p4 protect

Control user access to files, directories, and commands.

These access rights are different from the graph depot permissions described at p4 grant-permission (graph).

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] protect
p4 [g-opts] protect -o
p4 [g-opts] protect -i
p4 [g-opts] protect --convert-p4admin-comments -o | -i

For Sub-protections:

p4 protect path
p4 protect -o path
p4 protect -i path

Syntax conventions

Description

Control user access to files, directories, and commands. These access rights are different from the graph depot permissions described at p4 grant-permission (graph).

p4 protect allows a user with super access to edit the protections table in a text form.

Use p4 protect to set Helix Server privileges in any of the following ways:

• Control which commands particular users can run
• Grant access to groups of users, as defined with p4 group
• Grant access to a particular path for a user or group
• Use =read, =open, =write, and =branch in conjunction with an exclusionary mapping
• Limit access to particular IP addresses

It is common to specify any of the following access levels: list, read, write, owner, and super.

The admin, open, and review access levels are used less often.

For the minimum access level required to run each command, see Access levels required by Helix Server commands in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

In general,

1. You grant an access level to a:
   • group (best practice) or
   • a user (if you cannot combine multiple users into a suitable group)
2. If finer-grained control is required, you can selectively deny one or more specific rights. To understand the effect of such "exclusionary mappings", see How protections are implemented in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Permission levels and access rights

If the name of a permission level has the = prefix, it means the denial of a right.

Permission Level / Right	What the User Can Do
list	The user can access all Helix Server metadata, but has no access to file contents. The user can run all the commands that describe Helix Server objects, such as p4 files, p4 client, p4 job, p4 describe, p4 branch, etc. Those commands that list files, such as p4 describe, will only list those files to which the user has at least list access.
read	The user can do everything permitted with list access, and also run any command that involves reading file data, including p4 print, p4 diff, p4 sync, and so on.
=read	If this right is denied, users cannot use p4 print, p4 diff, or p4 sync on files. For example, =read group Dev1 * -//depot/dev/prodA/...
open	This gives the user permission to do everything the user can do with read access, and also gives the user permission to p4 add, p4 edit, p4 delete, and p4 integrate files. However, the user is not allowed to lock files or submit files to the depot. The open access level gives the user permission to change files but not submit them to the depot. Assign this level when you’re temporarily freezing a codeline, but don’t want to stop your developers from working, or when you employ testers who are allowed to change code for their own use but are not allowed to make permanent changes to the codeline.
=open	If this right is denied, users cannot open files with p4 add, p4 edit, p4 delete, or p4 integrate. For example, =open group Dev1 * -//depot/dev/prodA/...
write	The user can do all of the above, and can also write files with p4 submit and lock them with p4 lock.
=write	If this right is denied, users can open and edit files, but cannot submit them. For example, =write group Admins * -//depot/dev/prodA/... to ensure that Admins do not accidentally alter the files that developers have approved for a product release.
=branch	If this right is denied, users cannot use files as a source for p4 integrate. For example, =branch group Dev1 * -//depot/dev/prodA/...
review	This permission is meant for external programs that access Helix Server. It gives the external programs permission to do anything that list and read can do, and grants permission to run p4 review and p4 counter. It does not include open or write access.
admin	Includes all of the above, including administrative commands that override changes to metadata, but do not affect service operation. These include p4 attribute -f, p4 branch -f, p4 change -f, p4 client -f, p4 job -f, p4 jobspec, p4 label -f, p4 obliterate, p4 shelve -f -d, p4 stream -f, p4 typemap, p4 unlock -f, and p4 verify.
super	Includes all of the above, plus access to the superuser commands, such as p4 admin, p4 counter, p4 triggers, p4 protect, the ability to create users with p4 user -f.
owner	Use this permission to assign permission to a specific user or group to run p4 protect for a particular path. For details, see Sub-protections below and the example at Delegate management of parts of the protections table in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Sub-protections

Sub-protections enable the user with super access to delegate management of parts of the protections table to non-super users or groups. To do so, create an entry with owner as the mode. Such entries must have a unique path without wildcards, except for a trailing ...

Users with super, or that have been granted owner for a path, can run the p4 protect command while specifying the granted path as an argument to access the sub-protections table for that path.

Any entries in the sub-protections table are appended to the effective protections table directly below the owner entry.

• If an owner entry is removed, so are any entries in the sub-protections table for that path.

• The owner permission only grants access to the sub-protections table at the specified path. It does not grant the specified user or group any permissions on that path.

• The owner can grant the owner admin permissions on that path.

• Neither owner nor super entries can be added to a sub-protections table, and the paths of any other entries paths must be within the scope of path of the sub-protections table.

See SubPath under Form Fields.

Stream spec permissions

Prior to release 2020.1, there were no protections modes specific to stream specs. The permissions for listing, reading, and editing stream specs were inferred from the corresponding filespec protections as follows:

• list permission in a depot granted the ability to run p4 streams to list streams in that depot

• open or write permission on a file spec granted the ability to edit and save any stream spec whose stream root matches that file spec

The 2020.1 release added protections modes that are specific to stream specs. By default, these permissions can exist in the protection table, but will not be used until the dm.protects.streamspec configurable has been set to 1. If the dm.protects.streamspec configurable is set to 1 and any stream spec permissions exist in the protection table, the pre-2020.1 permissions no longer apply and all users who are not admin or super require explicit stream spec permissions.

If you want to implement the legacy permissions with the stream spec permissions:

• Create a user group containing all users who require readstreamspec
  
  

  readstreamspec group readgroup * //...

• Create another user group containing all users who require writestreamspec
  

  writestreamspec group writegroup * //...


Permission	Description
readstreamspec	The user can display a stream spec with p4 stream -o For example, if //streamD1/main1 is the stream: readstreamspec user user1 * //streamD1/main1
=readstreamspec	If this right is denied, users cannot execute p4 stream -o For example, if //streamD1/dev2 is the stream:, =readstreamspec user user1 * -//streamD1/dev2
openstreamspec	This gives the user permission to revert, resolve, shelve, or open for edit a stream spec.
=openstreamspec	If this right is denied, users cannot revert, resolve, shelve, or open for edit a stream spec.
writestreamspec	The user can submit or modify a stream spec.
=writestreamspec	If this right is denied, users cannot submit or modify a stream spec.

Form Fields

When you run p4 protect, Helix Server displays a form with a single field, Protections:. Each permission is specified in its own indented line under the Protections: header, and uses the following five values to define protections:

Column	Description
Access Level or Mode	One of the access levels list, read, open, write, admin, super, owner, review; or one of the rights =read, =open, =write, and =branch, as defined above.
User or Group	Specifies whether this protection applies to a user or a group.
Group Name or User Name	The name of the user or the name of the group, as defined by p4 group. To grant this permission to all users, use the * wildcard.
Host	The IP address, or a comma-separated list of IP addresses, of the client host. IPv6 addresses and IPv4 addresses are also supported. You can use the * wildcard to refer to all IP addresses, but only when you are not using CIDR notation. If you use the * wildcard with an IPv6 address, you must enclose the entire IPv6 address in square brackets. For example, [2001:db8:1:2:*] is equivalent to [2001:db8:1:2::]/64. Best practice is to use CIDR notation, surround IPv6 addresses with brackets, and to avoid the * wildcard. Direct connections or intermediaries When Helix Core Server evaluates protections table entries, it also considers the setting of the dm.proxy.protects configurable. dm.proxy.protects defaults to 1, which causes the proxy- prefix to be prepended to all client host addresses that connect through an intermediary proxy, broker, or replica. The proxy- prefix indicates that the connection is not direct. If you specify proxy-* for the Host field, that will affect all connections made via proxies, brokers, and replicas. A value such as proxy-10.0.0.5 identifies a client machine with an IP address of 10.0.0.5 that is connected to the server through an intermediary. If dm.proxy.protects is set to 0, the proxy- prefix is removed. This allows you to write a single set of protection entries that apply both to directly-connected clients and clients that connect through a proxy, broker, or replica. A single set of protection entries is more convenient. However, in some cases a connection through one or more intermediaries might be less secure. If you use the 0 setting, all intermediaries must be at release 2012.1 or higher.
Depot File Path	The depot file path on which this permission is granted, in Helix Server depot syntax. The file specification can contain Helix Server wildcards. To exclude this mapping from the permission set, use a dash (-) as the first character of this value. If a depot is excluded, the user denied access will no longer see the depot in the output of p4 depots. Nor will the depot show up for this user in the default branch, client, and label views.
SubPath	The root path of the sub-protections table: is not part of the protections table is only used when editing a sub-protections table For an example of how to use the sub-protections table, see Delegate management of parts of the protections table in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.
Update	The date this specification was last modified (read-only). If this date is modified, the protections table will not be saved Omitting this field will avoid the modification check. This field is not part of the protections table.

Comments

Protection tables can be difficult to interpret and debug. Including comments can make this work much easier.

• You can append comments at the end of a line using the ## symbols:

  write user *   10.1.1.1   //depot/test/...  ## my comment

• Or you can write a comment line by prefixing the line with the ## symbols:

  ## my comment
  write user *   10.1.1.1   //depot/test/...

Comments created using P4Admin

Comments you have created using the P4Admin tool are not compatible with comments created using p4 protect (2016.1 or later). You can use the following command to convert a file containing comments created with P4Admin into a file containing p4 protect type comments:

$ p4 protect --convert-p4admin-comments -o

Then save the resulting file.

After you have converted the comments, you must continue to define and manage protections using p4 protect and can no longer use P4Admin to do so because this tool is unable to parse p4 protect comments.

Options

-i	Read the form from standard input without invoking an editor.
-o	Write the form to standard output without invoking an editor.
--convert-p4admin-comments	Converts an existing protections form (and comments) created using P4Admin tool, to a form that can be used by p4 protect.
g-opts	See Global options.

Usage Notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier?	Can File Arguments Use Revision Range?	Minimal Access Level Required
No	No	super

Each permission level includes all the access levels below it:

The specific rights of =read, =open, =write, and =branch can be used to override the automatic inclusion of lower access levels. This makes it possible to deny individual rights without having to then re-grant lesser rights.

For example, if you want administrators to have the ability to run administrative commands, but to deny them the ability to make changes in certain parts of the depot, you could set up a permissions table as follows:

Protections:
    admin       user      joe       *       //...
    =write      user      joe       *       -//depot/build/...
    =open       user      joe       *       -//depot/build/...

In this example, user joe can perform administrative functions, and this permission applies to all depots in the system. Because the admin permission level also implies the granting of all lower access levels, joe can also write, open, read and list files anywhere in the system, including //depot/build/. To protect the build area, the =write and =open exclusionary lines are added to the table:

• The =open exclusion prevents joe from opening any files for edit under //depot/build/
• The =write exclusion prevents joe from submitting any changes he might already have open under //depot/build/

To limit or eliminate the use of the files on a particular server as a remote depot from another server (as defined by p4 depot), create protections for user remote (or for the service user by which the other server authenticates itself). Remote depots are accessed either by the service user associated with the user’s Perforce service, or by a virtual user named remote.

Access levels determine which commands you can use. For example, because p4 add requires at least open access, you can run p4 add if you have open, write, admin, or super access.

Some commands (for instance, p4 change, when editing a previously submitted changelist) take a -f option that requires admin or super access.

For command-by-command details, see "Access levels required by Helix Server commands" in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Related Commands

To create or edit groups of users	p4 group
To list all user groups	p4 groups
To grant permission for depots and repos of type graph	p4 grant-permission (graph)