APPEND

Causes new output to be appended to the end of the message log file. If you do not specify this parameter, and if a file with the same name as the message log file exists, then RMAN overwrites it.

CHECKSYNTAX

Causes RMAN to start in a mode in which commands entered are checked for syntax errors, but no other processing is performed (see Example 3-51). If used with a CMDFILE or @ argument, then the RMAN client starts, checks all commands in the file, then exits. If used without specifying a command file, then RMAN prompts the user for input and parses each command until the user exits the RMAN client.

RMAN reports an RMAN-0558 error for each command that is not syntactically correct.

AUXILIARY connectStringSpec

Specifies a connect string to an auxiliary database, for example, AUXILIARY sbu@dupdb.

See Also: connectStringSpec

CATALOG connectStringSpec

Specifies a connect string to the database containing the recovery catalog, for example, CATALOG rco@inst2.

See Also: connectStringSpec

CMDFILE filename

Parses and compiles all RMAN commands in a file and then sequentially executes each command in the file. RMAN exits if it encounters a syntax error during the parse phase or if it encounters a runtime error during the execution phase. If no errors are found, then RMAN exits after the job completes.

If the first character of the file name is alphabetic, then you can omit the quotes around the file name. The contents of the command file are identical to commands entered at the RMAN prompt.

Note: If you run a command file at the RMAN prompt rather than as an option on the operating system command line, then RMAN does not run the file as a single job. RMAN reads each line sequentially and executes it, only exiting when it reaches the last line of the script.

@filename

Equivalent to CMDFILE.

Equivalent to options specified after USING syntax.

LOG filename

Specifies the file where RMAN records its output, that is, the commands that were processed and their results. RMAN displays command input at the prompt but does not display command output, which is written to the log file. By default RMAN writes its message log file to standard output.

RMAN output is also stored in the V$RMAN_OUTPUT view, which is a memory-only view for jobs in progress, and in V$RMAN_STATUS, which is a control file view for completed jobs and jobs in progress.

The LOG parameter does not cause RMAN to terminate if the specified file cannot be opened. Instead, RMAN writes to standard output.

Note: The easiest way to send RMAN output both to a log file and to standard output is to use the Linux tee command or its equivalent. For example:

% rman | tee rman.log

MSGNO

Causes RMAN to print message numbers, that is, RMAN-xxxx, for the output of all commands. By default, RMAN does not print the RMAN-xxxx prefix.

NOCATALOG

Indicates that you are using RMAN without a recovery catalog.

SEND 'command'

Sends a vendor-specific command string to all allocated channels.

See Also: Your media management documentation to determine whether this feature is supported, and SEND

PIPE pipe_name

Invokes the RMAN pipe interface. RMAN uses two public pipes: one for receiving commands and the other for sending output. The names of the pipes are derived from the value of the PIPE parameter. For example, you can invoke the RMAN pipe interface with the following options: PIPE rpi TARGET /.

RMAN opens the following pipes in the target database:

• ORA$RMAN_RPI_IN, which RMAN uses to receive user commands

• ORA$RMAN_RPI_OUT, which RMAN uses to send all output

All messages on both the input and output pipes are of type VARCHAR2.

See Also: Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User’s Guide to learn how to pass commands to RMAN through a pipe

SCRIPT script_name

Specifies the name of a stored script.

After connecting to a target database and recovery catalog (which must be specified with the TARGET and CATALOG options), RMAN runs the named stored script from the recovery catalog against the target database. If both a global script and a local stored script exist on the target database with the name script_name, then RMAN runs the local script.

The single quotes around the stored script name are required when the script name either begins with a number or is an RMAN reserved word (see "RMAN Reserved Words"). Avoid using such names.

See Also: CREATE SCRIPT for more details about stored scripts

TARGET connectStringSpec

Specifies a connect string to the target database, for example, TARGET /.

See Also: connectStringSpec

TIMEOUT integer

Causes RMAN to exit automatically if it does not receive input from an input pipe within integer seconds. The PIPE parameter must be specified when using TIMEOUT.

See Also: Oracle Database Backup and Recovery User’s Guide to learn how to pass commands to RMAN through a pipe

USING {string_or_identifier | integer}

Specifies one or more values for use in substitution variables in a command file. As in SQL*Plus, &1 indicates where to place the first value, &2 indicate where to place the second value, and so on. Example 3-50 illustrates how to pass values specified in a USING clause to an RMAN command file.

The substitution variable syntax is &integer followed by an optional dot, for example, &1.3. The optional dot is part of the variable and replaced with the value, thus enabling the substitution text to be immediately followed by another integer. For example, if you pass the value mybackup to a command file that contains the substitution variable &1.3, then the result of the substitution is mybackup3.

See Also: EXECUTE SCRIPT to learn how to specify the USING clause when executing a stored script