When working with cloud nodes (where the node may only exist for a single build before being replaced), the Auto cleanup and sync and Sync only populate options can lead to errors where files are not appropriately synced from Perforce Helix.
- With Auto cleanup and sync, use of p4 resolve prior to p4 sync can lead to spurious errors "cannot clobber writable file" because the havelist doesn't match what exists in the workspace (because the workspace is empty from being on a brand new node).
- With Sync only, Perforce relies on the inaccurate havelist and only syncs new files, leading to all other files being missing from the build.
The only option that works reliably for us right now is the "not recommended" Forced clean and sync. This, however, is overkill, because I don't actually need to wipe out the workspace because I already know it to be empty.
It would be very nice to have an option to "Flush and sync only" that runs only flush -f and sync -pf. Thereby, the inaccurate havelist could be bypassed entirely without the extra overhead of reset, sync #none, and rm.