Descriptions of Subcommands


The following sections describe the different kinds of multiutil subcommands.

Replica Creation, Synchronization, and Management Commands

The commands in Table 5 create new replicas, change replica characteristics, and synchronize replicas.

Table 5 Replica Creation, Synchronization, and Management Commands
Command
Description
activate
Prepares a database set to be replicated
chreplica
Changes the properties of a replica
dumpoplog
Displays the contents of a replica’s oplog
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
scruboplog
Deletes oplog entries
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 6 lists the commands you can use to manage mastership.

Table 6 Object Mastership Commands  
Command
Description
chmaster
Transfers mastership of an object
describe
Lists the master replica of an object

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 7 when this assumption of successful delivery does not hold true.

Table 7 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.

multiutil Utility Commands

These multiutil commands perform miscellaneous tasks.

Table 8 multiutil Utility Commands
Command
Description
cd
Changes current working directory
exit
Ends interactive multiutil session
help
Displays multiutil command syntax
man
Displays a reference page on Windows. On UNIX, displays command syntax.
quit
Ends interactive multiutil session