git-p4 useclientspec broken?

Since I've upgraded to 1.7.9 (on OS X Lion, FWIW), git-p4 submit fails to apply any patches if I use useclientspec=true when cloning.

My p4 client is as follows:

Client: malibu
(...)
Root: /Users/lcharriere/Documents/Perforce/all
(...)
View:

	//sandbox/... //malibu/sandbox/...
	//depot/... //malibu/depot/...

Sequence of steps to reproduce:

$ git p4 clone //sandbox/lcharriere/foo --use-client-spec
$ cd foo && find .
./.git
(...)
./sandbox/lcharriere/foo/.gitignore
./sandbox/lcharriere/foo/foo.py

-- This is new behavior to me, BTW. Previously, I would have seen ./.git
(...)
./.gitignore
./foo.py

$ cat "test" >> sandbox/lcharriere/foo/.gitignore
$ git commit -a -m "test"
git commit -a -m "test"
[master 7398144] test
 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
$ git p4 submit
Perforce checkout for depot path //sandbox/lcharriere/foo/ located at /Users/lcharriere/Documents/Perforce/all/sandbox/lcharriere/foo/
Synchronizing p4 checkout...
... - file(s) up-to-date.
Applying 739814457a8faa84dc0bddd830f671569576b177 test

sandbox/lcharriere/foo/.gitignore - file(s) not on client.
error: sandbox/lcharriere/foo/.gitignore: No such file or directory
Unfortunately applying the change failed!
What do you want to do?
[s]kip this patch / [a]pply the patch forcibly and with .rej files / [w]rite the patch to a file (patch.txt)

I tried to follow what's going on with pdb:
* self.depotPath is //sandbox/lcharriere/foo, so git-p4 chdir's to /Users/lcharriere/Documents/Perforce/all/sandbox/lcharriere/foo/
* In P4Submit.applyCommit, line 926 is:
p4_edit(path)
At this point path is 'sandbox/lcharriere/foo/.gitignore'

I'm guessing this is why the p4 executable doesn't find it. The path should be .gitignore. Is it possible that the new behavior I mentioned above of reproducing the depot hierarchy when useclientspec is true is having unintended side effects, or is a bug?

[email protected] wrote on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:47 -0800:

I did try to clean up our handling of --use-client-spec. This behavior was done on purpose, but maybe I didn't the implications on people who were relying on the old way. In particular the behavior of multi-line view specs and those with + and - was largely unpredictable.

The client spec now has absolute control over what files get put where in the git repo, just like in p4. The argument "//sandbox/lcharriere/foo" in your clone command limits the scope of what is checked out, but does not affect where it is placed.

You can get the git layout you expect with this view:

    //sandbox/lcharriere/foo/... //malibu/...

or simply just don't use --use-client-spec at all:

git p4 clone //sandbox/lcharriere/foo

Is this new behavior bad for you? Suggestions welcome.

This is definitely a bug. I reproduced a similar problem.

The path should be plain old ".gitignore", as you noticed.

I'll get a patch out tonight or soon. Need to do gobs of testing on the submit path to make sure nothing else is broken.

		-- Pete

...

...

I like the new behavior just fine. I think it's more consistent with how p4 operates. I just wanted to point out the change in behavior, because I had not seen it called out, and it seemed relevant to my bug report.
The only disadvantage of the new behavior, IMHO, is the associated transition. When If you have an 'old-style' repo and do a git p4 rebase with 1.7.9, you find yourself in a situation where files are in two location, e.g. ./gitignore and ./sandbox/lcharriere/foo/.gitignore. So really you need to re-clone from p4. Not a big deal, but it is a little surprising.

...

Thanks, I appreciate your prompt reply.