have to set port every time in command line when trying to trigger any Perforce command

Question

I'm new to Perforce, need to work in command line, i'm so confused why all the commands on the tutorial websites all write like $p4 command, but I have to add the port every time when try to trigger that command, for an example, for $p4 sync, i have to type $p4 -p myhost:myport sync every time even after I logged in, if i missed the host and port, like if i just typing $p4 sync, the program will just hang in there... anyone can provide some suggestions?

Answer 1

Type:

p4 set P4PORT=myhost:myport

From that point on, "myhost:myport" will be used as the P4PORT when you run commands.

If you use multiple workspaces/servers, P4CONFIG files make it easy to have different sets of settings (based on your working directory), but for a single value, "p4 set" is a nice persistent one-shot method.

Answer 2

There are a couple ways to make myhost:1666 the default. These are, in the order of decreasing precedence:

1. command-line options (like -p myhost:1666)
2. the P4CONFIG file
3. environment variables (%P4PORT%)
4. on Windows, the registry (use p4 set P4PORT=myhost:1666 to set it)

See the docs here.

In your case, I guess the registry (if on Windows) or the env. var. (if on Linux) is the best option.