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P4 CLI Documentation | 2025.2

# Branching streams (introduction)

If you are branching from a stream that has no history, use the `p4 add` command to add files to it, then use `p4 copy` to create the branched streams. For example, to create the mainline structure shown in the previous section, perform the following steps:

1. Create a local folder your workspace for the mainline files; for example:

       mkdir c:\p4clients\myworkspace\depot\main\

2. Copy the files for Project1 and Project2 to the newly created folder.

3. Add the files to the depot:

       p4 add //Acme/main/project1/...
       p4 add //Acme/main/project2/...
       p4 submit

4. Create release streams:

       p4 copy //Acme/main/project1/... //Acme/release1.0/project1/...
       p4 copy //Acme/main/project2/... //Acme/release1.0/project2/...
       p4 submit

Now you can use the `p4 copy` and `p4 merge` commands to propagate changes between main and release streams.

If there is a historical relationship between the source and target that you need to preserve, "seed" a stream from another stream using the `p4 integrate` command, .

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