P4 plugin throws a null pointer exception causing job failure when running a "p4 -s users <deleted-user>" where <deleted-user> is a once active, now deleted account. The only workaround appears to be to recreate the deleted account which consumes a Perforce license. I have verified this workaround twice with two different deleted accounts.

Example failure output:

Started by user cmteam
Building in workspace /var/opt/jenkins-data/jobs/some-deploy/workspace
Using master perforce client: ciqa-some-deploy
[workspace] $ p4 workspace -o ciqa-some-deploy
Saving modified client ciqa-some-deploy
[workspace] $ p4 -s client -i
Clearing workspace...
Note: .repository directory in workspace (if exists) is skipped.
Cleared workspace.
Last build changeset: 79972
[workspace] $ p4 -s changes -s submitted -m 1 //ciqa-some-deploy/...@somelabel-4.1.0.0
[workspace] $ p4 -s changes -s submitted //ciqa-some-deploy/...@79973,@85075
[workspace] $ p4 describe -s 85075
[workspace] $ p4 -G where //...
[workspace] $ p4 describe -s 85012
[workspace] $ p4 describe -s 85005
[workspace] $ p4 describe -s 84668
<snip>
[workspace] $ p4 describe -s 81052
[workspace] $ p4 describe -s 81031
[workspace] $ p4 describe -s 81029
[workspace] $ p4 -s users valid-user-1
[workspace] $ p4 user -o valid-user-1
[workspace] $ p4 -s users valid-user-2
[workspace] $ p4 user -o valid-user-2
[workspace] $ p4 -s users deleted-user
FATAL: null
java.lang.NullPointerException
at hudson.plugins.perforce.PerforceSCM.retrieveUserInformation(PerforceSCM.java:633)
at hudson.plugins.perforce.PerforceSCM.checkout(PerforceSCM.java:816)
at hudson.model.AbstractProject.checkout(AbstractProject.java:1197)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.checkout(AbstractBuild.java:579)
at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractRunner.run(AbstractBuild.java:468)
at hudson.model.Run.run(Run.java:1410)
at hudson.maven.MavenModuleSetBuild.run(MavenModuleSetBuild.java:481)
at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:88)
at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:238)
And of course the job fails at this point.

Note that "p4 -s users deleted-user"
returns
error: deleted-user - no such user(s).
exit: 0

while "p4 -s users valid-user"
returns
info: valid-user <valid-user@my.company.com> (Valid User) accessed 2012/03/29
exit: 0