Unexpected behaviour from git p4 clone

General
1

Looking for help in migrating from Perforce to Git. I’m new to git.

I am running Windows 11 and using the following command line for Perforce various depots paths, to varying levels of success:

git p4 clone --detect-branches --import-labels depot_path@all

Issues:

Although git p4 console output appears to show the labels being imported – they do not seem to be in the git repository

Branches do not appear to be imported. The git console output shows them being imported but my output directory only contains a .git folder. However, the branch names appear as 1K files in the .git\refs\remotes\p4 and .git\logs\refs\remotes\p4 directories.

In another case when branches not imported … Perforce depot structure example

Test | +-- A | | | + A1 | | | + A2 | +-- B | | | + B1 | | | + B2 | | +-- C | | | + C1 | | | + C2

git p4 clone --detect-branches --import-labels \depot\Test@all

git console output showed all branches being imported. However my output directory only contains .git, A1 and A2 folders.

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks

2

Command Used:

git p4 clone --detect-branches --import-labels //depot/Test@all

Problems You’re Seeing:

  1. No visible branches or files except .git and a few folders.
  2. Labels shown in output but not visible in Git.
  3. Only some folders like A1, A2 appear, rest missing.

What’s Actually Happening:

  • git p4 does import branches and labels, but:
    • Branches are in refs/remotes/p4/ – you need to create local branches from them.
    • Labels go into Git as tags but may not show if Perforce labels don’t map cleanly.

What You Need To Do (Step-by-Step):

  1. After cloning:
    Go into the .git directory with branches stored in:
.git/refs/remotes/p4/
  1. Create local branches manually:
    Run this for each branch:
git checkout -b mybranch p4/mybranch

Or to list and automate:

for b in $(git for-each-ref --format='%(refname:strip=3)' refs/remotes/p4/); do
    git branch "$b" "p4/$b"
done
  1. To see tags (labels):
    Run:
git tag

If no tags appear, it means:

  • Labels didn’t match any commit exactly
  • Or --import-labels had no effect due to label format in Perforce

Tips:

  • Use --verbose or --debug if something seems off.
  • If depot structure is deeply nested (like Test/A/A1), you may need to flatten or script the import.
  • git p4 sync can be used later to pull updates.

Summary:

Issue Fix/Explanation
Branches not visible Checkout manually from refs/remotes/p4/*
Labels not visible May not map correctly; check with git tag
Only .git seen Normal for empty checkout; branches are inside .git
Complex structure Handle per subfolder if needed or script imports

Let me know if you want a script to automate these steps.