How do I get the perforce root directory from command line?

Question

How do I get the perforce root directory from the command line? I've tried p4 info but I'd rather not have to filter this to get at the root. I'm sure there's a way, but I couldn't find it.

Is there a way to get the root in a context sensitive way? For example if I have two workspaces with a hierarchy like A/.../script vs B/.../script I'd expect that the script would return either A or B depending on where it was run from.

Solution 1

If you want your client root in one command run:

p4 -F %clientRoot% -ztag info

You will need the 2014.1 later version of p4 to use this flag.

Solution 2

For older versions before 2014.1 use the command

p4 info | grep 'Client root:' | cut -d ' ' -f 3-

Solution 3

From OP’s description, they probably want p4 where. For example, if the client root is /perforce/projects, then

p4 where //depot/project-1/module-2

will give /perforce/projects/project-1/module-2. Credit from Bryan’s comment.

Comments

[Christopher Creutzig]

I'm not sure what the problem with p4 info | grep 'Client root:' | cut -d ' ' -f 3- is that you're trying to avoid. But I never checked if, e.g., p4 info is localized – and if not, that might change in the future.

[Bryan Pendleton]

Then it sounds like you want 'p4 where //depot/A/B/C'.

[Franklin Yu]

@BryanPendleton Please promote your comment into an answer. I think a significant portion of readers of this question actually want this. Also link to manual for p4 where would be helpful.

[Tor Klingberg]

It works for me. You may have older version of the P4 client some1.

[Matt]

You're correct Tor. I've updated the answer to clarify.

[gws]

This breaks if 'clientRoot' is already set in the environment. Escape the second percent sign: %clientRoot^%. But because CMD is special that only works if you type it yourself at a prompt. To do it in a batch file you have to say %%clientRoot^^^%%, which is pretty hideous.

[Andreas]

This works pretty fine but out of curiosity, do you know how the %clientRoot% variable is set? I tested this with 2 different roots that both have P4CLIENT set in a P4CONFIG.txt file so probably clientRoot is set through P4CLIENT?

[Andreas]

@Matt ...also, what's that -ztag parameter for?

[Matt]

The -ztag tells p4 to dump out the dictionary of values sent back from the server. For a lot of commands the server sends back more info than the client uses when formatting the message