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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2025.2

# Shelves

It’s a good idea to check periodically for stale or abandoned shelves. Based on the last time a shelf was accessed, you might decide to delete the shelf.

The output of the `p4 -Ztag change -o` command includes the access time for shelved files. For example, if you run

    p4 -Ztag change -o 38

the output might be:

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    ... Change 38
    ... Date 2015/10/01 16:54:47
    ... Client edge-one
    ... User markm
    ... Status pending
    ... Description shelve file

    ... Files0 //depot/new/code/dma/dmajob.cc
    ... Type public
    ... extraTag0 IsPromoted
    ... extraTagType0 int
    ... IsPromoted 1
    ... extraTag1 shelveAccess
    ... extraTagType1 date
    ... shelveAccess 2015/10/08 15:53:12

You can use the shelveAccess information on line 15 to determine if a shelved file has been abandoned and needs to be removed.

When a shelf is viewed or modified, its access time is updated if its last access time was longer than the limit specified by the value of the `dm.shelve.accessupdate` configurable.

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