Filer Command Types
There are three general types of Filer commands:
- Global commands can be run from any Filer prompt. They display information (help, Filer defaults, current date and time), determine how Filer runs (redirect output and input, set numeric format for output and input, enable and disable Filer features, set the priority of the Filer process), and exit the Filer program.
- Upper-level commands can be run from any Filer prompt. They direct Filer to display a specific object in the file system, for example a cylinder index. The Filer prompt changes to reflect the object type, for example CI for cylinder index. While the prompt shows a particular object type, Filer accepts commands specific to objects at that level.
Most upper-level commands require one or more parameters that specify the particular object on which to act. For example, each cylinder index is specified by a unique cylinder ID (cylid). Filer remembers the specifications and continues to act on the same object until either new parameters are entered that identify a different object at the same level, or a command is entered that switches Filer to a different level in the file system hierarchy.
- Lower-level commands manipulate the currently selected file system object. These commands behave slightly differently, depending on the currently selected object type. While some of these commands are harmless, such as DISPLAY, DROP, NEXT and PREVIOUS, others manipulate file system data that is critical to the operation of the system.
You should be completely familiar with file system concepts and architecture before using the lower-level commands. Improper use of these commands can seriously damage your system.
Hex Dumps Format
Some Filer commands display disk content as a “hex dump” of the byte values recorded on the disk. Hex dumps are displayed in hexadecimal format, regardless of the radix output setting. For example:
0000: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07.08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F *................* 0010: 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27.28 29 2A 2B 2C 2D 2E 2F * !"$%&’()*+,-./ * 0020: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17.18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F *................*
The hexadecimal number in the first column represents the offset of the rest of the row from the beginning of the file segment. In the example, the 0020 in the first column of the third row means that the character that follows, having a hex value of 10, is 0020 bytes (32 bytes in decimal notation) from the beginning of the segment. The last column in the row, delimited by stars at each end, shows the ASCII representation of the hexadecimal numbers displayed in the row.
List of Commands
Filer presents a command-line environment that allows the entry of the following Filer commands, which are discussed in more detail in the sections that follow.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| ACCESS | Accesses a specific copy of a CI or DB segment located on DISK, DRAM, or is the LATEST. |
| ALTCI | Makes the non-active CI copy the active copy, and the formerly active copy the non-active copy. |
| ALTWCI | Makes the non-active WCI copy the active copy, and the formerly active copy the non-active copy. |
| ASSIGN | Assigns a repaired cylinder back to a specified AMP and storage type. Normally used after a cylinder that is in the bad list or quarantine list has been repaired. |
| BADLIST | Displays list of bad cylinders, scans them for preliminary diagnosis, initializes and releases unrepairable cylinders back to storage. |
| BLK | Selects the segment that starts at the specified cylinder and sector number, determines the type of block, and displays it accordingly. |
| CHECKSUM | Validates, displays, and optionally repairs the checksum for a DB, WDB, CI, or WCI segment. |
| CI | Selects and displays the Cylinder Index (CI) segment for the specified cylinder. |
| CID | Selects and displays the Cylinder Index Descriptor (CID) for the specified cylinder. |
| CLEAREIOCACHE | Clears the EIO cache. The EIO cache is an additional, fast, read-only I/O cache that exists between the PDE FSG cache and the disk storage subsystem on some platforms. |
| DATE/TIME | Displays the current system day, date, and time. |
| DB | Selects and displays the Data Block (DB) segment that starts at the specified cylinder and sector number. |
| DBD | Displays the Data Block Descriptors (DBDs) of the current cylinder. |
| DBROW | Displays the physical rows of a DB. |
| DELETE | Deletes the currently selected object or range of objects, including all descendants and antecedents. |
| DEPOT | Displays cylinder summary information for cylinders in the Depot, or block summary information for blocks in a particular Depot cylinder. |
| DISABLE | Sets a specific flag in the file system to FALSE, disabling certain features of Filer. Most such flags are for internal use only. |
| DISCARD | Discards a rebuilt CI in memory without affecting the original CI. |
| DISCARD | Shows a formatted display of the currently selected object or range of objects. If you specify an ordinalrange, then DISPLAY shows a related object or range. |
| DROP | Drops the access on the current object and returns to the default prompt. |
| DUMPDISK | Selects the disk segment that starts at the specified cylinder and sector number, determines the type of block, and displays it accordingly. |
| ENABLE | Sets a specific flag in the file system to TRUE, enabling certain features of Filer. Most such flags are for internal use only. |
| ERRORS | Redirects diagnostic messages to a file that you specify or to the default file, stderr. |
| FIB | Displays the File Information Block (FIB) and information about cylinder usage. |
| FIND | Given the table and optional ridrange, displays the cylinders containing the range. |
| FREECACHE | Displays the status of the free cylinder cache. |
| HELP | Provides context sensitive help for Filer commands. |
| IDENT | Identifies the objects in the specified sectors, and displays the properties of the objects. |
| INFO | Displays details of a rebuilt CI that is still in memory, not yet written to disk. |
| INIT | Initializes the current cylinder or range of cylinders to free. |
| INPUT | Directs Filer to read commands from a specified file rather than from the default input file, stdin. |
| MAP | Provides information about a specified contiguous or sparse map. |
| MEMBLK | Accesses the file system segment at the specified memory address, determines the type of the segment, and returns a formatted display of the segment. |
| MEMCTX | Returns a formatted display of a file system context structure (ctxcontext_t) beginning at the specified memory address. |
| MEMDB | Returns a formatted display of a DB beginning at the specified memory address. |
| MEMDUMP | Dumps memory in the hexadecimal format, starting at the specified location for a specified length of bytes. |
| MEMROW | Formats a row beginning at the specified memory address. |
| MEMSORCTX | Returns a formatted display of a context structure (sorcontext_t) beginning at the specified memory address. |
| MEMWCTX | Returns a formatted display of a context structure (wtjcontext_t) beginning at the specified memory address. |
| MEMWDB | Returns a formatted display of a WDB beginning at the specified memory address. |
| MEMWREC | Formats a WAL log record beginning at the specified memory address. |
| MI | Selects and displays the Master Index (MI). |
| MODIFY REDO | Replays the specified WAL log records, or defines whether or not to replay the WAL log records during the next file system startup. |
| NEXT | Displays the next row, WAL log record, DB, WDB, DBD, WDBD, CI, WCI, CID, WCID or subtable. |
| OUTPUT | Redirects Filer output to a file you specify or to the default file, stdout. |
| PACK | Packs the segment to eliminate fragmentation. |
| PATCH | Modifies file system segments and other objects in memory. |
| PREV | Displays a previous row, WAL log record, DB, WDB, DBD, WDBD, CI, WCI, CID, WCID or subtable. |
| PRIORITY | Sets the priority class of the Filer process. |
| QUARLIST | Displays list of quarantined cylinders, scans them for preliminary diagnosis, initializes and releases unrepairable cylinders back to storage. |
| QUIT | Ends a Filer session. |
| RADIX | Sets the default radix (decimal or hexadecimal) used as the numeric base for Filer data input and output. |
| REALLOCDUR | Reallocates durable cylinders. |
| REBUILDCI | Rebuilds the cylinder index for a specified cylinder. |
| REBUILDMAP | Rebuilds the map of allocated cylinders. |
| RENAME | Renames the currently selected segment to the specified location on the disk. |
| REPAIRSECTS | Deletes specified overlapping data blocks from rebuilt CIs in memory. |
| RESETFREECYL | Resets the file system internal free cylinder count back to the correct value. |
| ROW | Displays physical rows from one or more subtables. For a single subtable, ROW sets the context to those rows. |
| ROW | Verifies the integrity of the file system. |
| SCOPE (or VPROC) | Selects a set of vprocs that Filer will communicate with until Filer quits or a different set of vprocs is selected. |
| SEGZERO (or SEG0) | Selects and displays Segment Zero (0). |
| SET FREECYL | Sets the file system internal Free Cylinder count to the specified number. |
| SHOWDEFAULTS | Displays the default settings and the saved context. |
| SNAPMI | Selects and displays the snapshot MI. |
| SRD | Returns a formatted display of all the Subtable Descriptors (SRDs) on the current CI that have any rows from the specified subtable tid. If tid is not specified, then all SRDs are displayed. |
| STAMP | Takes five hexadecimal numbers and converts them to a file system timestamp. |
| STORAGEINFO | Displays per-AMP system control information for storage. |
| SYNCSCAN | Shows all currently running scans on an AMP that are eligible for the synchronized full file scan feature. |
| TABLE | Displays rows from the subtable specified by tid. |
| TABLEID | Displays the table number of a specified table. |
| TRACEPRINT | Dumps the internal trace buffer of the file system. The cylid limits the display to entries to that cylinder. |
| TRASH | Removes the FSG name of the copy of the currently selected segment in memory, and retains access to it. |
| VPROC | Selects a set of vprocs that Filer will communicate with until Filer quits or a different set of vprocs is selected. |
| WABC | Displays the WAL Append Buffer Control (WABC) structure. |
| WAL | Displays Write Ahead Logging (WAL) log records in an ordinal record number range, such as the 10th through the 20th WAL log records. |
| WCI | Selects and displays the WAL Cylinder Index (WCI). |
| WCID | Selects and displays the WAL Cylinder Index Descriptor (WCID) associated with the requested WAL log cylinder. |
| WDB | Selects and displays the WAL Data Block (WDB) segment that starts at the specified cylinder and sector number. |
| WDBD | Displays the WAL Data Block Descriptors (WDBDs) of a WAL log cylinder. |
| WDBREC | Displays WAL log records for a WDB. |
| WFIND | Displays the WAL log cylinders containing WAL log records in a given range, or if no range is specified, then all of the WAL log cylinders. |
| WFLUSH | Manually force some or all of the WAL log records in memory to disk. |
| WMI | Returns a formatted display of the WAL Master Index (WMI). |
| WREC | Displays the WAL log records within a given range and within the restrictions of the whereclause. |
| WRITE | Forces the currently selected segment to disk. |
| WSUMMARY | Retrieves table IDs from WAL records within a given WAL log sequence number (WLSN) range. |