About P4V, the Helix Visual Client

P4V, the Helix Visual Client, is the cross-platform graphical user interface for the Helix Versioning Engine. You can use P4V on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers and benefit from an identical interface regardless of platform. To use the Helix Versioning Engine to manage files, you typically connect to the Helix Server using an application like P4V. P4V enables you to check files in and out, and perform various other versioning tasks.

Basic concepts

The Helix Versioning Engine is an enterprise version management tool that you can use to manage source files and other documents, such as multiple revisions of a manual, web pages, or operating system administration files. The files managed by the Helix Versioning Engine reside in a depot. To work on files, you open the files and edit them in your workspace. When you’re done, you submit changed files to the depot using a changelist. The depot keeps track of all of the current and previous revisions of a file.

Helix Versioning Engine users connect to a shared file repository using a client application like P4V. P4V connects your computer to the Perforce versioning service and helps you move files between the Helix Server depots and your workspace:

P4V environment diagam

The definitions for these terms are as follows: