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P4 CLI Documentation | 2026.1

# Configure the client process

This guide refers to client settings using environment variables. For example, `set P4CLIENT`.

You can specify settings such as port, user, and workspace names by using any of the following:

1. On the command line, using options.
2. In the configuration file(s) specified by a P4CONFIG environment variable, where each config file can be specific to a workspace.
3. In the P4ENVIRO configuration file, which is for variables that remain constant for all the workspaces on a given computer.
4. User environment variables.
5. System environment variables (on Windows, system-wide environment variables are not necessarily the same thing as user environment variables)
6. In the user registry or settings set by issuing the p4 set command.
7. In the system registry or system settings set by issuing the `p4 set -s` command.

where (1) the command line overrides (2) P4CONFIG, and (2) P4CONFIG overrides (3) P4ENVIRO, and so on.

The output of `p4 set` lists the values of the variables (and if a given variable was set by `config`, `enviro`, `set`, or `set -s`).

To configure your computer to connect to the P4 Server, you specify the name of the host where the server is running, and the port on which it is listening. The default host is `perforce` and default port is 1666. If the server is running on your own computer, specify `localhost` as the host name. If the server is running on port 1666, you can omit the port specification.

You can specify these settings as described in the sections below. For details about working offline (without a connection to a P4 Server), see Work offline.

In this section:

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