Perforce p4 “describe” command does not display affected files

Question

When “p4 describe change list” is displayed, the affected files are sometimes displayed; sometimes they are not there and just show:

Affected Files ...

Does anyone know why this is?

Answer 1

Most likely, the explanation: you do not have “list” permissions for the affected files. The document for p4 protect explains the corresponding rights.

For example, if you have a list but do not have read permissions, p4 describe will be displayed:

 Affected files: //depot/path/to/file Difference: ... 

Similarly, if the rights to list also missing, p4 describe will have the output you saw. Consult with the Perforce administrator what rights are reserved for the corresponding depot path (let him release p4 describe for the specified checklist :))

Answer 2

If the change list contains only complete files, you will see this behavior. For instance:

 d:\projects>p4 describe -s 925745 Change 925745 by [e-mail] on 2011/08/11 07:48:04 *pending* New SDK Affected files ... 

but since I have files that are pending, I can use the -S option to describe files that are pending.

 d:\projects>p4 describe -S -s 925745 Change 925745 by [e-mail] on 2011/08/11 07:48:04 *pending* New SDK Shelved files ... ... //path/to/fileA#8 edit ... //path/to/fileB#11 edit ... //path/to/fileC#1 edit ... //path/to/fileD#3 edit 

In addition, it will not display files unless there are actually files in the change list, which may be the case for pending change lists. Note that the first line of the output described above indicates the expectation, which means that this list of changes has not yet been submitted. Pending change lists can be empty, contain files, contain files and files with shelves, or only pending files. Depending on this state, the "p4 describe" output may not show files.

Answer 3

Another possibility: files or file changes have been erased.

Obliterating may leave submitted change lists that do not reference files.