Setting Up a Ubuntu Perforce Server

Setting Up a Ubuntu Perforce Server

Setting Up a Ubuntu Perforce Server

This is a step-by-step guide to installing and configuring Perforce on a Ubuntu server. It assumes that you have already created a Basic Ubuntu Server. There are several sections below:

• Download Perforce
• Configure Perforce
• Run Perforce Server For the First Time
• Setup Perforce As Bootup Service
• ToDo
• Resources

Download Perforce

1. Use Lynx to download the P4D software.

    lynx http://www.perforce.com/perforce/downloads/linux26x86.html 

2. Enter Y to allow the cookie from Perforce.com.
3. Press the Down Arrow until the Downloads link is selected. Then press Enter.
4. Press the Down Arrow until the Linux Kernel 2.6 for x86 link is selected. Then press Enter.
5. Press the Down Arrow until the Download link is selected. Then press Enter.
6. Press D to start the download.
7. Press the Down Arrow to highlight the Save to disk link. Then press Enter.
8. Use the default filename of `p4d`.
9. Press q, then press Enter to exit Lynx.
10. Use Lynx to download the P4 software by retrace the steps above expect selecting to download `P4` instead of `P4D`.

Configure Perforce

This information is a reprise of the [http://www.perforce.com/perforce/doc.072/manuals/p4sag/index.html Perforce Administration Guide] along with some additional information.

1. Download the `daemon` utility. This utility allows `p4d` to be run by the `perforce` user instead of `root`.

    sudo apt-get daemon 

2. Connect to the directory where the `p4` and `p4d` files where downloaded (probably the home directory).

    cd ~ 

3. Make the `p4` and `p4d` files executable.

    chmod +x p4 p4d 

4. Copy the Perforce executables to `/usr/local/bin` which is already in the system PATH environment variable.

    sudo mv p4 /usr/local/bin sudo mv p4d /usr/local/bin 

5. Create a group for Perforce files.

    sudo addgroup p4admin 

6. Create a user for Perforce administrative work.

    sudo adduser perforce 

7. Use `visudo` to give the perforce user account the ability to use `sudo`. Add the following line at the end o f the file.

    perforce ALL = ALL 

8. Log off your default user account.
9. Log in using the `perforce` account.
10. Create a directory to hold the repository.

     sudo mkdir /perforce_depot sudo chown perforce:p4admin /perforce_depot 

11. Create a directory to hold Perforce log files.

     sudo mkdir /var/log/perforce sudo chown perforce:p4admin /var/log/perforce 

12. Add the following lines to the end of /etc/profile. These settings will be used by client programs run on the Linux server - not by the Perforce server.

     # Perforce Settings export P4JOURNAL=/var/log/perforce/journal export P4LOG=/var/log/perforce/p4err export P4PORT=localhost:1666 export P4ROOT=/perforce_depot export P4USER=perforce 

13. Load the Perforce settings.

     source /etc/profile 

14. Create a Perforce group to limit resource usage using `sudo p4 group developers` to set the following values. See http://kb.perforce.com/P4dServerReference/Performance/ViewsProtect..Maxlocktime for more information.

     Group: developers MaxResults: 50000 MaxScanRows: 250000 MaxLocktime: 30000 Timeout: 4320 Subgroups: Users: developer 

Setup Perforce As Bootup Service

1. Connect to the initialization control directory.

    cd /etc/init.d 

2. Create the Perforce control script using `sudo vi perforce`.

    #!/bin/sh -e export P4JOURNAL=/var/log/perforce/journal export P4LOG=/var/log/perforce/p4err export P4ROOT=/perforce_depot export P4PORT=1666 PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin" . /lib/lsb/init-functions p4start="p4d -d" p4stop="p4 admin stop" p4user=perforce case "$1" in start) log_action_begin_msg "Starting Perforce Server" daemon -u $p4user $p4start; ;; stop) log_action_begin_msg "Stopping Perforce Server" daemon -u $p4user $p4stop; ;; restart) stop start ;; *) echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/perforce (start|stop|restart) exit 1 ;; esac exit 0 

3. Integrate the Perforce control script into the boot process.

    sudo update-rc.d perforce defaults 

4. Goto your home directory then use the control script to start the Perforce server.

    cd ~ sudo /etc/init.d/perforce start 

5. Use the control script to restart the Perforce server.

    sudo /etc/init.d/perforce restart 

Run Perforce Server For the First Time

Before Perforce can be used by a team there are two housekeeping task that need to be done - creating the journal and closing a security hole.

1. Set the Perforce environment variables.

    source /etc/profile 

2. Start the perforce server. The command line is short because all of the settings are provided by the variables exported by /etc/profile.

    sudo p4d �d 

3. Create the journal.

    sudo p4d �jc 

4. By default, all users connected to Perforce are administrators. However, that level of security is not acceptable for a normal development environment. Run the `protect` option to switch out of the default security mode. For now, accept the default protections by typing `:wq` and pressing Enter.

    sudo p4 protect 

5. Stop the Perforce server.

    sudo p4 admin stop 

TODO

* Journalling
* checkpointing
* backups

Resources

* Perforces public depot
* http://kb.perforce.com/AdminTasks/InstallAndUpgrade/RunningAPerf..InetdOnUnix How to start `p4d` via `inetd` instead of a startup script.

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