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P4 CLI Reference | 2025.1

# Environment and registry variables

P4 Server has its own collection of about forty environment and registry variables that allow you to specify a wide variety of things, such as the name of the client workspace, the location of the database journal and error logs, as well as to configure behavior, such as which files to exclude from version control, and which editor to bring up so you can edit forms.

Most variables (except `P4ROOT` and `P4JOURNAL`) that affect the operation of the server can be set by a user with the `super` access level A permission assigned to a user to control which commands the user can run. See also the 'protections' entry in this glossary and the 'p4 protect' command in the P4 CLI Reference. or an operator user by using the p4 configure command with this syntax:

    p4 configure set variable=value

Example for Linux:

    p4 configure set P4LOG=/opt/perforce//servers/server-name/logs/log

Example for Windows:

    p4 configure set P4LOG=c:\perforce\servers\server-name\logs\log

## Commonly used variables

P4ENVIRO stores environment variables (and Configurables) that are used across projects. For example, P4_port_CHARSET.

The file named by P4CONFIG in the current working directory (and its parent directories) define environment variables (and Configurables) that are used when working in that directory. For example, the combination of P4CLIENT, P4USER, and P4PORT. A user would typically set these so that a client applications, such as the P4 command line and the P4V visual client automatically use them. Otherwise the user would have to specify them manually when starting a session.

Do not put server environment variables in the files named by `P4CONFIG` and `P4ENVIRO` because any server environment variables in those files are ignored.

P4 Server administrators typically set P4JOURNAL, P4LOG, P4PORT and P4PROOT to define the environment that the server uses. An alternative is to write startup scripts.

## Syntax for operating systems and shells

Suppose you want to set the target server with the P4TARGET environment variable.

- On Linux for the Proxy server: `export P4TARGET=mainserver:1666`

- On Windows for the Proxy service: `p4 set -S "Perforce Proxy" P4TARGET=mainserver:1666`

Suppose you want to set the `P4CLIENT` environment variable on various command shells:

Shell | Environment Variable Example
--- | ---
UNIX: bash, `ksh`, `sh` macOS zsh, bash | `P4CLIENT=value ; export P4CLIENT`
UNIX: csh | `setenv P4CLIENT value`
Windows command shell or PowerShell | `p4 set P4CLIENT=value` Windows administrators running P4 Server as a service set the value of a variable:
For the specified service | For all users on the local machine
--- | ---
`p4 set -S servicename var=value` For example, p4 set -S Perforce P4LOG="log" where `Perforce` is the service name | p4 set -s var=value For example, p4 set -s P4PORT=ssl:myhost:1667 where users connect on port 1667
For more details on setting P4 Server variables in Windows and macOS, see the `p4 set` command.

## Linux $home and Windows HOME

Many environment variables are set differently on Linux than on Windows.

On Linux, you can use `$home` to set environment variables. For example:

    P4IGNORE=$home/myignorefile

where $home is expanded to the path of the user’s home directory.

On Windows, the user’s home directory is the value of the `HOME` environment variable or `USERPROFILE`.

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