Branching and merging
Using P4Eclipse, you can branch Eclipse projects - for example, for release or experimental development - and merge changes between branches to obtain changes made by other users or to incorporate your changes into collaboratively-developed projects.
Branching
Branch a project:
- Right-click the project in the P4 Connections view and choose Integrate.
- In the Target field, specify a location for the branched project, using the Helix Core Server depot syntax. For an overview of depot syntax, see Specifying filenames on the command line in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Guide.
- If required, specify integration options. For a list of integration commands, see Branch and integration reporting in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Guide.
- Click Integrate. P4Eclipse creates a changelist containing the files to be branched, marked for add.
- In the P4 Pending Changelists view, right-click the changelists containing the branched files and choose Submit...
- Enter a description and click Submit.
The Helix Core Server Change Specification is displayed.
Helix Core Server branches the files to the specified target location.
Branch specifications
To simplify integration, you can save a set of branch-to-branch mappings as a named branch specification.
Display branch specifications for the current server:
- Select Window > Show View > Other....
- Browse to Perforce > P4 Branches.
In this view, you can create or edit branch specifications and integrate changes.
Create a branch specification:
- To display the branch specifications for the current server, choose Window > Show View > Other....
- Browse to Perforce > P4 Branches.
- Click
and, in the Branch dialog, specify the details.
- In the View field, specify the source/target mapping using Helix Core Server depot syntax.
- * matches all characters except slashes (use for a path component)
- ... matches all characters including slashes (use to specify a directory and all its subdirectories)
Depot syntax supports the following wildcards:
To integrate To compare two sets of files and determine which changes to propagate.A typical use case is to integrate between a development branch and a release branch. changes using a branch specification, right-click the specification and choose Integrate...
For a list of integration commands and an overview of depot syntax, see Branch and integration reporting and Specifying filenames on the command line in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Guide.
Merging
As with branching, to merge changes, select the source project, choose Integrate..., and specify a target path. The difference is that, when you merge, the target files already exist and you are required to resolve them before Helix Core Server permits you to submit.