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+git-p4import(1)
+===============
+
+NAME
+----
+git-p4import - Import a Perforce repository into git
+
+
+SYNOPSIS
+--------
+`git-p4import` [-q|-v] [--notags] [--authors <file>] [-t <timezone>] <//p4repo/path> <branch>
+
+`git-p4import` --stitch <//p4repo/path>
+
+`git-p4import`
+
+
+DESCRIPTION
+-----------
+Import a Perforce repository into an existing git repository. When
+a <//p4repo/path> and <branch> are specified a new branch with the
+given name will be created and the initial import will begin.
+
+Once the initial import is complete you can do an incremental import
+of new commits from the Perforce repository. You do this by checking
+out the appropriate git branch and then running `git-p4import` without
+any options.
+
+The standard p4 client is used to communicate with the Perforce
+repository; it must be configured correctly in order for `git-p4import`
+to operate (see below).
+
+
+OPTIONS
+-------
+-q::
+ Do not display any progress information.
+
+-v::
+ Give extra progress information.
+
+\--authors::
+ Specify an authors file containing a mapping of Perforce user
+ ids to full names and email addresses (see Notes below).
+
+\--notags::
+ Do not create a tag for each imported commit.
+
+\--stitch::
+ Import the contents of the given perforce branch into the
+ currently checked out git branch.
+
+\--log::
+ Store debugging information in the specified file.
+
+-t::
+ Specify that the remote repository is in the specified timezone.
+ Timezone must be in the format "US/Pacific" or "Europe/London"
+ etc. You only need to specify this once, it will be saved in
+ the git config file for the repository.
+
+<//p4repo/path>::
+ The Perforce path that will be imported into the specified branch.
+
+<branch>::
+ The new branch that will be created to hold the Perforce imports.
+
+
+P4 Client
+---------
+You must make the `p4` client command available in your $PATH and
+configure it to communicate with the target Perforce repository.
+Typically this means you must set the "$P4PORT" and "$P4CLIENT"
+environment variables.
+
+You must also configure a `p4` client "view" which maps the Perforce
+branch into the top level of your git repository, for example:
+
+------------
+Client: myhost
+
+Root: /home/sean/import
+
+Options: noallwrite clobber nocompress unlocked modtime rmdir
+
+View:
+ //public/jam/... //myhost/jam/...
+------------
+
+With the above `p4` client setup, you could import the "jam"
+perforce branch into a branch named "jammy", like so:
+
+------------
+$ mkdir -p /home/sean/import/jam
+$ cd /home/sean/import/jam
+$ git init
+$ git p4import //public/jam jammy
+------------
+
+
+Multiple Branches
+-----------------
+Note that by creating multiple "views" you can use `git-p4import`
+to import additional branches into the same git repository.
+However, the `p4` client has a limitation in that it silently
+ignores all but the last "view" that maps into the same local
+directory. So the following will *not* work:
+
+------------
+View:
+ //public/jam/... //myhost/jam/...
+ //public/other/... //myhost/jam/...
+ //public/guest/... //myhost/jam/...
+------------
+
+If you want more than one Perforce branch to be imported into the
+same directory you must employ a workaround. A simple option is
+to adjust your `p4` client before each import to only include a
+single view.
+
+Another option is to create multiple symlinks locally which all
+point to the same directory in your git repository and then use
+one per "view" instead of listing the actual directory.
+
+
+Tags
+----
+A git tag of the form p4/xx is created for every change imported from
+the Perforce repository where xx is the Perforce changeset number.
+Therefore after the import you can use git to access any commit by its
+Perforce number, e.g. git show p4/327.
+
+The tag associated with the HEAD commit is also how `git-p4import`
+determines if there are new changes to incrementally import from the
+Perforce repository.
+
+If you import from a repository with many thousands of changes
+you will have an equal number of p4/xxxx git tags. Git tags can
+be expensive in terms of disk space and repository operations.
+If you don't need to perform further incremental imports, you
+may delete the tags.
+
+
+Notes
+-----
+You can interrupt the import (e.g. ctrl-c) at any time and restart it
+without worry.
+
+Author information is automatically determined by querying the
+Perforce "users" table using the id associated with each change.
+However, if you want to manually supply these mappings you can do
+so with the "--authors" option. It accepts a file containing a list
+of mappings with each line containing one mapping in the format:
+
+------------
+ perforce_id = Full Name <email@address.com>
+------------
+
+
+Author
+------
+Written by Sean Estabrooks <seanlkml@sympatico.ca>
+
+
+GIT
+---
+Part of the gitlink:git[7] suite
+