Configurables reference

To disable p4 login2 -p, set to 0.

To make p4 login-p implicitly invoke p4 login2 -p, set to 2.

Server

perforce

The default method to use for authenticating new users.

• perforce specifies that the user is to be authenticated using the db.user table. This is the default setting.

  If there are no active LDAP configurations, this setting might cause a new user to be authenticated against an AD/LDAP server, using an authentication trigger if such a trigger exists.

• ldap specifies the user be authenticated against an AD/LDAP server without having to use authentication triggers.

  In addition, if you want new users to be automatically created when they have successfully authenticated against an AD/LDAP server, set the configurable auth.ldap.userautocreate to a non-zero value.

Server

unset

An alphanumeric identifier that must be set for all servers in a distributed configuration if you want to implement single login to the master, which is then valid across all replica instances.

You must also set rpl.forward.login to 1 for each replica participating in the distributed configuration.

Server

unset

The path to a file that contains one or more PEM-formatted certificates used to verify the certificate presented by the AD/LDAP server when using SSL or TLS and auth.ldap.ssllevel is >=1.

Server

unset

Specifies the name of the LDAP configuration to use for authentication and the order in which it should be used to search for a given user name. The lowest number confers the highest priority.

You may skip numbers. For example:

auth.ldap.order.1=UK_LDAP
auth.ldap.order.2=US_LDAP
auth.ldap.order.5=RU_LDAP

If you want LDAP authentication to replace trigger-based authentification, see LDAP authentication in the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide, and note that the Testing and enabling LDAP configurations procedure requires a server restart.

Server

0

Specifies the paging limit for LDAP searches with paged results. Set the configurable to a value less than the result limit of the LDAP server. The default value, 0, means that paging is not enabled.

Server

unset

SSL ciphers to present to LDAP servers

Server

0

Level of SSL certificate validation:

• 0: No validation; default.
• 1: Certificate must be valid, but the common name is not checked.
• 2: Certificate must be valid and the certificate common name matches the AD/LDAP server’s host name.

Server

30

The time in seconds to wait before giving up on a connection attempt.

Server

0

0 means no automatic creation of users.

1 means that if auth.default.method is set to ldap, users are auto-created when they log in to Perforce and they have been successfully authenticated against an active directory AD/LDAP server using p4 login.

2 is similar to 1 but also requires the user already have permissions on the server through the protections table.

Enable license expiry warning:

0: No license expiry warning

1: Warn users with permission level admin or higher when they log in

2: Warn all users when they log in

To allow users who authenticate against the Perforce database (as opposed to LDAP or other auth triggers) to fall back to password authentication despite an auth-check-sso trigger being on the server, set to 1

If LDAP is enabled, see the auth.sso.nonldap configurable.

See p4 login behavior with auth-check-sso trigger under Single signon and auth-check-sso triggers in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

This configurable can be set to string value to send to the client-side P4LOGINSSO script when an auth-check-sso trigger is in use.

This string is substituted for the %ssoArgs% variable in the P4LOGINSSO environment variable, as the client executable is being invoked.

For example, the SAML agent can get the identity provider (IdP) URL as follows:

p4 configure set auth.sso.args=--idpUrl=yourURLforIdP

where

--idpUrl=yourURLforIdP

replaces

%ssoArgs%

• When set to 0 and LDAP authentication is enabled, users whose AuthMethod is perforce will authenticate by password against the Perforce database.
• If set to 1, those users will be required to authenticate using a client-side P4LOGINSSO script.

• Note: If this configurable and auth.sso.allow.passwd are both set to 1, users whose AuthMethod is perforce will be able to authenticate using a client-side P4LOGINSSO script, or fallback to authenticating by password against the Perforce database.

See p4 login behavior with auth-check-sso trigger under Single signon and auth-check-sso triggers in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Server

unset

The path of the directory on the Helix Core Server for the db.have.pt table of client workspaces of type readonly, partitioned, and partitioned-jnl.

For example, if client.readonly.dir is set to /perforce/1, when a user creates maria_wk as a readonly, partitioned, or partitioned-jnl client workspace, the db.have.pt table associated with this client will be located in the /perforce/1/server.dbs/client/hashdir/db.maria_wk directory. To learn more, see Client workspace types in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Used to determine how many checkpoint files should be generated during a multifile checkpoint operation. See To tune future checkpoint requests.

Number of threads to use for checkpoint.

0: Do not use threads

N: Use the specified number of threads, up to 4096

The value can be overridden by the p4 admin checkpoint command as well as by the p4d utility. See Parallel checkpointing, dumping and recovery in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

The page level examined within a database table that supplies the record keys used to split that table during a multifile checkpoint operation. See To tune future checkpoint requests.

Server

30 since 2018.2 and 0 prior to 2018.2

The value of 0 means the feature is off.

A non-zero value specifies the number of seconds that the Helix Server waits before checking if any process in the monitor table is marked for termination. If the Helix Server determines that any such process is blocked because it is waiting for client input, the Helix Server terminates it.

See also:

• Enabling process monitorning in the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide
• the Support Knowledgebase article, Fixing a hung Helix Core Server server

Server

256

This configurable is in units of 8 kilobyte pages to be stored in shared memory. The default of 256 pages is the equivalent of 2 MB, and a value of 4096 pages would be the equivalent of 32 MB.

The value sets the maximum size of memory allotted to the db.monitor table, which tracks the p4d commands that are currently running.

Setting this configurable to 0 means that the table is written to disk. However, writing the table to memory is recommended to improve performance.

If the size of the table exceeds the value of db.monitor.shared, an error is returned. Commands are still executed, but they are not recorded in the table.

Note that

The value is in database pages of 8 kilobytes. See also the Options under the p4 configure command, and note that p4 configure show indicates the actual maximum, but p4 configure show allservers indicates a manual preference that is only enforced if sufficient memory is available.

Server

To allow users to terminate their own processes, set to 1. To also allow users to pause and resume their own processes, set to 2.

A minimum of read permission in the protections table is required for these users to be able to use p4 monitor terminate.

If set, during the partitioned client deletion, the individual records are not deleted but the table is deleted followed by the respective journal note. The table cannot be recovered but the performance is improved for the deletion.

Enables the verification of partitioned have tables for clients of type readonly, partitioned, and partitioned-jnl. To disable, set to 0.

Server

2

Enable and configure lockless reads. When enabled, many common commands no longer block other commands attempting to update the database. To learn more, see Commands implementing lockless reads in the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

0: Disable peeking. Behavior is identical to 2013.2 and earlier.

1: New locking order is enabled, peeking is disabled, (diagnostic use only).

2: New locking order is enabled, peeking is enabled, hx/dx optimization on.

3: New locking order is enabled, peeking is enabled, hx/dx optimization is off.

To help you decide between 2 and 3, see Possible values for db.peeking in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

1: The default disables passive B-tree reorganization, which we recommend for solid-state drive (SSD) storage.

0: Enable passive B-tree reorganization. This might:

• be beneficial if data storage involves a spinning disk because it might reduce the need to periodically recreate database tables from a checkpoint to improve performance
• increase the size of some database tables due to the allocation of new contiguous pages

Changing from the default value is not supported.

Server

unset

Control behavior of commands that access metadata (db.* files) on the Helix Core Server server:

readonly: User commands that read metadata are accepted; commands that modify metadata are rejected.

Equivalent to starting a replica with the p4d -M readonly option.

This configurable cannot be set globally. You must specify a server id.

Server

16K

Buffer size for journal and checkpoint read/write operations.

Server

0

For performance, set to 1 to disable the fsync() call when the server closes a db.* database file. This permits the operating system to determine when to write the modified data.

Server

unset

Default type for new changelists: either public or restricted. If unset, new changelists are public.

When changes are pushed or fetched, the Type: field for changes ignores the setting of this configurable on the target server.

Server

10M

Server

10K

Maximum files per (un)lock message sent between edge and commit server.

Server

0

When set to 1, updates to a submitted changelist by p4 change -u or p4 change -f unset the checksum and filesize for +k type files instead of recalculating them.

These can be recalculated later with the p4 verify -u command, or, for a large number of revisions, with parallel processing by the p4 storage -U -n threads command.

Server

0

If set to 1, a comment must be provided when the value of a configurable is changed with the p4 configure command.
How to add comments is shown at Examples of p4 configure history.

Server

3600

Wait this many seconds before forcibly updating an access time, even if server must wait for a lock.

Server

300

Wait this many seconds before requesting a write lock to update an access time.

Server

10K

Maximum number of revisions that can be searched with p4 grep.

Server

0

If set to 1, and the user is not authenticated, p4 info hides:
Server name
Server address
Server uptime
Server license ip address
and the license string is either none or Licensed.

0: Stream spec integration is not allowed

1: Allow stream spec integration only for target streams with noinherit ParentViews. See 'p4 help streams' and 'p4 help streamcmds' to read about the stream ParentView property.

2: Allow stream spec integration for all streams

Changing from the default value is not supported.

Server

0

0: Default

1: p4 keys requires admin access

2: p4 key requires admin access, p4 keys requires admin access

0: Default

1: Commands that open files on an edge server report any global locks that affect those files. This setting has the overhead of a query to the commit server.

This is for global locks created through p4 lock, not +l, which is one of the File type modifiers .

Server

8

Default minimum password length for servers where security is set to a non-zero value.

0: Recalculates the digest and size fields for ktext files when the submitted changelist involving those revisions is updated.

1: Unsets the digest and size fields for ktext files when the submitted changelist involving those revisions is updated, which might improve the performance of p4 populate.

Server

0

Allow Helix Core administrators to use -a, -g, and -u with p4 protects. By default, only superusers can use these options.

Changing from the default value is not supported.

Revoking list access using an exclusionary protections entry with a path such as -//... revokes list access, as expected, for commands such as p4 changes and p4 describe. This default is the recommended setting for security purposes.

To revert to the legacy behavior (less secure), set this configurable to 0

To start enforcing the stream spec permissions described at p4 protect, set to 1

Server

1

Determine (in accord with the use of IP addresses in the protections table) whether a user can access a server from a given IP address.

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.

For more information, see the p4 protect command.

Server

0

Control behavior of automatic repo creation in a depot of type graph.

0: When a user does a git push, if that repo does not already exist in the graph depot, this new repo is added in the graph depot.

1: When a user does a git push, if that repo does not already exist in the graph depot, the git push fails and the repo is not added to the graph depot.

The value of 0 is consistent with the behavior prior to the 2020.2 release.

Server

1

Enable resolve for attributes set with p4 attribute.

Changing from the default value is not supported.

When a file has been deleted in branch A and not in branch B, a merge of B into A results in a conflict, and a subsequent p4 resolve -as does not resolve the conflict. However, if dm.resolve.ignoredeleted is set to 1, p4 resolve -as resolves the conflict by honoring the file deletion in branch A.

Changing from the default value is not supported.

Server

1

Set to 0 to disable log rotation after journal rotation.

By default, when the journal is rotated, any structured logs are also rotated. Disabling this behavior can help when you’re doing frequent journal rotations and you want the log rotated on a different schedule.

Server

300 seconds

When a shelf is viewed or modified, update its access time if its last access time was longer than the limit specified by the value of dm.shelve.accessupdate

Use the p4 -Ztag change -o command to display the access time for shelved files.

Server

10M

Maximum number of files that can be shelved with p4 shelve.

Server

0

Maximum size in bytes of a file revision to be shelved, with a valid range from 1 to 2147483647, or 0 for unlimited.

Server

0

Enable to make edge servers automatically promote shelved files to the commit server. An alternative is manual promotion with the -p option of p4 shelve.

To determine whether to set this configurable, see Explicitly promoting shelves under Promoting shelved changelist in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

1: stream components enabled

See Stream Components in Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Guide.

When creating a development, release, or mainline stream without the --parentview parameter, this configurable determines the default value for the ParentView field of the stream spec.

0: All new streams have an inherit ParentView

1: All new mainline, development and release streams have a noinherit ParentView. All new task and virtual streams have an inherit ParentView.

2: All new release streams have a noinherit ParentView. All new streams that are not a release stream have an inherit ParentView.

Maximum number of depot files in the branch view of a sparse stream.

0: No limit

See Sparse streams in Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Guide.

See the --use-stream-change option of p4 sync.

Number of seconds that determines whether to update the lastSeenDate field in the db.topology table. If an update occurs before the number of seconds has passed, the lastSeenDate is not updated.

(MFA): The default of 1 allows a user to set the value of her or his %email% and %fullname% variables.

To prevent users from changing the value of these variables, set to 0.

Server

3600

Wait this many seconds before forcibly updating an access time, even if server must wait for a lock.

Server

300

Wait this many seconds before requesting a write lock to update an access time.

Server

3

Number of password attempts before delay. When the number of consecutive failed login attempts equal this value, a delay is added before next attempt is possible. The delay is 1 second plus 1 second for every next failed attempt up to the maximum of 10 seconds.

Server

0

Control behavior of automatic user creation.

$ p4 configure set dm.user.noautocreate=2

0: A user record is created whenever any new user invokes any command that updates the depot or its metadata (default). Many such commands exist, including p4 ping.

1: New users must create their own user records by explicitly running p4 user.

2: Only the Helix Core Server superuser can create a new user, and the superuser does so by explicitly running p4 user -f username.

Server

0

If set, all new users created with a password are forced to reset their password before issuing any commands.

This configurable applies only if the passwords for newly created users are set using the Password: field of the user specification. The password reset behavior for new users that get initial passwords using the p4 passwd command after the user is created is not affected by the setting of this configurable.

Server

1

If set to 1 on a Helix Core Server running Windows Server 2016 and newer, enables journal rotation with an atomic rename, rather than requiring a copy and truncate operation. (If you want to disable this feature, set the value to 0 and restart the server.) Note that atomic rename is the default on Linux.

Client, Server

64K

Scan the first filesys.binaryscan bytes for binary data when running p4 add.

Client, Server

64K

Buffer size for client-side read/write operations.

Server

0

Use to control symbolic links.

0: no link checking, so directory symlinks can occur.

1: blocks attempts to p4 add a symlink to a directory.

• p4 add /path/to/a/symlinkDirectory
  fails
• p4 add /path/to/an/embeddedSymlink/readme.txt
  fails
  

2: same as 1 except allows the user to bypass the check by using the -f (force) option.

• p4 add -f /path/to/a/symlinkDirectory
  succeeds
• p4 add -f /path/to/an/embeddedSymlink/readme.txt
  succeeds

3: allows a symlink to a directory that terminates the path without having to use -f:

• p4 add /path/to/a/symlinkDirectory
  succeeds without using-fbecause the directory that is represented by a symlink is at the end of the path
• p4 add /path/to/an/embeddedSymlink/subdirectory/readme.txt
  fails because the directory that is represented by a symlink is NOT at the end of the path
• p4 add -f /path/to/an/embeddedSymlink/subdirectory/readme.txt
  succeeds because -f is used

Server

250M

Minimum disk space required for each depot. The server rejects commands from those depots, if any, that fail to meet this minimum.

To specify size, use the following binary abbreviations, which are slightly different from the more familiar decimal abbreviations:

t or T for tebibytes (1 T is approximately 1.1 TB)
g or G for gibibytes (1 G is approximately 1.07 GB)
m or M for mebibytes (1 M is approximately 1.05 MB)
k or K for kibibytes (1 K is 1,024 bytes)

You can also use a percentage to specify the relative amount of free disk space required.

Client

32K

Minimum filesize before preallocation (Windows).

Server

250M

Minimum disk space required on server journal filesystem before server rejects commands.

To specify size, use the following binary abbreviations, which are slightly different from the more familiar decimal abbreviations:

t or T for tebibytes (1 T is approximately 1.1 TB)
g or G for gibibytes (1 G is approximately 1.07 GB)
m or M for mebibytes (1 M is approximately 1.05 MB)
k or K for kibibytes (1 K is 1,024 bytes)

You can also use a percentage to specify the relative amount of free disk space required.

Server

250M

Minimum disk space required on server log filesystem before server rejects commands.

To specify size, use the following binary abbreviations, which are slightly different from the more familiar decimal abbreviations:

t or T for tebibytes (1 T is approximately 1.1 TB)
g or G for gibibytes (1 G is approximately 1.07 GB)
m or M for mebibytes (1 M is approximately 1.05 MB)
k or K for kibibytes (1 K is 1,024 bytes)

You can also use a percentage to specify the relative amount of free disk space required.

Server

250M

Minimum disk space required on server root filesystem before server rejects commands.

To specify size, use the following binary abbreviations, which are slightly different from the more familiar decimal abbreviations:

t or T for tebibytes (1 T is approximately 1.1 TB)
g or G for gibibytes (1 G is approximately 1.07 GB)
m or M for mebibytes (1 M is approximately 1.05 MB)
k or K for kibibytes (1 K is 1,024 bytes)

You can also use a percentage to specify the relative amount of free disk space required.

Server

250M

Minimum disk space required for temporary operations before server rejects commands.

To specify size, use the following binary abbreviations, which are slightly different from the more familiar decimal abbreviations:

t or T for tebibytes (1 T is approximately 1.1 TB)
g or G for gibibytes (1 G is approximately 1.07 GB)
m or M for mebibytes (1 M is approximately 1.05 MB)
k or K for kibibytes (1 K is 1,024 bytes)

You can also use a percentage to specify the relative amount of free disk space required.

Server, Client, Proxy

1

Set to 1 to support filenames longer than 260 characters on Windows platforms.

Depending on the depth of your workspace path, this might need to be set on the client, server, and/or proxy (which acts as a client).

A file name length of up to 32,767 characters is allowed. Each component of the path is limited to 255 characters. The server root or client root cannot be a long path.

Changing from the default value is not supported.

Server

unset

Prefix or directory location for rotated journals and checkpoints:

p4 configure show journalPrefix
master#journalPrefix=/p4/ckps/master (configure)

p4 admin checkpoint

p4 -F %jfile% journals -m2
/p4/ckps/master.ckp.539
/p4/ckps/master.jnl.538

Server

Specific for the Base filetypes that are stored in RCS format. This excludes binary, which is always compressed.

1: all files are compressed. (The default since 2022.1)

0: new files except binary are stored without compression. (The default prior to 2022.1)

However, any typemap settings set with p4 typemap override this configurable. For example, if a file is specified as type text+D in the typemap, it will be stored as uncompressed. In addition, the typemap override can itself be overridden by using the -t type option of p4 add or p4 edit.

Server, Proxy

64K

Buffer size for read/write operations to server’s archive of versioned files.

Proxy

1

1: File paths are always case-insensitive.

2: File paths are case-insensitive if server is case-insensitive.

3: File paths are always case-sensitive.

Server

unset

Define the behavior for replication of versioned files on the Helix Core Server:

cache: Replicates version files only when referenced if they do not already exist on the replica.

none: Versioned files are not replicated and no user access to versioned files is permitted for read-only replica and read-only standby servers.

ondemand: Pulls archives on demand.

readonly: Replicates version files when they are updated on the master.

shared: For shared storage between a master and replica server, or between a commit server and edge server. To learn more, see Configuring a replica with shared archives in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

This configurable cannot be set globally. You must specify a server id.

Server

50

In the event of a failed transfer, a replica will make lbr.retry.max attempts to retrieve the file.

Proxy file status interval. If set to a value, such as 30, the LbrStatus table entry for a large file will be updated every 30 seconds, indicating that the proxy is making progress on the file transfer. If the proxy has not read some data for that file within the 30 seconds then the entry will not be updated.

For more information, if you have installed the P4P, see the proxy help by typing at the command line p4p -h

Server

If 2, the default value, no digest is created for keyword revisions and no message is logged.

If 1, no digest is created for keyword revisions and a warning message is logged.

If 0, a digest is created for all keyword revisions.

Number of threads to use for a p4 storage -U request.

0: Don't use threads

N: Use N threads to compute the digests

Server

1

Verify contents from the client to server? (1 for yes, 0 for no)

Client, Server

1

Verify contents from the server to client? (1 for yes, 0 for no)

Server

1

Set to 0 to prevent files of type +X from having their digest checked when transmitted from server to client.

When source watermarking is used, sites have configured a +X archive trigger script that returns different results each time a file is sync’d or printed, in order to embed a user-specific string into the file contents during sync. This defeats the digest verification performed when sending the file to disk. Setting lbr.verify.script.out disables digest verification in this situation. Other files are still verified normally, as determined by the setting of lbr.verify.out.

Server

unset

Lowest version of client software permitted to connect to this server.

Consider providing your users a message if their client is blocked by this configurable. See minClientMessage.

The minClient version can be lower than, or equal to, the server version, but not higher than the server version. The syntax to set this configurable is:

p4 configure set minClient=version

The value of version can be a version string:

p4 configure set minClient=2017.2

or a client protocol level:

p4 configure set minClient=83

To discover which client protocol version corresponds to a given P4V version string, see the server log. The following server log entry shows that P4V 2017.3 is using v83 as the protocol version:

P4V/MACOSX1011X86_64/2017.3/1582486/v83

See also: :

• Protocol levels: server/client in the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

• the Support Knowledgebase article, How to force users to upgrade their client software

Server

unset

Message to issue if client software is too old, set by p4 configure set minClientMessage=message.

Server

0

Valid values for the monitor configurable are:

• 0: Server process monitoring off. (Default)
• 1: monitor active commands
• 2: active commands and idle connections
• 3: same as 2, but also includes connections that failed to initialize (stuck at the Init() phase)
• 5: same as 2, but also includes a list of the files locked by the command for more than one second
• 10: same as 5, but also includes lock wait times
• 25: same as 10, except that the list of files locked by the command includes files locked for any duration

See the p4 monitor command.

Server, Client, Proxy, Broker

TCP connection changes to improve performance over long latency connections.

To disable, set to 0. Clients set this configurable by using p4 set or P4CONFIG files. Servers set this configurable by using p4 configure.

On Windows-based platforms, send buffer sizes are not autotuned but are manually configurable with net.tcpsize. If net.autotune has a non zero value, the following are ignored:

• (Windows) any net.tcpsize setting for receive buffer sizes

• (Linux/Mac) any send and receive buffer sizes

Autotune defaults to being enabled on Helix Server versions:

• 2019.1 and later

• 2017.1 (unpatched)

Autotune defaults to being disabled on Helix Server versions:

• 2018.2

• 2018.1

• 2017.2

• 2017.1 (when patched)

Server, Proxy

128

Maximum length of queue for pending connections. Consider increasing if users cannot connect to servers that are heavily loaded.

Maximum percentage of file size to perform delta transfer before reverting to streaming the complete file.
On a low-bandwidth remote client, reducing file transfers improves performance and the default of 90% is likely to be appropriate.
On a client with a fast network, a lower threshold minimizes the overhead of the delta transfer.

Milliseconds between sending heartbeats to the target server. You can interactively invoke p4 heartbeat to observe the effect of varying the value for this configurable.

The number of consecutive missed heartbeat responses (see net.heartbeat.missing.wait) before the heartbeat is considered non-responsive or dead.

When the count of consecutive missed responses reaches net.heartbeat.missing.count, your heartbeat-dead trigger will fire. See Triggering on heartbeat (server responsiveness) in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

You can interactively invoke p4 heartbeat to observe the effect of varying the value for this configurable.

Milliseconds between sending heartbeats after a missing response.

You can interactively invoke p4 heartbeat to observe the effect of varying the value for this configurable.

Milliseconds to wait for a response from the target server after a missed response.

If the response arrives before the request times out, your heartbeat-resumed trigger will fire. See Triggering on heartbeat (server responsiveness) in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

You can interactively invoke p4 heartbeat to observe the effect of varying the value for this configurable.

Milliseconds to wait for a response from the target server. If this interval is exceeded, your heartbeat-missing trigger will fire if this is the first missing response. See Triggering on heartbeat (server responsiveness) in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

You can interactively invoke p4 heartbeat to observe the effect of varying the value for this configurable.

Client, Server

0

Number of unacknowledged keepalives before failure. Similar to tcp_keepalive_probes at https://linux.die.net/man/7/tcp

If 0, defaults to the operating system behavior.

See the TCP keepalive section in the Administrators Guide.

Client, Server

0

If 0 and keepalive functionality is supported by the OS, keepalives are enabled on the socket.

If 1, keepalives are disabled on the socket.

See the TCP keepalive section in the Administrators Guide.

Client, Server

0

Idle time (in seconds) before starting to send keepalives. Similar to tcp_keepalive_time at https://linux.die.net/man/7/tcp

If 0, defaults to the operating system behavior.

See the TCP keepalive section in the Administrators Guide.

Client, Server

0

Interval (in seconds) between sending keepalive packets. Similar to tcp_keepalive_intvl at https://linux.die.net/man/7/tcp

If 0, defaults to the operating system behavior.

See the TCP keepalive section in the Administrators Guide.

Proxy

100

A value in megabytes that controls the proxy’s cache faulting behavior. A single p4 sync will not publish more than net.maxfaultpub megabytes of faults into pdb.lbr.

You must restart the server after changing the value of this configurable.

Client, Server, Proxy

0

Time, in seconds, before a network connection times out.

Note that the default of 0 means the configurable is not activated.

Best practice is not to set server-wide: if set on server, requires that users complete command-line forms within this limit. If set in user’s individual P4CONFIG file, applies to user’s workstation (and requires only that the versioning service reply to user requests within the allotted time limit).

You must restart the server after changing the value of this configurable.

Server, Proxy

1

Man-in-the-middle network security level: This enables checks for possible interception or modification of data such as using an SSH tunnel or other TCP forwarder for users with passwords set.

0: Disable MitM checks.

1: Check proxy/broker connections in legacy contexts.

2: Connections from clients are checked for TCP forwarding.

3: Connections from clients, proxies, and brokers are checked for TCP forwarding.

4: All connections are checked; client software older than release 2010.1 cannot connect.

5: Requires that proxies, brokers, and all Perforce intermediate servers have valid logged-in service users associated with them. This allows administrators to prevent unauthorized proxies and services from being used.

You must restart the server after changing the value of this configurable.

Server

Specifies the number of files in a batch.

See p4 sync on Parallel processing.

Server

512

Specifies the number of bytes in a batch.

See p4 sync on Parallel processing.

Server

0

Specifies your maximum number of concurrent threads for p4 sync, p4 shelve, and p4 submit.

A value greater than 1 enables parallel processing up to the specified number of threads. Values can range between 0 and 100.

In addition to setting this variable, you must also use the --parallel option of p4 sync, p4 shelve, or p4 submit .

However, If you use net.parallel.submit.* configurables to automate parallel processing, you do not need to use the --parallel option.

To enable parallel processing, you must set this configurable to a value greater than zero and also greater than or equal to a non-zero value of net.parallel.threads.

See Parallel processing for p4 sync, Parallel submits, and Parallel shelving.

Server

9

Specifies the minimum number of files in a parallel sync. A sync that is too small does not initiate parallel file transfers.

See p4 sync on Parallel processing.

Server

576K

Specifies the minimum number of bytes in a parallel sync. A sync that is too small does not initiate parallel file transfers.

See p4 sync on Parallel processing.

Server

8

For automatic parallel processing: specifies the number of files in a batch. (See also net.parallel.submit.batch)

Server

9

For automatic parallel processing: specifies the minimum number files for auto parallel shelve. A shelf that is too small does not initiate parallel file transfers.

(See also net.parallel.submit.min)

Server

For automatic parallel processing, specifies the number of threads for sending files in parallel. Can be overridden on the command line, but cannot be greater than net.parallel.max., which must be set to 2 or more threads.

The specified threads grab work in batches. The size of a batch is specified using the net.parallel.shelve.batch configurable.

Server

8

For automatic parallel processing: specifies the number of files in a batch.

See the p4 submit command on Parallel submits.

Server

9

For automatic parallel processing: specifies the minimum number of files to be sent in a parallel submit. A submit that is too small does not initiate parallel file transfers.

See the p4 submit command on Parallel submits.

Server

0

For automatic parallel processing, specifies the number of threads for sending files in parallel. Can be overridden on the command line, but cannot be greater than net.parallel.max, which must be set to 2 or more threads.

The specified threads grab work in batches. The size of a batch is specified using the net.parallel.submit.batch configurable.

See the p4 submit command on Parallel submits.

Server

0

Can help prevent the degradation of network response. Reduces the number of parallel transmit threads for sync commands when the total number of concurrent user-transmit threads from all commands, including submit, would exceed the value of this configurable.

Does NOT reduce parallel transmit threads for submit commands.

To determine the value for this configurable, consider the average network utilization of each user-transmit thread and how much spare bandwidth to allocate for occasional peak loads.

If parallel syncs are saturating the network, use the p4 monitorshow command to find out how many concurrent transmit threads are executing in the server. The default value of 0 means no reduction of parallel sync threads. For this configurable to take effect, also set the monitor configurable to 1 or greater.

Server

0

Specifies your default number of threads for syncing files concurrently. The specified threads grab work in batches. To enable parallel processing, you must set this configurable to a value greater than 1, but less than or equal to the value of net.parallel.max. See also Parallel processing.

Server

0

Set SO_REUSEPORT for listening socket.

Client, Server

0

Proxy

0

If set to a value greater than 0, that value sets the threshold for deleting inactive files from the proxy cache when p4p --cache-purge is run. For example, 30 means files that have been inactive for more than 30 days are deleted from the proxy cache when p4p --cache-purge is run. See Proxy options in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Proxy

10

Set the proxy monitoring interval. Default is 10 seconds.

Proxy

0

0: Monitoring disabled (default).

1: Monitor file transfers only.

2: Monitor all operations.

3: Monitor all traffic for all operations.

Server

unset

Temporary directory for alternative archive copy.

Server

0

Set to 1 to disable fsync() call when server writes to a versioned file in RCS format, and permit the OS to determine when to write the modified data.

Server

unset

Specifies one or more clients whose requests should be blocked. For more information, see Blocking Clients in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Server

0

Level of database table checksum verification to perform when rotating a journal. Each level corresponds to a larger set of database tables.

0: Disable checksums.

1: Verify only the most important system and revision tables:

db.config, db.depot, db.graphindex, db.graphperm, db.group, db.groupx, db.haveg, db.integed, db.integedss, db.integtx, db.ldap, db.object, db.protect, db.pubkey, db.ref, db.rev, db.revcx, db.revdx, db.revhx, db.revstg, db.revtx, db.stream, db.streamq, db.streamrelation, db.streamview, db.streamviewx, db.submodule, db.ticket, db.trigger, db.user

2: Verify all of level 1, plus tables that hold metadata that does not vary between replicas:

db.bodtext, db.bodtextcx, db.bodtexthx, db.counters, db.excl, db.exclg, db.exclgx, db.fix, db.fixrev, db.haveview, db.ixtext, db.ixtexthx, db.job, db.logger, db.message, db.nameval, db.property, db.refhist, db.remote, db.repo, db.revbx, db.review, db.revsx, db.revux, db.rmtview, db.server, db.svrview, db.topology, db.traits, db.uxtext

3: Verify all tables.

Server

0

Level of on-the-fly changelist verification to perform.

0: Perform no verification.

1: Write a journal note when a p4 submit, p4 fetch, p4 populate, p4 push, or p4 unzip command completes. The value of the rpl.checksum.change configurable will determine the level of verification performed for the command.

2: Replica verifies changelist summary and writes to integrity.csv if the changelist does not match.

3: Replica verifies changelist summary and writes to integrity.csv even if the changelist does match.

Server

0

Level of table checksumming to perform.

0: Perform table-level checksumming only.

1: When a table is unloaded or scanned, journal notes are written. These notes are processed by the replica and are logged to integrity.csv if the check fails.

2: When a table is unloaded or scanned, journal notes are written, and the results of journal note processing are logged even if the results match.

Server

0

Enable replica/master network compression:

0: No data stream compression.

1: Data streams used for archive transfer to the replica (p4 pull -u) are compressed.

2: Data streams used by p4 pull -u and p4 pull are compressed.

3: All data streams (p4 pull -u, p4 pull, and data streams for commands forwarded to the master or commit server) are compressed.

4: Compress only the journal pull and journal copy connections between the replica and the master.

0

Allow pull -u threads to fetch missing archives during sync on edge and build servers.

1 is intended to improve performance for syncing from an edge or build server if:

• file content for a number of revisions is not in the archives of the edge or build server

• the edge or build server has pull -u threads running

• the lbr.replication configurable on the edge or build server is set to readonly

When set to 1 on a replica, commands that are not read-only commands are forwarded to the upstream sever.

Instead of setting this configurable, consider setting the Services: field to forwarding-replica in the server spec. See p4 server > Form Fields > Services.

Server

0

Set to 1 on each replica to enable single-sign-on authentication for users in a distributed configuration. The auth.id configurable must also be the same for all servers participating in a distributed configuration. See Authenticating users in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Server

Maximum size of a single journal transfer in bytes.

Limits the amount of data that the target server can send back to journalcopy in a single flush. Set this configurable on the server executing the journalcopy, which is generally a standby server, to tune the maximum size of journal fragments sent to journalcopy.

Server

25

The additional time in milliseconds to add to the wait before checking for journal updates after no updates were seen. The total will not exceed the value specified by rpl.jnlwait.max. For guidance in adjusting values, contact Perforce Support.

Server

50

The longest time in milliseconds to wait before checking for journal updates. Incremented by rpl.jnlwait.adjust each time no updates are seen. For guidance in adjusting values, contact Perforce Support.

Server

1000

The longest time in milliseconds to wait before checking for journal updates. For guidance in adjusting values, contact Perforce Support.

Server

0

Set to 0 means that the journalcopy thread writes the journal directly to the filepath with a prefix of the standby server's journalPrefix.

Set to 1 means that the journalcopy thread writes the journal to where the standby server's P4JOURNAL would be written. The journal is then rotated to the filepath with a prefix of the standby server's journalPrefix.

Note that journals written by the journalcopy thread always have their journal number in the suffix.

Changing this configurable takes effect when the standby server replicates the P4TARGET's journal rotation.

Server

0

A multi-site deployment supports both local and global labels.

To learn more, see Commit-edge in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

0

Interval in milliseconds for pull position reports.

If set, the position in the P4TARGET's journal of the last journal fragment applied by the replica is written (that is, reported) to the replica's server log and the replica's journal at the specified interval.

Server

0

To replicate the db.user.rp table, set to 1 .

The db.user.rp table contains information about users who have directly logged into and used a replica. It records the ticket that the replica issued to the user and the last time the user accessed the replica. This table is currently journaled, but it is not replicated by default.

Typically you would not want to replicate this data. But there are times when this might be needed. For example, if you are chaining a read-only replica to another replica to provide a warm standby for failover, you might want your warm standby to replicate the db.user.rp table. This would disable the automatic filtering of db.user.rp records, and your replica would then replay (and re-journal) all the db.user.rp journal records it receives from its target.

Server

0

Disable default submit archive file copy

0

If set, report journals/total bytes not replicated

0: No reporting

1: pull logs at rpl=1 and via rt.monitorfile

2: pull -l -j logs at rpl=1

10000

Server

0

If set, a replica server will re-verify the integrity of a cached file every time it delivers the file to the user, If the files do not match, it will re-fetch the file from the upstream server. This is computationally expensive on the replica and typically only useful in conjunction with Perforce technical support.

Enable real-time monitoring of server performance, if this configurable is set to specify a file that backs the shared memory. For example,

rt.monitorfile=monfile.mem

The real-time monitoring output cannot be viewed from a text editor. However, you can display real-time monitoring values on the command line by using any of the following:

• p4d -r P4ROOT --show-realtime

• p4 monitor realtime

• p4 monitor rt

See also p4 monitor realtime.

Server

1

Allow client-side Extensions to run.

Allow the p4 renameclient command.

0: disallow for all users

1: allow for client owners, admins, and super

2: allow for admins and super

3: allow for super

Server

0

Server security level:

0: Legacy support: passwords not required, strength requirements unenforced.

1: Strong passwords required, existing passwords not reset, compatible with pre-2003.2 client software.

2: Strong passwords required, existing passwords reset, requires 2003.2 or higher client software.

3: Passwords must be strong, and ticket-based authentication (p4 login) is required.

4: All of the above restrictions. Also, authenticated service users must be used for all replica server and remote depot connections to this server.

5: Requires that any intermediary (such as a proxy or broker) has a valid authenticated service user.

6: Requires each intermediary to have a valid server spec, where the service user must match the user named in the User field of the spec.

For details, see Server security levels in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Server command logging level:

server=1 ensures that the start information for each command is logged

server=2 extends server tracing to include command start and stop

server=3 adds a compute end message and Sync Network Estimates for p4 sync

server=4 adds errors sent to the client

See also Diagnostic flags for monitoring the server in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide and P4LOG

Server

0

Determines whether changes can be fetched.

1: This server can fetch from other servers.

2: Other servers can fetch from this server.

3: Both 1 and 2 are allowed.

Server

0

Determines whether changes can be pushed.

1: This server can push to other servers.

2: Other servers can push to this server.

3: Both 1 and 2 are allowed.

Server

0

DVCS configurations with files of type +l can use the --remote flag on the p4 edit, p4 delete, and p4 revert commands. This locks +l file types exclusively on the shared server. The locks are released automatically when the modified files are pushed.

The shared server must be a commit server and this configurable must have 1, not 0, as its value.

See +l in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Guide on File type modifiers.

Server

0

DVCS configurations with files of type +l can use the --remote flag on the p4 edit, p4 delete, and p4 revert commands. This locks +l file types exclusively on the shared server. The locks are released automatically when the modified files are pushed.

The shared server must be a commit server and this configurable must have 1, not 0, as its value.

See +l in the Helix Core Command-Line (P4) Guide on File type modifiers.

Server

0

Policy for per-command resource limits:

0: All command-line users can override these limits in p4 group specs:
MaxResults, MaxScanRows, MaxLockTime, MaxOpenFiles, MaxMemory

1: Per-command options can specify lower, but not higher, resource limits.

2: All command-line resource limit options are silently ignored and the spec limits are not overridden.

Server

unset

The filesystem location, an absolute path, with respect to which a relative address given in the Map: field of a depot form is evaluated. If it is not set, the Map: field relative address is evaluated with respect to the value stored in P4ROOT. For more information, see the p4 depot command.

0: Prevents admin users to install and configure or delete server-side extensions.

1: Allows admin users to install and configure or delete server-side extensions if these extensions are signed and verified by a trusted certificate from the list provided by the super user.

0: Prevents the super user to install unsigned extensions.

1: Allows the super user to install unsigned extensions.

P4ROOT/server.extensions.dir

Server

0

Controls whether the view maps (or client maps) of a non-stream client on an edge server are made global when a client is modified.

View maps of a client on a replica must be made global if that client is to be used as a template on another server.

This configurable can be set globally, or individually for each server.

Setting this configurable can make client view maps global upon the subsequent client modification. Clearing this configurable does not delete the view maps of any clients, but does prevent subsequent changes to a client’s view map from being propagated to other servers. If a client with global view maps is deleted, its view maps are also deleted globally regardless of the value of server.global.client.views.

Server

By default, p4 archive and p4 restore lock the global metadata while archiving or restoring revisions. To disable locking, set the value of this configurable to 0.

Server

server.locks

Directory for server locks, specified relative to P4ROOT. To disable server locking, set this configurable to disabled. If db.peeking is nonzero (enabled), server.locks cannot be disabled. To disable locking, set server.locks.sync to 0.

Server

0

Set this configurable to 1 to make p4 lock from an edge server take global locks on the commit server by default.

Server

0

0: Unset prevents sync from taking a client workspace lock.

When set, the p4 sync command takes a client workspace lock in shared mode.

If db.peeking is enabled, the server.locks.dir directory must exist. The changes to locking behavior that occur when you enable db.peeking eliminate the need to set server.locks.dir to disabled, but if performance issues arise with respect to multiple concurrent, large, or interrupted p4 sync commands, set server.locks.sync to 0.

Server

0

If monitoring is enabled, this configurable is set to a nonzero value, and the limit is exceeded, p4d refuses to accept more than this many simultaneous command requests and users receive the TooManyCommands error. See server.maxcommands.allow.

Enables super and operator users to access to a subset of commands, even if server.maxcommands is reached. See Commands that super and operator users can always run under Limiting simultaneous connections in the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide. To disable, set to 0.

unset

Unset: By default, there is no buffer.

10240: Typical value. If set, the maximum number of bytes in the buffer for the log file. A buffer improves performance because p4d only writes to the log file when the command has completed or the buffer has been filled. Data loss is possible if p4d crashes before the buffer's content is written to the log file.

Server

unset

Rarely used because if unset, p4d controls the rotated log names, which are incremented from 0.

Server

unset

Server log file name associated with each structured log file. See p4 logparse for a list of valid filenames. Note that n cannot exceed 500.

Server

unset

For each structured log file, the size, in megabytes, at which the associated log file is rotated.

Server

unset

For each structured log file, the number of rotated log files to retain on the server at any one time.

The serverlog version matches a server protocol level and retains a level prior to an upgrade. See Protocol levels: server/client in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Server

unset

The service user that represents a server or proxy when authenticating against a master server, or a remote server.

Server

99

Maximum number of subdirectories for hashed directory structures. This limits the number of subdirectories into which files are hashed in the spec depot - see Working with spec depots, unload depot - see Unloading infrequently-used metadata in the Helix Core Server Administrator Guide, and the server.locks.dir directory.

99: default

0: disables hashing

Can be set on a client, including a p4d that acts as a client to another p4d. The path of the Certificate Authority (CA) Privacy-Enhanced Mail (PEM) file to validate the server certificate. The certificate authority (CA) path can be specified with this client-side configurable if the CA is not present in the system's CA store or if validation against a specific CA is required.

Can be set on a client, including a p4d that acts as a client to another p4d. 0: use P4TRUST, no certificate validation , 1: validate the certificate chain against the certificate authority (CA) , 2: validate that the subject matches the P4PORT.

Can be set on a client, including a server, broker, or proxy that acts as a client to another server. Determines which TLS versions the client allows for SSL connections. The connection uses the highest version in common between Server and client. 12 means TLS 1.2 and 13 means TLS 1.3. If the client is not explicitly set, explicitly setting the server's ssl.tls.version.min and ssl.tls.version.max applies to client connections for backwards compatibility.

These client and server configurables can be used in servers, proxies, or brokers where both upstream (client-side) and downstream (server-server) connections are made. For example, in edge-to-edge chaining, one edge server acts as a client to another edge server. This aspect of a server as a client applies to other scenarios as well, such as centralized authorization server (P4AUTH), centralized changelist server (P4CHANGE), and when one server accesses a remote depot on another server.

Can be set on a client, including a server, broker, or proxy that acts as a client to another server. Determines which TLS version(s) the client allows for SSL connections. The connection uses the highest version in common between Server and client. 12 means TLS 1.2 and 13 means TLS 1.3. If the client is not explicitly set, explicitly setting the Server's ssl.tls.version.min and ssl.tls.version.max applies to client connections for backwards compatibility.

These client and server configurables can be used in servers, proxies, or brokers where both upstream (client-side) and downstream (server-server) connections are made. For example, in edge-to-edge chaining, one edge server acts as a client to another edge server. This aspect of a server as a client applies to other scenarios as well, such as centralized authorization server (P4AUTH), centralized changelist server (P4CHANGE), and when one server accesses a remote depot on another server.

If you run p4 trust against a server that has a certificate that is not self-signed,

0: Only the IP address can be recorded.
1: (default) Both the hostname and IP address can be recorded.
2: Only the hostname can be recorded.

Server

0

0: By default, SSL support is based on the AES256-SHA cipher suite.

1: Use CAMELLIA256-SHA instead.

ssl.tls.version.min

Determines which TLS versions the server, broker, or proxy allows for SSL connections. The connection uses the highest version in common between the server, broker, or proxy and its client. See also the corresponding client-side configurables: ssl.client.tls.version.min and ssl.client.tls.version.max.

ssl.tls.version.max

Server and optionally on the client for testing

13

Determines which TLS versions the server, broker, or proxy allows for SSL connections. The connection uses the highest version in common between the server, broker, or proxy and its client. See also the corresponding client-side configurables: ssl.client.tls.version.min and ssl.client.tls.version.max.

ssl.tls.version.min specifies the lowest version that the server, broker, or proxy allows, and ssl.tls.version.max specifies the highest allowed version.

Valid values are 10 for TLSv1.0, 11 for TLSv1.1, 12 for TLSv1.2, and 13 for TLSv1.3.

For security, choose a value that is at least 12. To learn how to use these configurables, see SSL and TLS Protocol Versions in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Server

unset

For replica servers, set startup.1 through startup.N to be p4 pull threads to be spawned when p4d starts. All servers with a configured ServerID can set startup.1 through startup.N to be background tasks to be spawned at startup. The startup.N configurables are processed sequentially. Processing stops at the first gap in the numerical sequence, so any commands after a gap are ignored.

Server

state

For replica servers, the file used to track the current journal position.

To enable background archive transfer, set to 1 on those edge servers.

To cause the commit server's p4 sync command to wait for the completion of queued background file transfer for files submitted from edge servers, set to 1 on the commit server.

See submit.autobgtransfer and Background archive transfer for edge server submits in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

If you have set submit.allowbgtransfer to 1 on one or more the edge servers that participate in your replicated environment, to make p4 submit function as if it were an alias for p4 submit -b on those edge servers, also set submit.autobgtransfer to 1 on those same edge servers. See Background archive transfer for edge server submits in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

The default, 1, prevents submitting a changelist that contains what the server perceives as a name collision between directory name and file name. To remove the check, set this configurable to 0 and be aware of the risk of accidentally overwriting file content.

Server

unset

Enable the generation of global changelist ids for DVCS: uuid generates the id in uuid format, checksum generates the id in checksum format, serverid generates the id in serverid+change format. See Track a changelist’s identity from server to server in Using Helix Core Server for Distributed Versioning.

Server

0

0: Always re-transfer files after a failed submit.

1: Check whether files are already in the expected archive location and not re-transfer such files.

You can override the set behavior by using the --noretransfer option to the p4 submit command.

Server

0

Regarding the compCksum field in a storage record:
0: Do not compute the digest of the incoming archive files on the server during a submit.
1: Compute the digest of the incoming archive files on the server during a submit.

Server

0

If set, open files that users have locked (with the p4 lock command) are unlocked after a failed p4 submit.

If set, while the server is above this threshold, commands might be canceled and return an error to the client. For all the sys.pressure.* configurables, see System resources in Helix Core Server Administrator Guide.

Server and client

10

Limit for the number of retries to rename a file if renaming fails. Affects Windows Rename() retry loop. Set on the server and each client. Changing from the default value is not supported.

Server and client

1000

Timeout in microseconds between file rename attempts. Affects Windows Rename() retry loop. Set on the server and each client. Changing from the default value is not supported.

Server

unset

Specifies the default client to be used as a template if the user omits the -t option on the p4 client command.

Server

unset

Specifies the default label to be used as a template if the user omits the -t option on the p4 label command.

If unset or set to 0, attribute values are stored in the db.traits table.

If set to a value greater than 0, the value of a newly created attribute is stored in the trait depot if its size in bytes matches or exceeds the setting of this configurable.

Retrieving trait values from the trait depot with p4 fstat -Oa incurs a performance hit. Set this configurable to a value that stores only huge traits in the trait depot. A recommended value for this configurable would be the minimum size of huge traits.

See also Attribute values and the trait depot in the p4 attribute topic.

Server

unset

If set, changes default behavior of p4 sync such that if a client workspace begins with this prefix, all sync operations to affected workspaces assume p4 sync -k, and do not alter contents of the workspace.