Perforce p4 "describe" command does not list affected files

When "p4 describe changelist#" is issued, sometimes the affected files are listed; sometimes they are not and just show:

Affected files ...

Anyone knows wh开发者_运维技巧y that is?

Most likely explanation: You do not have 'list' rights for the affected files. The docu for p4 protect explains the respective rights.

For example, if you have list, but no read rights, p4 describe will output:

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

Likewise, if the list right is also missing, p4 describe will have the output that you saw. Check with your Perforce admin what the rights are for the respective depot path (let him issue p4 describe for the mentioned checklist :))

If the changelist only contains shelved files, you will see that behavior. For example:

d:\projects>p4 describe -s 925745
Change 925745 by mark.allender@client-mark.allender on 2011/08/11 07:48:04 *pending*

      New SDK

Affected files ...

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

d:\projects>p4 describe -S -s 925745
Change 925745 by mark.allender@client-mark.allender 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

Also, it will display no files if there are indeed no files in the changelist, which might be the case for pending changelists. Notice that the first line of the describe output above says pending, which means that this changelist hasn't been submitted yet. Pending changelists can be empty, contain files, contain files and shelved file, or only shelved files. Depending on that state, the output of 'p4 describe' might not show any files.

Another possibility: files or file revisions have been obliterated.

Obliterating can leave submitted changelists that refer to no files.