Book Image

Learning Perforce SCM

By : Neal Ralph Firth, Robert Cowham
Book Image

Learning Perforce SCM

By: Neal Ralph Firth, Robert Cowham

Overview of this book

<p>Learning Perforce SCM is a pragmatic how-to guide, explaining the key concepts and usage of Perforce. Based on the authors' experiences training thousands of users around the globe, it explains those key concepts in a clear, incremental manner, combining sound theory with the pragmatic application of principles.<br /><br />Learning Perforce SCM provides practical knowledge which will transform you into confident and competent Perforce users in your day-to-day operations.<br /><br />You'll start by learning how to use Perforce to track your day-to-day coding activities. Once a solid foundation is established you'll learn how to apply the data mining features to evaluate current and past activities. Then you'll learn how to configure Perforce so that it adapts to support your specific development needs. All the while you'll be learning how to deal with conflicts and use the tool to communicate with other team members. Finally, you'll learn about using branches and streams to provide seamless support for concurrent development. Along the way, pragmatic hints and tips will help you avoid issues and identify areas for further personal exploration.</p> <p><em>"It's wonderful to see a new book about Perforce, especially one written by Robert Cowham and Neal Firth. No one can teach Perforce better than these seasoned subject matter experts"</em><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Laura Wingerd, author of Practical Perforce.</em></p>
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Learning Perforce SCM
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

The basic branching pattern


While there is some commonality within the SCM community, the names associated with the various branching patterns tend to vary by tool and from organization to organization. Each branching pattern has a particular process associated with these activities:

  • Creating the branch (from its parent)

  • Making changes on the branch

  • Updating a branch by propagating changes from its parent

  • Propagating branch changes to its parent

The branching pattern that you are most likely to encounter is typically used to isolate changes until they are ready for a wider distribution. Such branches are often called project, feature, task, personal, or private branches. One or more developers may have workspaces that refer to such a branch. We will be talking about this pattern in most of this chapter, because it is the most common pattern used in most organizations. For example, release branches tend to be created and managed by only a small team within the organization. This makes release...