  Surely there must be some
> > >>>>>>> simple way to say, "just put the files HERE".
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>> We don't need the workspace to be managed by perforce.  We'll
> > >>>>>>> never want to edit the files there, or submit any changes
> > >>>>>>> from there.  We just want a read-only copy of the source tree
> > >>>>>>> so we can build it.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> -------------------
> > >>>>> Roy Smith <smith_roy at emc.com>
> > >>>>> Software Guy, EMC Common Management Group
> > >>>>> 44 South Broadway, 7th floor
> > >>>>> White Plains, NY 10601
> > >>>>> (914) 580-3427
> > >>>>> AIM: roysmith649
> > >>>>> _______________________________________________
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> perforce-user mailing list  -  perforce-user at perforce.com
> > >>>>> http://maillist.perforce.com/mailman/listinfo/perforce-user
> > >>>>>
> > >>>> _______________________________________________
> > >>>> perforce-user mailing list  -  perforce-user at perforce.com
> > >>>> http://maillist.perforce.com/mailman/listinfo/perforce-user
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> -------------------
> > >> Roy Smith <smith_roy at emc.com>
> > >> Software Guy, EMC Common Management Group
> > >> 44 South Broadway, 7th floor
> > >> White Plains, NY 10601
> > >> (914) 580-3427
> > >> AIM: roysmith649
> > >>
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > perforce-user mailing list  -  perforce-user at perforce.com
> > > http://maillist.perforce.com/mailman/listinfo/perforce-user
> > >
> >
> > -------------------
> > Roy Smith <smith_roy at emc.com>
> > Software Guy, EMC Common Management Group
> > 44 South Broadway, 7th floor
> > White Plains, NY 10601
> > (914) 580-3427
> > AIM: roysmith649
> > _______________________________________________
> > perforce-user mailing list  -  perforce-user at perforce.com
> > http://maillist.perforce.com/mailman/listinfo/perforce-user
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> perforce-user mailing list  -  perforce-user at perforce.com
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