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About RMAN Commands

This chapter describes the basic elements of RMAN syntax. It includes the following sections:

• Conventions Used in this Reference
• RMAN Command Entries

Conventions Used in this Reference

This section explains the conventions used in this chapter including:

• RMAN Text Conventions
• RMAN Syntax Diagrams and Notation
• RMAN Code Examples

RMAN Text Conventions

The text in this reference adheres to the following conventions:

UPPERCASE monospace	Uppercase monospace text calls attention to RMAN keywords, SQL keywords, column headings in tables and views, and initialization parameters.
lowercase monospace	Lowercase monospace text calls attention to variable text in RMAN examples.
italics	Italicized monospace text calls attention to RMAN or SQL placeholders, that is, text that should not be entered as-is but represents a value to be entered by the user.

RMAN Syntax Diagrams and Notation

This section describes the conventions for RMAN command syntax.

Syntax Diagrams

This reference uses syntax diagrams to show Recovery Manager commands. These syntax diagrams use lines and arrows to show syntactic structure, as shown in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 CATALOG Command

Text description of the illustration catalog.gif

This section describes the components of syntax diagrams and gives examples of how to write RMAN commands. Syntax diagrams are made up of these items:

• Keywords
• Placeholders

Keywords

Keywords have special meanings in Recovery Manager syntax. In the syntax diagrams, keywords appear in rectangular boxes and an uppercase font, like the word CATALOG in Figure 1-1. When used in text and code examples, RMAN keywords appear in uppercase, monospace font, for example, CATALOG DATAFILECOPY. You must use keywords in RMAN statements exactly as they appear in the syntax diagram, except that they can be either uppercase or lowercase.

The RMAN language is free-form. Keywords must be separated by at least one white space character, but otherwise there are no restrictions. A command can span multiple lines.

Placeholders

Placeholders in syntax diagrams indicate non-keywords. In the syntax diagrams, they appear in ovals, as in the word integer in Figure 1-1. When described in text, RMAN placeholders appear in lowercase italic, for example, 'filename'. Placeholders are usually:

• Names of database objects (tablespace_name)
• Oracle datatype names (date_string)
• Subclauses (datafileSpec)

When you see a placeholder in a syntax diagram, substitute an object or expression of the appropriate type in the RMAN statement. For example, to write a DUPLICATE TARGET DATABASE TO 'database_name' command, use the name of the duplicate database you want to create, such as dupdb, in place of the database_name placeholder in the diagram.

Some placeholder values are enclosed in required or optional quotes. The syntax diagrams show single quotes, though in all cases double quotes are also legal in RMAN syntax. For example, you specify either 'filename' or "filename". For the SQL command, it is recommended that you use double quotes because the SQL statement itself may also contain a quote, and the most common type of quote in a SQL statement is a single quote. Single and double quotes do not mean the same in SQL as they do in RMAN.

The only system-independent, legal environment variables in RMAN quoted strings are ? for the Oracle home and @ for the SID. However, you can use operating system specific environment variables on the target system within quoted strings. The environment variables are interpreted by the database server and not the RMAN client.

The following table shows placeholders that appear in the syntax diagrams and provides examples of the values you might substitute for them in your statements.

Placeholder	Description	Examples
Quoted strings such as 'filename', 'tablespace_name', 'channel_name', 'channel_parms'	A string of characters contained in either single or double quotes. A quoted string may contain white space, punctuation, and RMAN and SQL keywords.	"?/dbs/cf.f" 'dev1'
Nonquoted strings such as channel_id, tag_name, date_string	A sequence of characters containing no white space and no punctuation characters and starting with an alphabetic character.	ch1
integer	Any sequence of only number characters.	67843

Reserved Words

This section describes the RMAN reserved words. If you use one of these words by itself without surrounding it in quotes, then RMAN generates an error. These are examples of correct and incorrect entries:

ALLOCATE CHANNEL backup DEVICE TYPE DISK;         # incorrect
ALLOCATE CHANNEL 'backup' DEVICE TYPE DISK;       # correct
BACKUP DATABASE TAG full;                         # incorrect
BACKUP DATABASE TAG 'full';                       # correct

ABORT	CONSISTENT	FORMAT	MAXPIECESIZE	PLSQL	SETLIMIT
AFFINITY	CONTROLFILE	FROM	MAXSEQ	PLUS	SETSIZE
AFTER	CONTROLFILECOPY	FULL	MAXSETSIZE	POLICY	SHOW
ALL	COPIES	G	MAXSIZE	POOL	SHUTDOWN
ALLOCATE	COPY	GET	MISC	PRINT	SINCE
ALTER	CORRUPTION	GROUP	MOUNT	PROXY	SIZE
AND	CREATE	HIGH	MSGLOG	PUT	SKIP
APPEND	CROSSCHECK	HOST	MSGNO	QUIT	SLAXDEBUG
ARCHIVELOG	CUMULATIVE	ID	NAME	RATE	SNAPSHOT
AT	CURRENT	IDENTIFIER	NEED	RCVCAT	SPFILE
ATALL	DATABASE	IMMEDIATE	NEW	RCVMAN	SPOOL
AUTOBACKUP	DATAFILE	INACCESSIBLE	NEW-LINE	READONLY	SQL
AUTOLOCATE	DATAFILECOPY	INCARNATION	NEWNAME	READRATE	STANDBY
AUXILIARY	DAYS	INCLUDE	NOCATALOG	RECOVER	STARTUP
AUXNAME	DBA	INCREMENTAL	NOCFAU	RECOVERABLE	STEP
AVAILABLE	DBID	INPUT	NOCHECKSUM	RECOVERY	SUMMARY
BACKED	DEBUG	IO	NOEXCLUDE	REDUNDANCY	SWITCH
BACKUP	DEFAULT	JOB	NOFILENAMECHECK	REGISTER	TABLESPACE
BACKUPPIECE	DEFINE	K	NOFILEUPDATE	RELEASE	TAG
BACKUPSET	DELETE	KBYTES	NOKEEP	RELOAD	TARGET
BEFORE	DESTINATION	KEEP	NOLOGS	REMOVE	TEST
BETWEEN	DEVICE	LEVEL	NOMOUNT	RENORMALIZE	THREAD
BLOCK	DISK	LIBNAME	NONE	REPLACE	TIME
BLOCKRECOVER	DISKRATIO	LIBPARM	NOPROMPT	REPLICATE	TIMEOUT
BLOCKS	DISPLAY	LIBRARY	NOREDO	REPORT	TIMES
BY	DORECOVER	LIBTEXT	NORMAL	RESET	TO
CANCEL	DROP	LIKE	NOT	RESETLOGS	TRACE
CATALOG	DUMP	LIMIT	NULL	RESTART	TRANSACTIONAL
CHANGE	DUPLEX	LIST	OBSOLETE	RESTORE	TXT
CHANNEL	DUPLICATE	LOG	OF	RESYNC	TYPE
CHARSET	ECHO	LOGFILE	OFF	RETENTION	UNAVAILABLE
CHECK	EXCLUDE	LOGICAL	OFFLINE	REUSE	UNCATALOG
CLEAR	EXECUTE	LOGS	ON	RPC	UNLIMITED
CLONE	EXIT	LOGSCN	ONLY	RPCTEST	UNRECOVERABLE
CLONENAME	EXPIRED	LOGSEQ	OPEN	RUN	UNTIL
CLONE_CF	FILE	LOW	OPTIMIZATION	SAVE	UNUSED
CMDFILE	FILES	M	ORPHAN	SCHEMA	UP
COMMAND	FILESPERSET	MAINTENANCE	PACKAGES	SCN	UPGRADE
COMPATIBLE	FINAL	MASK	PARALLELISM	SCRIPT	VALIDATE
COMPLETED	FOR	MAXCORRUPT	PARMS	SEND	VERBOSE
CONFIGURE	FORCE	MAXDAYS	PFILE	SEQUENCE	WINDOW
CONNECT	FOREVER	MAXOPENFILES	PIPE	SET

RMAN Code Examples

This reference contains many examples of RMAN commands. These examples show you how to use elements of RMAN. This example shows the use of a BACKUP command:

RUN
{
  ALLOCATE CHANNEL ch1 DEVICE TYPE sbt;
  BACKUP DATABASE;
} 

Note that examples are set off from the text and appear in a monospace font.

RMAN Command Entries

The description of each command or subclause contains the following sections:

Syntax	Shows the keywords and parameters that make up the statement.
	Note: Not all keywords and parameters are valid in all circumstances. Be sure to refer to the "Keywords and Parameters" section of each statement to learn about any restrictions on the syntax.
Purpose	Describes the basic uses of the statement.
Restrictions and Usage Notes	Lists requirements, restrictions, and guidelines for proper use of the command.
Keywords and Parameters	Describes the purpose of each keyword and parameter. Restrictions and usage notes also appear in this section.
Examples	Shows how to use various clauses and options of the statement.
	Note: Optional sections following the examples provide more information on how and when to use the statement.