I am writing a build script that gets all the source code for a particular changelist and builds it. I would like to be able to run the script at any time, without having to shelve local changes or move files to a temporary location. The script will be used by others who have their own workspaces defined.
I thought it would be easiest just to get all the source code from Perforce at a temporary location and build from there. Unfortunately p4 sync does not seem to support this, it will only put files into the client view as specified by the workspace, meaning it would overwrite local changes before I could copy the files to the temporary location.
Is there any way to use p4 to copy files from Perforce into an arbitrary location?
You could create a dedicated workspace for the build script and then have the build script sync to it by using
This is what a continuous build system would typically do. Be sure to blank out the Host: section of the workspace spec in this case so that it can be used on multiple systems.
An alternative might be to use p4 print with the -o option to dump the files to an arbitrary location without syncing them.