About P4V, the P4 Visual Client (P4V)

P4V, the P4 Visual Client (P4V), is the cross-platform graphical user interface for the P4 Server, also referred to as the P4 Server. You can use P4V on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers and benefit from an identical interface regardless of platform. To use the P4 Server to manage files, you typically connect to the P4 Server using an application like P4V. P4V enables you to check files in, out, submit files, and perform various other versioning tasks.

Depot and workspace

The P4 Server is an enterprise version management tool that manages files. The files reside in a depot. To work on files, you open the files and edit them in your workspace. When you’re done, you submit changed files to the depot using a changelist. The depot keeps track of all of the current and previous revisions of a file.

P4 Server users connect to a shared file repository using a client application like P4V. P4V connects your computer to P4 Server and helps you move files between the P4 Server depots and your workspace:

P4V environment diagam

Definition of terms

The definitions for these terms are as follows:

  • Workspace: folders or directories on your workstation where you work on revisions of files that are managed by the P4 Server.
  • P4 app: P4V (or another P4 application, like the command-line client or P4 for Visual Studio, the P4 for Visual Studio), running on your workstation, which makes requests from the P4 Server and delivers the results of those requests: files or status information.
  • P4 Server : the program that responds to requests from P4 applications, maintains depot files, and tracks the state of workspaces.
  • Depot: a file repository hosted by the P4 Server. It contains all existing versions of all files ever submitted. The P4 Server can host multiple depots, but the examples in this guide show a single depot.

Depot tab and workspace tab

From the Depot tab or the Workspace tab, navigate to a file and right-click. From the context-menu, you might Check Out or Check Out and Open a file so you can edit it.

When you are done editing the file, you might submit it to the depot by right-clicking and choosing Submit.