X157 Dev Notes

One simulant attempts to share insight with others.

>> X157 / UE5 / Linux / p4

How to use Perforce on Linux

As I prefer to use Debian (and/or Ubuntu), and as Perforce only distributes Ubuntu .deb packages, this documentation relates to installing p4 on Ubuntu.

Contents:

NOTE: If you’re trying to install a p4d server, see the Xist.GG Docker: Perforce Server for Unreal Engine repository, which contains complete setup info for an Ubuntu server. The commands described below only consider installing the p4 client.

Installing p4 on Ubuntu Linux

To install p4 (command-line utilities) on Ubuntu:

# Get OS package info (works on Ubuntu and Debian)
# Extract the "VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm"
source /etc/os-release

[ "x$VERSION_CODENAME" = "x" ] && echo "ERROR: OS INFO UNKNOWN" 1>&2

# Download and save the current version of the Perforce public key to local keyring
wget -qO - https://package.perforce.com/perforce.pubkey \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/perforce.gpg

# Add official perforce package source to local sources list
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/perforce.gpg] https://package.perforce.com/apt/ubuntu $VERSION_CODENAME release" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/perforce.list > /dev/null

# Update sources
sudo apt-get -y update

# CHECK FOR ERRORS HERE

# Install "helix-cli" package (p4 client tools)
sudo apt-get -y install helix-cli

Error Checking on apt-get -y update

Note that NOT ALL distributions are supported by Perforce.

If you see errors like this in your apt-get -y update output, it means that Perforce does not have a binary distribution for your OS distribution:

E: The repository 'https://package.perforce.com/apt/ubuntu bookworm Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

In this case, your $VERSION_CODENAME refers to an unsupported release.

What you need to do is try to install a package for a different distribution, preferably the most recent one for your OS that is actually supported.

For more information see Perforce Packages and the official list of supported OS Distributions.

In my case as of March 2025, debian bookworm is not supported, so I instead installed debian jammy which is a recent, compatible distribution.

Recovering from an Error

sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/perforce.list

# Set this to whatever OS distro you explicitly want to use
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/perforce.gpg] https://package.perforce.com/apt/ubuntu $VERSION_CODENAME release" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/perforce.list > /dev/null

sudo apt-get -y update

sudo apt-get -y install helix-cli

Upgrading p4 on Ubuntu Linux

At any point in the future, you can update p4 by running these commands:

# Update package versions
sudo apt-get -y update

# Upgrade helix-cli and its dependencies
sudo apt-get -y install helix-cli

How to fix expired Perforce Packaging key

The Perforce packaging key (/usr/share/keyrings/perforce.gpg) expired on August 14, 2023 UTC. It will expire again on June 11, 2026 UTC.

Whenever it expires, you need to get the new version of the key from Perforce, then update your package sources.

# Download and save the current version of the Perforce public key to local keyring
wget -qO - https://package.perforce.com/perforce.pubkey \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/perforce.gpg

# Update package versions
sudo apt-get -y update

After running the above commands, you should once again be able to upgrade the helix-cli package.

How to p4 sync a stream (git clone equivalent)

So you are ready to start working on your team’s p4 stream! Very exciting.

Set up your p4 environment variables

I recommend doing this in your ~/.bash_profile so it happens automatically every time you start a shell.

# configure this to be your team's p4d server (ask your lead)
export P4PORT="p4.your-company.com:1666"

# set this to your p4 username (we default to your Linux username)
export P4USER=`whoami`

# Name this based on your team's naming conventions
# At Xist.GG we use "project_user" with an optional "_host" at the end
export P4CLIENT="MyProject_$P4USER"

Create an new project workspace

You need to have your p4 environment set up to do this.

# Set this to whatever stream you want to work on (ask your lead)
MY_P4_STREAM="//My/Stream"

# Use whatever directory you prefer on your local workstation
MY_WORKSPACE_DIR="$HOME/dev/MyProject"

# Create the directory
mkdir -p $MY_WORKSPACE_DIR

# Login to the p4 server
p4 login

# Create a workspace on the server mapping to this directory
p4 client -i <<__EOF
Client: $P4CLIENT
Root: $MY_WORKSPACE_DIR
Stream: $MY_P4_STREAM
Owner: $P4USER
Host: `hostname`
__EOF

Sync the stream from the p4 server

You need to have your p4 environment set up to do this.

# cd to your workspace dir and sync files
cd $MY_WORKSPACE_DIR
p4 sync ... | tee .p4sync.txt

Once you start the p4 sync ... it might consume your network for a while, you’re now downloading the entire stream.

Leave that terminal alone until it finishes syncing.

See Also