Synopsis

For converting p4 to git, preserving branches & merges.

Background

This application, p4-to-git-mergetastic, is for converting a Perforce (p4) depot into a git repository, with high fidelity. Not only do we map branches. We also make special effort to represent Perforce copy, branch and merge actions as merges between git branches. As far as we know, that sets this tool apart from the alternatives.

This was specifically written for converting Open Watcom 1.9, but could reasonably be adapted to other depots.

Usage

Use a Linux machine. The package installation script was tested on Debian 12, Fedora 38, and Ubuntu 22.04; you may need to tweak it for other, or newer, distros.

Clone this repository. Then, inside your local copy, run:

# The installation script will prompt for your password, using sudo:
./build/install-packages.sh
./build/build-dependencies.sh

export P4PORT=server:1666
export P4CLIENT=client
export P4USER=user
export P4PASSWD="password"
./p4-to-git-mergetastic -o repo.git/

License

Copyright © 2023 Iain Nicol

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Note the license of this software has no effect on the license of your git repository.

Alternatives

Even leaving merges aside, there are not many tools for converting from Perforce to Git:

• Perforce Git Fusion: proprietary and no longer available.
• git-p4: slow with large depots.
• Salesforce p4-fusion: incredibly fast, but the work-in-progress branch support was not flexible enough for our needs. Nonetheless, p4-fusion is so good we use it internally.