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1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | ||
3 | repository - Using the Perl repository | |
4 | ||
0cfb3454 GS |
5 | =head1 Synopsis |
6 | ||
7 | First, we assume here that you have already decided that you will | |
8 | need B<write> access to the repository. If all you need is B<read> | |
9 | access, there are much better ways to access the most current state of | |
10 | the perl repository, or explore individual files and patches therein. | |
11 | See L<perlhack> for details. | |
12 | ||
13 | This document describes what a Perl Porter needs to do to start using | |
14 | the Perl repository. | |
0c97a5ed JH |
15 | |
16 | =head1 Prerequisites | |
17 | ||
18 | You'll need to get hold of the following software. | |
19 | ||
20 | =over 4 | |
21 | ||
22 | =item Perforce | |
23 | ||
24 | Download a perforce client from: | |
25 | ||
26 | http://www.perforce.com/perforce/loadprog.html | |
27 | ||
28 | You'll probably also want to look at: | |
29 | ||
30 | http://www.perforce.com/perforce/technical.html | |
31 | ||
32 | where you can look at or download its documentation. | |
33 | ||
34 | =item ssh | |
35 | ||
36 | If you don't already have access to an ssh client, then look at its | |
37 | home site C<http://www.cs.hut.fi/ssh> which mentions ftp sites from | |
38 | which it's available. You only need to build the client parts (ssh | |
39 | and ssh-keygen should suffice). | |
40 | ||
dbb93a7d SH |
41 | If you're on Windows then you might like to obtain MSYS (Minimal System) |
42 | from: | |
43 | ||
44 | http://www.mingw.org/download.shtml | |
45 | ||
46 | which contains an ssh client. If you use this outside of the MSYS | |
47 | environment then you'll need to ensure the HOME environment variable | |
48 | is set to a suitable directory: ssh.exe will want to access files in | |
49 | a F<.ssh> sub-directory of %HOME%. | |
50 | ||
51 | Alternatively, the "plink" program, part of PuTTY: | |
52 | ||
53 | http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ | |
54 | ||
55 | should also work fine for Windows users. | |
56 | ||
0c97a5ed JH |
57 | =back |
58 | ||
59 | =head1 Creating an SSH Key Pair | |
60 | ||
61 | If you already use ssh and want to use the same key pair for perl | |
62 | repository access then you can skip the rest of this section. | |
63 | Otherwise, generate an ssh key pair for use with the repository | |
64 | by typing the command | |
65 | ||
66 | ssh-keygen | |
67 | ||
68 | After generating a key pair and testing it, ssh-keygen will ask you | |
69 | to enter a filename in which to save the key. The default it offers | |
70 | will be the file F<~/.ssh/identity> which is suitable unless you | |
71 | particularly want to keep separate ssh identities for some reason. | |
72 | If so, you could save the perl repository private key in the file | |
73 | F<~/.ssh/perl>, for example, but I will use the standard filename | |
74 | in the remainder of the examples of this document. | |
75 | ||
76 | After typing in the filename, it will prompt you to type in a | |
77 | passphrase. The private key will itself be encrypted so that it is | |
78 | usable only when that passphrase is typed. (When using ssh, you will | |
79 | be prompted when it requires a pass phrase to unlock a private key.) | |
80 | If you provide a blank passphrase then no passphrase will be needed | |
81 | to unlock the key and, as a consequence, anyone who gains access to | |
82 | the key file gains access to accounts protected with that key | |
83 | (barring additional configuration to restrict access by IP address). | |
84 | ||
85 | When you have typed the passphrase in twice, ssh-keygen will confirm | |
86 | where it has saved the private key (in the filename you gave and | |
87 | with permissions set to be only readable by you), what your public | |
88 | key is (don't worry: you don't need to memorise it) and where it | |
89 | has saved the corresponding public key. The public key is saved in | |
90 | a filename corresponding to your private key's filename but with | |
91 | ".pub" appended, usually F<~/.ssh/identity.pub>. That public key | |
92 | can be (but need not be) world readable. It is not used by your | |
93 | own system at all. | |
94 | ||
dbb93a7d SH |
95 | Note that the above process creates a key pair for ssh protocol 1. |
96 | You can request ssh protocol 2 (RSA) instead if you prefer (if your | |
97 | particular ssh client supports it), via the command | |
98 | ||
99 | ssh-keygen -t rsa | |
100 | ||
101 | This will create private/public identity files called F<~/.ssh/id_rsa> | |
102 | and F<~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub> respectively. Protocol 2 offers a higher | |
103 | level of security than protocol 1. This is not required for access to | |
104 | the Perl repository -- ssh is used for authentication rather than | |
105 | encryption (the Perl sources are open anyway) -- but either protocol | |
106 | is supported by the server. | |
107 | ||
0c97a5ed JH |
108 | =head1 Notifying the Repository Keeper |
109 | ||
110 | Mail the contents of that public key file to the keeper of the perl | |
111 | repository (see L</Contact Information> below). | |
112 | When the key is added to the repository host's configuration file, | |
113 | you will be able to connect to it with ssh by using the corresponding | |
114 | private key file (after unlocking it with your chosen passphrase). | |
115 | ||
dbb93a7d SH |
116 | There is no harm in creating both protocol 1 and protocol 2 keys and |
117 | mailing them both in. That way you'll be able to connect using either | |
118 | protocol, which may be useful if you later find yourself using a client | |
119 | that only supports one or the other protocol. | |
120 | ||
0c97a5ed JH |
121 | =head1 Connecting to the Repository |
122 | ||
123 | Connections to the repository are made by using ssh to provide a | |
124 | TCP "tunnel" rather than by using ssh to login to or invoke any | |
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125 | ordinary commands on the repository. |
126 | ||
127 | The ssh (secure shell) protocol runs over port number 22, so if you | |
128 | have a firewall installed at the client end then you must ensure that | |
129 | it is configured to allow you to make an outgoing connection to port 22 | |
130 | on sickle.activestate.com. | |
131 | ||
132 | When you want to start a session using the repository, use the command: | |
0c97a5ed | 133 | |
4bc101a5 | 134 | ssh -l perlrep -f -q -x -L 1666:127.0.0.1:1666 sickle.activestate.com foo |
0c97a5ed | 135 | |
dbb93a7d SH |
136 | If you are not using the default filename of F<~/.ssh/identity> or |
137 | F<~/.ssh/id_rsa> to hold your perl repository private key then you'll | |
138 | need to add the option B<-i filename> to tell ssh where it is. Unless | |
139 | you chose a blank passphrase for that private key, ssh will prompt you | |
140 | for the passphrase to unlock that key. Then ssh will fork and put itself | |
0c97a5ed | 141 | in the background, returning you (silently) to your shell prompt. |
dbb93a7d SH |
142 | |
143 | Note that the first time you connect you may see a message like | |
144 | "The authenticity of host 'sickle.activestate.com' can't be established," | |
145 | and asking you if you want to continue. Just answer yes and sickle's | |
146 | details will be cached in a F<known_hosts> or F<known_hosts2> file. You | |
147 | will not see that message again unless you delete the cache file. | |
148 | ||
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149 | The tunnel for repository access is now ready for use. |
150 | ||
151 | For the sake of completeness (and for the case where the chosen | |
152 | port of 1666 is already in use on your machine), I'll briefly | |
153 | describe what all those ssh arguments are for. | |
154 | ||
155 | =over 4 | |
156 | ||
4bc101a5 | 157 | =item B<-l perlrep> |
0c97a5ed | 158 | |
4bc101a5 JH |
159 | Use a remote username of perlrep. (The account on the repository which |
160 | provides the end-point of the ssh tunnel is named "perlrep".) | |
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161 | |
162 | =item B<-f> | |
163 | ||
164 | Tells ssh to fork and remain running in the background. Since ssh | |
165 | is only being used for its tunnelling capabilities, the command | |
166 | that ssh runs never does any I/O and can sit silently in the | |
167 | background. | |
168 | ||
169 | =item B<-q> | |
170 | ||
171 | Tells ssh to be quiet. Without this option, ssh will output a | |
172 | message each time you use a p4 command (since each p4 command | |
173 | tunnels over the ssh connection to reach the repository). | |
174 | ||
175 | =item B<-x> | |
176 | ||
177 | Tells ssh not to bother to set up a tunnel for X11 connections. | |
178 | The repository doesn't allow this anyway. | |
179 | ||
180 | =item B<-L 1666:127.0.0.1:1666> | |
181 | ||
182 | This is the important option. It tells ssh to listen out for | |
183 | connections made to port 1666 on your local machine. When such | |
184 | a connection is made, the ssh client tells the remote side | |
185 | (the corresponding ssh daemon on the repository) to make a | |
186 | connection to IP address 127.0.0.1, port 1666. Data flowing | |
187 | along that connection is tunnelled over the ssh connection | |
188 | (encrypted). The perforce daemon running on the repository | |
189 | only accepts connections from localhost and that is exactly | |
190 | where ssh-tunnelled connections appear to come from. | |
191 | ||
192 | If port 1666 is already in use on your machine then you can | |
193 | choose any non-privileged port (a number between 1024 and 65535) | |
194 | which happens to be free on your machine. It's the first of the | |
195 | three colon separated values that you should change. Picking | |
196 | port 2345 would mean changing the option to | |
197 | B<-L 2345:127.0.0.1:1666>. Whatever port number you choose should | |
198 | be used for the value of the P4PORT environment variable (q.v.). | |
199 | ||
200 | =item sickle.activestate.com | |
201 | ||
4bc101a5 | 202 | This is the canonical name of the host on which the perl repository |
1cb8ef30 | 203 | resides. |
0c97a5ed JH |
204 | |
205 | =item foo | |
206 | ||
207 | This is a dummy place holder argument. Without an argument | |
208 | here, ssh will try to perform an interactive login to the | |
209 | repository which is not allowed. Ordinarily, this argument | |
210 | is for the one-off command which is to be executed on the | |
211 | remote host. However, the repository's ssh configuration | |
212 | file uses the "command=" option to force a particular | |
213 | command to run so the actual value of the argument is | |
214 | ignored. The command that's actually run merely pauses and | |
215 | waits for the ssh connection to drop, then exits. | |
216 | ||
217 | =back | |
218 | ||
219 | =head1 Problems | |
220 | ||
221 | You should normally get a prompt that asks for the passphrase | |
222 | for your RSA key when you connect with the ssh command shown | |
223 | above. If you see a prompt that looks like: | |
224 | ||
225 | perlrep@sickle.activestate.com's password: | |
226 | ||
dbb93a7d SH |
227 | Then you either don't have a F<~/.ssh/identity> or F<~/.ssh/id_rsa> |
228 | file corresponding to your public key, or that file is not readable. | |
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229 | Fix the problem and try again. |
230 | ||
dbb93a7d SH |
231 | If you only had the public key file for one protocol installed at the |
232 | server end then make sure your client is using the corresponding | |
233 | protocol. An ssh client that supports protocol 2 will probably choose | |
234 | that by default, which will fail if the server end only has your public | |
235 | key file for protocol 1. Some ssh clients have "-1" and "-2" arguments | |
236 | to force which protocol to use. | |
237 | ||
238 | The "-v" (verbose) flag can be useful for seeing what protocol your | |
239 | client is actually trying to connect with, and for spotting any other | |
240 | problems. The flag can be specified multiple times to increase | |
241 | verbosity. Note that specifying the "-q" flag as well might override | |
242 | your request for verbose output, so drop the "-q" flag when trying this. | |
243 | ||
0c97a5ed JH |
244 | =head1 Using the Perforce Client |
245 | ||
246 | Remember to read the documentation for Perforce. You need | |
247 | to make sure that three environment variable are set | |
248 | correctly before using the p4 client with the perl repository. | |
249 | ||
250 | =over 4 | |
251 | ||
252 | =item P4PORT | |
253 | ||
254 | Set this to localhost:1666 (the port for your ssh client to listen on) | |
255 | unless that port is already in use on your host. If it is, see | |
256 | the section above on the B<-L 1666:127.0.0.1:1666> option to ssh. | |
257 | ||
258 | =item P4CLIENT | |
259 | ||
260 | The value of this is the name by which Perforce knows your | |
2f6eead3 | 261 | host's workspace. You need to pick a name (normally, your |
83d05790 | 262 | Perforce username, a dash, and your host's short name) |
0c97a5ed | 263 | when you first start using the perl repository and then |
2f6eead3 RG |
264 | stick with it. |
265 | ||
266 | Perforce keeps track of the files you have on your machine. It | |
267 | does this through your client. When you first sync a version of a | |
268 | file, the file comes from the server to your machine. If you sync | |
269 | the same file again the server does nothing because it | |
270 | knows you already have the file. | |
271 | ||
272 | You should NOT use the same client on different machines. If you do | |
273 | you probably won't get the files you expect, and may end up with | |
274 | nasty corruption. Perforce allows you to have as many clients as | |
275 | you want. For example, sally-home, sally-openbsd, sally-laptop. | |
276 | ||
277 | Also, never change the client's root and view at the same time. | |
278 | See C<http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.002/manuals/p4guide/04_details.html#1048341> | |
279 | ||
0c97a5ed | 280 | If you have multiple hosts sharing the same directory structure |
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281 | via NFS then you may be able to get away with only one client name, |
282 | but be careful. | |
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283 | |
284 | The C<p4 clients> command lists all currently known clients. | |
285 | ||
286 | =item P4USER | |
287 | ||
288 | This is the username by which perforce knows you. Use your | |
289 | username if you have a well known or obvious one or else pick | |
290 | a new one which other perl5-porters will recognise. There is | |
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291 | a licence limit on the number of these usernames, so be sure not |
292 | to use more than one. | |
293 | ||
294 | It is very important to set a password for your Perforce username, | |
295 | or else anyone can impersonate you. Use the C<p4 passwd> command | |
296 | to do this. Once a password is set for your account, you'll need | |
297 | to tell Perforce what it is. You can do this by setting the | |
298 | environment variable P4PASSWD, or you can use the C<-P> flag | |
299 | with the C<p4> command. | |
300 | ||
301 | There are a few techniques you can use to avoid having to either | |
302 | set an environment variable or type the password on every command. | |
303 | One is to create a shell alias, for example, in bash, add something like | |
304 | alias p4='p4 -P secret' | |
305 | to your F<.bash_profile> file. Another way is to create a small shell | |
306 | script, for example | |
307 | #!/bin/bash | |
308 | p4 -P secret $@ | |
309 | And use this instead of running C<p4> directly. | |
310 | ||
311 | With either of these, be sure the file containing your password | |
312 | (the F<.bash_profile> or shell script file) is only readable by you. | |
0c97a5ed JH |
313 | |
314 | The C<p4 users> command lists all currently known users. | |
315 | ||
316 | =back | |
317 | ||
dbb93a7d SH |
318 | Note that on Windows P4PORT and P4USER are requested when installing |
319 | Perforce. They are stored in the registry, so they do not need to be | |
320 | set in the environment. | |
321 | ||
0c97a5ed JH |
322 | Once these three environment variables are set, you can use the |
323 | perforce p4 client exactly as described in its documentation. | |
dbb93a7d | 324 | |
0c97a5ed | 325 | After setting these variables and connecting to the repository |
83d05790 | 326 | for the first time, you should use the C<p4 user> command to |
dbb93a7d SH |
327 | set a valid email address for yourself. Messages to the commit list |
328 | are sent (faked) from whatever email address you set here. | |
329 | ||
330 | Also use the C<p4 client> command to specify your workspace | |
331 | specifications for each individual client from which you will interact | |
332 | with the repository. The P4CLIENT environment variable, of course, | |
333 | needs to be set to one of these client workspace names. | |
0c97a5ed JH |
334 | |
335 | =head1 Ending a Repository Session | |
336 | ||
337 | When you have finished a session using the repository, you | |
338 | should kill off the ssh client process to break the tunnel. | |
339 | Since ssh forked itself into the background, you'll need to use | |
340 | something like ps with the appropriate options to find the ssh | |
341 | process and then kill it manually. The default signal of | |
342 | SIGTERM is fine. | |
343 | ||
344 | =head1 Overview of the Repository | |
345 | ||
346 | Please read at least the introductory sections of the Perforce | |
347 | User Guide (and perhaps the Quick Start Guide as well) before | |
348 | reading this section. | |
349 | ||
350 | Every repository user typically "owns" a "branch" of the mainline | |
351 | code in the repository. They hold the "pumpkin" for things in this | |
352 | area, and are usually the only user who will modify files there. | |
353 | This is not strictly enforced in order to allow the flexibility | |
354 | of other users stealing the pumpkin for short periods with the | |
355 | owner's permission. | |
356 | ||
dbb93a7d | 357 | Here is (part of) the current structure of the repository: |
0c97a5ed JH |
358 | |
359 | /----+-----perl - Mainline development (bleadperl) | |
f704d51e | 360 | +-----perlio - PerlIO Pumpkin's Perl |
0c97a5ed JH |
361 | +-----vmsperl - VMS Pumpkin's Perl |
362 | +-----maint-5.004------perl - Maintainance branches | |
363 | +-----maint-5.005------perl | |
dbb93a7d SH |
364 | +-----maint-5.6--------perl |
365 | +-----maint-5.8--------perl | |
366 | +-----pureperl---------pureperl | |
0c97a5ed JH |
367 | |
368 | Perforce uses a branching model that simply tracks relationships | |
369 | between files. It does not care about directories at all, so | |
370 | any file can be a branch of any other file--the fully qualified | |
371 | depot path name (of the form //depot/foo/bar.c) uniquely determines | |
372 | a file for the purpose of establishing branching relationships. | |
373 | Since a branch usually involves hundreds of files, such relationships | |
374 | are typically specified en masse using a branch map (try `p4 help branch`). | |
375 | `p4 branches` lists the existing branches that have been set up. | |
376 | `p4 branch -o branchname` can be used to view the map for a particular | |
377 | branch, if you want to determine the ancestor for a particular set of | |
378 | files. | |
379 | ||
380 | The mainline (aka "trunk") code in the Perl repository is under | |
381 | "//depot/perl/...". Most branches typically map its entire | |
382 | contents under a directory that goes by the same name as the branch | |
f704d51e JH |
383 | name. Thus the contents of the perlio branch are to be found |
384 | in //depot/perlio. | |
0c97a5ed JH |
385 | |
386 | Run `p4 client` to specify how the repository contents should map to | |
387 | your local disk. Most users will typically have a client map that | |
388 | includes at least their entire branch and the contents of the mainline. | |
389 | ||
390 | Run `p4 changes -l -m10` to check on the activity in the repository. | |
391 | //depot/perl/Porting/genlog is useful to get an annotated changelog | |
392 | that shows files and branches. You can use this listing to determine | |
393 | if there are any changes in the mainline that you need to merge into | |
394 | your own branch. A typical merging session looks like this: | |
395 | ||
f704d51e JH |
396 | % cd ~/p4view/perlio |
397 | % p4 integrate -b perlio # to bring parent changes into perlio | |
398 | % p4 resolve -am ./... # auto merge the changes | |
0c97a5ed JH |
399 | % p4 resolve ./... # manual merge conflicting changes |
400 | % p4 submit ./... # check in | |
401 | ||
f704d51e | 402 | If the owner of the mainline wants to bring the changes in perlio |
0c97a5ed JH |
403 | back into the mainline, they do: |
404 | ||
f704d51e | 405 | % p4 integrate -r -b perlio |
0c97a5ed JH |
406 | ... |
407 | ||
408 | Generating a patch for change#42 is done as follows: | |
409 | ||
a2c6387b | 410 | % p4genpatch 42 > change-42.patch |
0c97a5ed | 411 | |
a2c6387b | 412 | F<p4genpatch> is to be found in //depot/perl/Porting/. |
f704d51e JH |
413 | |
414 | The usual routine to apply a patch is | |
415 | ||
416 | % p4 edit file.c file.h | |
417 | % patch < patch.txt | |
418 | ||
419 | (any necessary, re-Configure, make regen_headers, make clean, etc, here) | |
420 | ||
421 | % make all test | |
422 | ||
423 | (preferably make all test in several platforms and under several | |
424 | different Configurations) | |
425 | ||
426 | % while unhappy | |
427 | do | |
428 | $EDITOR | |
429 | make all test | |
430 | done | |
431 | % p4 submit | |
432 | ||
433 | Other useful Perforce commands | |
434 | ||
435 | % p4 describe -du 12345 # show change 12345 | |
436 | ||
437 | Note: the output of "p4 describe" is not in proper diff format, use | |
a2c6387b | 438 | the F<Porting/p4genpatch> to get a diff-compatible format. |
44897049 HS |
439 | (Note that it may be easier to get one already prepared: grep |
440 | L<perlhack> for APC, and append eg "/diffs/12345.gz" to one of the | |
441 | URLs to get a usable patch.) | |
f704d51e JH |
442 | |
443 | % p4 diff -se ./... # have I modified something but forgotten | |
444 | # to "p4 edit", easy faux pas with autogenerated | |
445 | # files like proto.h, or if one forgets to | |
446 | # look carefully which files a patch modifies | |
447 | % p4 sync file.h # if someone else has modified file.h | |
448 | % p4 opened # which files are opened (p4 edit) by me | |
449 | % p4 opened -a # which files are opened by anybody | |
450 | % p4 diff -du file.c # what changes have I done | |
451 | % p4 revert file.h # never mind my changes | |
452 | % p4 sync -f argh.c # forcibly synchronize your file | |
453 | # from the repository | |
454 | % p4 diff -sr | p4 -x - revert | |
455 | # throw away (opened but) unchanged files | |
456 | # (in Perforce it's a little bit too easy | |
457 | # to checkin unchanged files) | |
458 | ||
459 | Integrate patch 12345 from the mainline to the maint-5.6 branch: | |
460 | (you have to in the directory that has both the mainline and | |
461 | the maint-5.6/perl as subdirectories) | |
462 | ||
463 | % p4 integrate -d perl/...@12345,12345 maint-5.6/perl/... | |
464 | ||
465 | Integrate patches 12347-12350 from the perlio branch to the mainline: | |
466 | ||
467 | % p4 integrate -d perlio/...@12347,12350 perl/... | |
0c97a5ed JH |
468 | |
469 | =head1 Contact Information | |
470 | ||
dbb93a7d | 471 | The mail alias E<lt>perl-repository-keepers@perl.orgE<gt> can be used to reach |
b09defb6 | 472 | all current users of the repository. |
0c97a5ed JH |
473 | |
474 | The repository keeper is currently Gurusamy Sarathy | |
dbb93a7d | 475 | E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>. |
0c97a5ed JH |
476 | |
477 | =head1 AUTHORS | |
478 | ||
dbb93a7d SH |
479 | Malcolm Beattie, E<lt>mbeattie@sable.ox.ac.ukE<gt>, 24 June 1997. |
480 | ||
481 | Gurusamy Sarathy, E<lt>gsar@activestate.comE<gt>, 8 May 1999. | |
0c97a5ed | 482 | |
dbb93a7d | 483 | Slightly updated by Simon Cozens, E<lt>simon@brecon.co.ukE<gt>, 3 July 2000. |
0c97a5ed | 484 | |
dbb93a7d | 485 | More updates by Jarkko Hietaniemi, E<lt>jhi@iki.fiE<gt>, 28 June 2001. |
f704d51e | 486 | |
dbb93a7d | 487 | Perforce clarifications by Randall Gellens, E<lt>rcg@users.sourceforge.netE<gt>, 12 July 2001. |
0c97a5ed | 488 | |
dbb93a7d | 489 | Windows-related updates by Steve Hay E<lt>shay@cpan.orgE<gt>, 23 July 2004. |
2f6eead3 | 490 | |
0c97a5ed | 491 | =cut |