Perforce-the-Powerful

What is Perforce?

Perforce is a centralized verson control system (i.e. there is only one central location of the project – depot).

Why Perforce?

Perforce handles massive projects efficiently.

Instead of creating a hash for the entire project (i.e. what git does) Perforce only does this for the files you’d like changed.
This makes it a favourite for industries that have projects that have large file sizes (e.g. gaming, film, engineering, etc).

How to Perforce

  • Checkout only the files you want to change
  • Get latest revision – to get the latest code
    • NB: Checked-out files are not updated

Terms

  • Depot:
    • A repository that of files that live on a Perforce server
  • Perforce Server:
    • Can have multople depots
  • Workspace:
    • Defines the portion of the depot that can be accessed
    • Specifies where local copies in the depot are stored (Workspace view)