Descriptions of Subcommands


The following sections describe the different kinds of multitool subcommands.

Replica Creation, Synchronization, and Management Commands

The commands in Table 7 create new replicas, change replica characteristics, and synchronize replicas.

Table 7 Replica Creation, Synchronization, and Management Commands
Command
Description
chreplica
Changes the properties of a replica
lspacket
Lists one or more packet files created by mkreplica or syncreplica
lsreplica
Lists one or more replicas
mkreplica
Creates a new replica
rmreplica
Removes a replica
syncreplica
Synchronizes a replica with one or more replicas in its family

Object Mastership Commands

To avoid introducing conflicting changes at different replicas, certain objects are assigned a master replica (master). The initial master of an object is the replica where the object is created. For more information about mastership, see Enabling Independent Development: Mastership. Table 8 lists the commands you can use to manage mastership.

Table 8 Object Mastership Commands  
Command
Description
chmaster
Transfers mastership of an object
lsmaster
Lists objects mastered by a replica
reqmaster
Requests mastership or set access controls for mastership requests

Failure Recovery Commands

Each replica uses an epoch number matrix to track its own state and the state of all other replicas. (Because replicas are always changing, a replica knows what changes have been made to itself, but it has only an estimate of the states of other replicas.) Each time a replica sends an update packet, it updates its own epoch number matrix, under the assumption that the packet will be delivered to its destinations and applied to the appropriate replicas. For more information, see The Operation Log.

Use the failure-recovery commands in Table 9 when this assumption of successful delivery does not hold true.

Table 9 Failure-Recovery Commands  
Command
Description
chepoch
Changes a replica’s epoch number matrix
lsepoch
Lists a replica’s epoch number matrix
recoverpacket
Resets a replica’s epoch number matrix so lost packets are resent (required when a packet is lost or unusable)
restorereplica
Restores a replica from backup. This command places a replica in a special state, in which it sends epoch number matrix corrections to other replicas. The replica cannot be used for normal development work until it receives special updates that inform it of the current states of other replicas.

multitool Utility Commands

The commands in Table 10 are also cleartool commands and are documented only in the Command Reference, except for apropos, which is also documented in this manual.

Table 10 multitool Utility Commands
Command
Description
apropos
(UNIX) Displays multitool command information
cd
Changes current working directory
describe
Describes a replica’s VOB database object
help
Displays multitool command syntax
man
Displays a MultiSite reference page
pwd
Prints working directory
quit
Ends interactive multitool session
rename
Renames a replica
shell
Creates subprocess to run shell or program