[p4] Version ... Everything?

Posted on behalf of forum user 'Toddius Zho'.

Milestone 1: Version Only Sources

In my organization, we version sources used to create deployable things --
scripts, applications, plugins, etc. We typically then transfer these
"built" artifacts into target machines and destinations. Maybe there
is a formal install, or maybe it's just drag 'n drop. 

Milestone 2: Version Deployables

Lately, we've progressed to putting the deployable artifacts themselves into
Perforce. The target machines now have direct access to our P4PORT and can then
just pull down what it needs. Perforce itself becomes a distribution channel.
P4ROOT on these machines are in a clean staging area. They can install the
artifact from that location to a different destination area.

Milestone 3: Version Configuration

The amount of configuration that must be done outside of an application is
starting to become overwhelming. There is setup of environment variables,
bootstrapping of JVMs, optimizing application servers and daemons, etc. It would
be nice to version these files, too, but they don't exist (nor should they?)
under P4ROOT. How do you version things like:

/etc/profile.d/custom.sh /etc/init.d/my-home-grown-service

We try to make these things as parameterizable as possible, but sooner or later
you have to stick a  machine-specific  value into a file that also exists on