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P4 CLI Documentation | 2026.1

# Workspaces and changelists

You use P4 Server clients to manage a special area of your computer, called a workspace. When you want to modify a file, you add it to a changelist.

## Workspaces

A workspace is a set of directories or files on your computer, which are local copies of directories or files in the depot.

You work on files in your workspace as follows:

1. Populate your local workspace by syncing files from the depot.
2. Create a changelist in your workspace.
3. Check out files from the server and add them to the changelist.
4. Make changes to the files.
5. Submit the changelist (i.e., the changed files) to the depot.
6. If your changes conflict with changes made by other users, resolve the conflicts as needed.

## Changelists

A changelist is a group of files. It is the means by which you check files in and out of the depot. A changelist must contain at least one file and might contain tens of thousands. A changelist is numbered and allows you to track all changes with respect to the contents of the depot: file modifications, the addition of a file, or the deletion of a file.

A changelist is the simplest way to organize your work. A changelist also represents the atomic unit of work in P4 Server: if a changelist includes several files, changes for all the files are committed to the depot or none of the changes are. For example, if a network connection between the client and the server fails during changelist submission, the entire submit fails.

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