Distributed development using Fetch and Push

The following sections describe how to use the p4 fetch and p4 push commands to share code between distributed sites.

Consider this scenario. The gaming company, Ukko Productions, has offices in France, Japan, and the USA. Each site develops code for a different component but might share code for widgets in such components. The developers at each site use p4 submit to store their code in the depot directory for their local site. France developers use //depot/France-dev/, Japan developers use //depot/Japan-dev/, and USA developers use //depot/USA-dev.

To make its widget code available to Japan and the USA, France developers use p4 push to copy code into drop directories on the servers in Japan and the USA. (Alternatively, Japan developers and USA developers could use p4 fetch to copy code from France developers into their drop directories.) The Japan developers and USA developers merge the widget code from France developers into their respective dev directories using p4 merge. Japan developers and USA developers can then customize the widget for their own purposes, without sharing these customizations with the France developers. If Japan developers have a subset of changes to share with France developers, Japan developers use p4 push to copy this code into the drop location on the France server for Japan developers, //depot/code-dropJapan/... Similarly, if USA developers have a subset of changes to share with France developers, USA developers use p4 push to copy this code into the drop location on the France server for the USA developers, //depot/code-dropUSA/... (Alternatively, France developers could use p4 fetch to obtain the code and drop it into the appropriate locations.) France developers merge the code from Japan developers and USA developers into the dev directory for France developers, //depot/France-dev/..., by using p4 merge.

Configuring the remote specifications

For the p4 push and p4 fetch commands to work properly, each of the three servers must have properly configured remote specifications.

Remote specifications determine:

• which remote servers a local server can fetch from or push to

• which files will be fetched and pushed.

The DepotMap field defines the mapping between the local depot on the left side, and the remote server depot on the right side. For example:

DepotMap:
    //depot/code-dropFrance/... //depot/France-dev/...

where //depot/code-dropFrance/... is on the local server and maps to //depot/France-dev/... on the remote server.

Because Japan developers fetch from or push to the server for France developers, the remote spec for Japan developers is:

RemoteID: ServerFrance
Address: ServerFrance:1666
DepotMap:
  //depot/code-dropFrance/... //depot/France-dev/...
  //depot/Japan-dev/... //depot/code-dropJapan/...

Because USA developers fetch from or push to France’s server, the remote spec for USA developers is:

RemoteID: ServerFrance
Address: ServerFrance:1666
DepotMap:
  //depot/code-dropFrance/... //depot/France-dev/...
  //depot/USA-dev/... //depot/code-dropUSA/...

Because France developers fetch from or push to Japan developers, the remote spec for France developers is:

RemoteID: ServerJapan
Address: ServerJapan:1666
DepotMap:
  //depot/France-dev/... //depot/code-dropFrance/...
  //depot/code-dropJapan/... //depot/Japan-dev/...

Because France developers also fetch from or push to USA developers, a second remote spec for France developers is:

RemoteID: ServerUnitedStates
Address: ServerUnitedStates:1666
DepotMap:
  //depot/France-dev/... //code-dropFrance/...
  //depot/code-dropUSA/... //depot/USA-dev/...