p4 remote

Create, modify or delete a remote specification.

For distributed version control. See P4 Server Administration Documentation (DVCS).

Syntax

p4 [g-opts] remote [-f] remoteID
p4 [g-opts] remote -d [-f] remoteID
p4 [g-opts] remote -o remoteID
p4 [g-opts] remote -i [-f]

Syntax conventions

Description

(DVCS) A remote describes the shared server that your server cooperates with. The p4 remote command lets you configure your system to use the p4 fetch and p4 pull commands to copy work between your server and the shared server. A remote specification describes the high level configuration and usage of a remote. The p4 remote command allows you to create, modify, or delete a remote specification.

A DVCS remote shared server is not related to the concept of a remote depot in the P4 Server Administration Documentation.

The p4 remote command puts the remote specification (spec) into a temporary file and invokes the editor configured by the P4EDITOR environment variable. Saving the file creates or modifies the remote spec.

Form fields

Field Name

Type

Description
RemoteID: mandatory The identifier of the remote. This is set from the command line and cannot be changed. For example,
p4 remote -o test-remote1
Address: mandatory The P4PORT that is used by the server.
Owner: optional The user who created this remote spec. Can be changed.

The specified owner does not have to be a P4 Server user. You might want to use an arbitrary name if the user does not yet exist, or if you have deleted the user and need a placeholder until you can assign the spec to a new user.
RemoteUser: optional

Specifies the identity (user) P4 Server uses to authenticate against this remote server when pushing and fetching. Can be changed.

The RemoteUser setting can by overridden by using the
--remote-user option of p4 push, p4 fetch, or p4 login.
Update: read-only The date and time this remote spec was last modified.
Access read-only The last time this remote was used to fetch or push.
Description: optional

A description of the remote spec.
Options: optional

Flags to change the remote spec behavior. The defaults are marked with *.

locked/*unlocked

Permits only the owner to change the remote, and prevents the remote spec from being deleted.

compress/*nocompress

Compresses data sent between the local and remote server to speed up slow connections.

*copyrcs/nocopyrcs
During a p4 fetch or p4 push, transfers entire Revision Control System (RCS) archive files Versioned files that users submitted to a depot. when possible, or never transfers entire RCS archive files. By default, p4 fetch and p4 push copy RCS archive files from and to the shared server as a unit, retrieving multiple revisions with a single file transfer. Sometimes, this optimization is undesirable, because when entire RCS archive files are copies, the archive change numbers are copied as well. This can cause your personal server to experience a "jump" in changelist numbers when changes are fetched from or pushed to the shared server.
LastFetch: read-only The last changelist that was fetched.
LastPush: read-only The last changelist that was pushed.
DepotMap: optional Mapping between the local and remote files.
ArchiveLimits: optional

One or more entries specifying how many revisions of file archives to store locally when the files are fetched. See the P4 Server Administration Documentation topics on:
RemoteCharset: optional

(2025.2 and later) The charset for fetching from a non-unicode mode server to a unicode mode server. This charset is used to convert the non-unicode mode server's text data into UTF8. The local machine performs the conversion by using the remote specification for the remote server. If the RemoteCharset field is set to utf8, no translation is performed. Instead, a check occurs to ensure there are no invalid UTF-8 sequences. To learn more, see Prerequisites between servers in theP4 Server Administration Documentation.

Options

With no options specified, p4 remote invokes your editor for the specified remote spec.

-d remote

Deletes the named remote.

-f

Enables a user with admin privileges to delete the spec or set the last modified date. By default, specs can be deleted only by their owner.

-i

Causes a remote spec to be read from the standard input. The user’s editor is not invoked.

-o remote

Writes the remote spec for the named remote to standard output. The user’s editor is not invoked.

Usage notes

Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier? Can File Arguments Use Revision Range? Minimal Access Level Required

N/A

N/A

open,
or list to use the -o option
or admin to use the -f option

Examples

p4 remote -i

Read in a remote spec from standard input.

Related commands

To display a list of remote specifications

p4 remotes