p4 user

Create, edit, or delete Helix Server user specifications and preferences.

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] user [-f] [username]
p4 [g-opts] user -d [-f | -F] username
p4 [g-opts] user -D [-f | -y] username
p4 [g-opts] user -o [username]
p4 [g-opts] user -i [-f]

Description

Use the p4 user command to edit these settings or to create new user records. (By default, new users are created automatically. After installing Helix Server, a Helix Server superuser can control this behavior with the p4 configure command.)

Types of Helix Server users:

standard users	standard users are the default each standard user consumes one Helix Server license
operator users	intended for system administrators can run only a limited subset of Helix Server commands does not consume a license
service users	intended for inter-server communication in replicated and multi-server environments restricted to an even smaller subset of Helix Server commands than operator users does not consume a license

When called without a username, p4 user edits the specification of the current user. When called with a username, the user specification is displayed, but cannot be changed. The form appears in the editor defined by the P4EDITOR environment variable.

Helix Server superusers can create new users or edit existing users' specifications with the -f (force) option: p4 user -f username.

Note that both the -f and -F options can be used to delete users, but the -F option has additional effects on protections and groups. See Options below.

The user who gives a Helix Server command is not necessarily the user under whose name the command runs. The user for any particular command is determined by the following:

• If the user running the command is a Helix Server superuser, and uses the syntax p4 user -f username, user username is edited.
• If the -u username option is used on the command line (for instance, p4 -u joe submit), the command runs as that user named "joe" (a password might be required).
• If the above has not been done, but the file pointed to by the P4CONFIG environment variable contains a setting for P4USER, the command runs as that user.
• If neither of the above has been done, but the P4USER environment variable has been set, the command runs as that user.
• If none of the above apply, then the username is taken from the OS level USER or USERNAME environment variable.

Form Fields

Field Name	Type	Description
User:	Read-only	The Helix Server username under which p4 user was invoked. By default, this is the user’s system username. Be aware of the Limitations on characters in filenames and entities.
Type:	Read-only	Type of user: standard, operator, or service. Important Once you set the type, you cannot change it.
AuthMethod:	Writable	One of the following: perforce or ldap. This field can only be changed when the -f option is specified for the p4 user command. Specifying perforce enables authentication using Helix Server’s internal db.user table or by way of an authentication trigger. This is the default unless it is overridden with the auth.default.method configurable. Specifying ldap enables authentication against AD/LDAP servers specified by the currently active LDAP configurations.
Email:	Writable	The user’s email address. By default, this is user@client.
Update:	Read-only	The date and time this specification was last updated.
Access:	Read-only	The date and time this user last ran a Helix Server command.
FullName:	Writable	The user’s full name.
JobView:	Writable	A description of the jobs to appear automatically on all new changelists (see Usage Notes).
Password:	Writable	The user’s password (see Usage Notes ).
PasswordChange:	Read-only	The date and time of the user’s last password change. If the user has no password, this field is blank.
Reviews:	Writable List	A list of files the user would like to review (see Usage Notes). This field can include exclusionary mappings.

Options

-d username	Deletes the specified user. Only user username, or a Helix Server superuser, can run this command. If you have set P4AUTH, no warning will be given if you delete a user who has an open file or client.
-D username	Deletes: the specified user and removes the user from the protections table and from all groups all the client workspaces that belong to that user, thereby reverting files that the deleted user had open However: does not work on an edge server does not delete any Helix Swarm client workspaces that are associated with the deleted user, so that Swarm's history remains intact Note Does NOT delete workspace clients that have files opened by OTHER users. To force the deletion of workspace clients that have files opened by OTHER users, combine the -D option with the -f option in preview mode. To perform the operation, add the -y option. See Examples.
-y	Used with -D to actually perform the delete operation. Without -y, p4 user -D and p4 user -D -f merely report what the command would do IF -y were included. Note p4 user -D -y and p4 user -D -f -y cannot be undone.
-f	Superuser force option; allows the superuser to modify or delete the specified user, or to change the last modified date.
-F	Superuser option; used only with -d: forces the deletion of the specified user, and also removes the user from the protections table and from all groups. The command fails if removing the user from a group causes the group to be deleted. In such a case, delete the group before deleting the user.
-i	Read the user specification from standard input. The input must conform to the p4 user form’s format.
-o	Write the user specification to standard output.
g-opts	See Global options.

Usage Notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier?	Can File Arguments Use Revision Range?	Minimal Access Level Required
N/A	N/A	list

• The -d option can be used by non-superusers only to delete the user specification that invoked the p4 user command. Helix Server superusers can delete any Helix Server user.
• User deletion fails if the specified user has any open files. Submit or revert these files before deleting users.

• By default, user records are created without passwords, and any Helix Server user can impersonate another by setting P4USER or by using the globally available-u option. To prevent another user from impersonating you, set a password with the p4 passwd command.

  Passwords can be created, edited, or changed in the p4 user form or by using the p4 passwd command. Setting your password in the p4 user form is only supported at security levels 0 or 1. You can p4 passwd to set passwords at any server security level, and you must use p4 passwd to set passwords at higher security levels. For more about how the various security levels work, see the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide: Fundamentals.

  Tip

  If you edit the Password: field in the p4 user form, do not use the comment character # within the password. Helix Server interprets everything following that character on the same line as a comment, and does not store it as part of the password.

  If the dm.user.resetpassword configurable has been set, all users created with passwords are required to reset their passwords before they can issue commands.

• Passwords are displayed as six asterisks in the p4 user form regardless of their length.
• If you are using ticket-based authentication (see p4 login for details), changing your password automatically invalidates all of your outstanding tickets.
• The collected values of the Email: fields can be listed for each user with the p4 users command, and can used for any purpose.

• The p4 reviews command, which is used by the Helix Server change review daemon, uses the values in the Reviews: field; when activated, it will send email to users whenever files they’ve subscribed to in the Reviews: field have changed. Files listed in this field must be specified in depot syntax.
  For example, if user joe has a Reviews: field value of

  //depot/main/...
  //depot/.../README

  the change review daemon sends joe email whenever any README file has been submitted, and whenever any file under //depot/main has been submitted.

  Another example for the Reviews: field is:

  //depot/*/relnotes.txt

  to send notification for changes to the relnotes.txt file on all the branches in the depot.

• There is a special setting for job review when used with the Helix Server change review daemon. If you include the value:

  //depot/jobs

  in your Reviews: field, you will receive email when jobs are changed.

• If you set the Jobview: field to any valid jobview, jobs matching the jobview appear on any changelists created by this user. Jobs that are fixed by the changelist should be left in the changelist when it’s submitted with p4 submit; other jobs should be deleted from the form before submission.

  For example, suppose the jobs at your site have a field called Owned-By:. If you set the Jobview: field on your p4 user form to Owned-By=yourname&status=open, all open jobs owned by you appear on all changelists you create. See p4 jobs for a full description of jobview usage and syntax.

• Operators are intended for system administrators who, even though they have super or admin privileges, are responsible for the maintenance of the Perforce service, rather than the development of software or other assets versioned by the service. Operators can run only the following commands:

  p4 admin stop	p4 admin restart	p4 admin checkpoint
  p4 admin journal	p4 counter	p4 counters
  p4 dbstat	p4 dbverify	p4 diskspace
  p4 configure	p4 counter (including -f)	p4 counters
  p4 journaldbchecksums	p4 jobs (including -R)	p4 login
  p4 logout	p4 logappend	p4 logparse
  p4 logrotate	p4 logschema	p4 logstat
  p4 logtail	p4 lockstat	p4 monitor
  p4 passwd	p4 ping	p4 verify
  p4 user

• Service users are used in replication environments, and can run only the following commands:

  p4 dbschema	p4 export	p4 login
  p4 logout	p4 passwd	p4 info
  p4 user

  Examples

  p4 user joe	View the user specification of Helix Server user joe.
  p4 user	Edit the user specification for the current Helix Server user.
  p4 user -d sammy	Delete the user specification for the Helix Server user sammy, but has no effect on sammy's workspace clients.
  p4 user -D sammy	Previews the deletion of: user sammy all of sammy's workspace clients, except those where a user other than sammy has files opened
  p4 user -D -y sammy	Performs the deletion of: user sammy all of sammy's workspace clients, except those where a user other than sammy has files opened Note Cannot be undone.
  p4 user -D -f sammy	Previews the deletion of: user sammy all of sammy's workspace clients, including those where a user other than sammy has files opened
  p4 user -D -f -y sammy	Performs the deletion of: user sammy all of sammy's workspace clients, including those where a user other than sammy has files opened Note Cannot be undone.
  p4 -u joe -P hey submit	Run p4 submit as user joe, whose password is hey. This command does not work at higher security levels.
  p4 user -f joe2	Create a new Helix Server user named joe2 if the caller is a Helix Server superuser, and joe2 does not already exist as a Helix Server user. If user joe2 already exists, allow a Helix Server superuser to modify the user’s settings.

  Related Commands

  To view a list of all Helix Server users	p4 users
  To change a user’s password	p4 passwd
  To view a list of users who have subscribed to review particular files	p4 reviews
  To control how new users are created by changing the dm.user.noautocreate configurable	p4 configure