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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2025.1

# Assign protections

Protections (see Access authorization) are actually another type of P4 Server view. Protections are set with the `p4 protect` command and control which depot files can be affected by commands run by users.

Unlike client, branch, and label views, however, the views used by protections can be set only by P4 Server superusers. (Protections also control read and write permission to depot files, but the permission levels themselves have no impact on server performance.) By assigning protections in P4 Server, a P4 Server superuser can limit the size of a user’s view, even if the user is using "loose" client specifications.

Protections can be assigned to either users or groups. For example:

    write     user       sam           *     //depot/admin/...
    write     group      rocketdev     *     //depot/rocket/main/...
    write     group      rocketrel2    *     //depot/rocket/rel2.0/...

P4 Server groups are created by superusers with the `p4 group` command. Using groups makes it easier to assign protections and are useful for setting maximum limits. See Limit database queries and Server resources .

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