Perforce submit edited source file and branch/integrate/merge/copy from same source file in one changelist

Question

Suppose we have a single text file in 2 branches:

//depot/work/branch1/file.txt
//depot/work/branch2/file.txt

We also have a central source file here that both branches depend on.

//depot/work/ImportantFile.txt

I make local edits to ImportantFile.txt and branch1/file.txt, but I also want to duplicate those edits to branch2/file.txt because ImportantFile.txt now expects all branches of file.txt to conform to a certain specification. As far as I know I have only 2 options, neither of which are ideal:

1. Manually make the same edits on both files and submit both changes in a single changelist. The problem with this, is that I would like P4 history to know that these files are still 100% integrated, but the history will show that they were edited independently.
2. Only make edits to branch1/file.txt, submit just this file as well as ImportantFile.txt in one changelist, then immediately integrate the change to branch2/file.txt in a 2nd changelist. Now the problem is that I've broken the build for a minute or two until branch2/file.txt gets the required changes.

How can I edit a file, and directly integrate those edits to another file before I submit those edits to the first file?

Answer 1

First off: you may already know this (and have had to make peace with it for reasons beyond your control) but:

ImportantFile.txt should not be outside of your branching structure. If your versioned files depend on it, it needs to be versioned itself, and that means it needs to exist independently in each branch, because branches are a part of your versioning scheme. Alternatively, maybe file.txt should not be branched, if it's required that it be identical in all branches at all times -- why branch something that's not allowed to diverge? But I suspect that just branching everything is the better solution.

Now for the workaround. (If you can't fix the root cause as described above, you've probably got a lot of this sort of thing in your future.)

p4 copy //depot/work/ImportantFile.txt //depot/work/NotABranch/ImportantFile.txt
p4 copy //depot/work/branch1/file.txt //depot/work/NotABranch/file.txt
p4 submit -d "Not a branch!  (wink)"

Make your edits in //depot/work/NotABranch and submit them. Nothing is broken because, as stated, this is not a branch, and so it's exempt from whatever policy it is that forces all branches to move in lockstep. Now you can do:

p4 integ //depot/work/NotABranch/ImportantFile.txt //depot/work/ImportantFile.txt
p4 integ //depot/work/NotABranch/file.txt //depot/work/branch1/file.txt
p4 integ //depot/work/NotABranch/file.txt //depot/work/branch2/file.txt
p4 resolve
p4 submit

The merge history shows that both branches of file.txt were pure merges from a single common source, and so future integrations between the two should recognize that they don't need to be re-merged.