Setting Perforce environment variables using P4CONFIG
P4CONFIG
is an environment variable that you can use to point to a file that stores other Perforce environment variables. The current
working directory and its parents are searched for the file. If the file exists, then the variable settings within the file
are used.
P4CONFIG
makes it easy to switch Perforce settings when switching between different solutions or projects. If you place a configuration
file in each of your client workspaces and set P4CONFIG
to point to that file, your Perforce settings change to the settings in the configuration files automatically as you move
from directories in one workspace to another.
To use P4CONFIG
to switch settings between client workspaces on P4VS, you must create separate Visual Studio shortcuts for each workspace,
setting the Start in
property as the workspace directory (which is also the directory where the configuration file resides). If you launch Visual
Studio using a shortcut defined this way, P4VS will read the Perforce settings from the configuration file in that workspace’s
directory. This is required because Visual Studio otherwise uses its own directory as the current working directory.
To use P4CONFIG
with P4VS:
- Create a configuration file that contains the Perforce environment variable settings you want, and put it in the workspace directory for the relevant Visual Studio solution.
- Using
p4
, the Perforce Command Line Client, unset theP4CLIENT
,P4PORT
, andP4USER
environment variables and setP4CONFIG
to the configuration file name. - Using P4VS, go to Tools > Options > Source Control > Perforce - Connections and select Connect to the server using my Perforce environment settings.
-
Create a Windows desktop shortcut for Visual Studio that is dedicated to the workspace with which you want to use the configuration file.
- Right-click on the desktop and select New > Shortcut.
- Enter the location of the Visual Studio executable and click Next.
- Enter a shortcut name and click Finish.
- In the shortcut properties, under Start in, enter the workspace directory where the configuration file is located, and click OK.
Repeat for each workspace for which you want a different configuration file.
- Whenever you want to work in that workspace using the configuration file settings, use the shortcut to launch Visual Studio.
For more information about P4CONFIG
and Perforce environment variables, see the P4 Command Reference and Setting Perforce preferences.