PT-REPLICA-FIND(1)

📦
version 3.7.1_4 · 4 versions
, in arch rolling

✨ pt-replica-find(1) ✨ — find & print your MySQL replica hierarchy, bestie 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

pt-replica-find — find and print the replication hierarchy tree of MySQL replicas. It’s literally the tool that maps out who’s replicating from whom. 🫶

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

Usage: pt-replica-find [OPTIONS] [DSN]

pt-replica-find finds and prints a hierarchy tree of MySQL replicas. ✨

Examples:

pt-replica-find --host source-host

🚨 RISKS 🚨

Percona Toolkit is mature, proven in the real world, and well tested, but all database tools can pose a risk to the system and the database server. Before using this tool, please:

  • Read the tool’s documentation
  • Review the tool’s known BUGS
  • Test the tool on a non-production server
  • Backup your production server and verify the backups
Bestie, please don’t skip the backup check. The vibes are only immaculate when the backups are verified. 💖

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

pt-replica-find connects to a MySQL replication source and finds its replicas. Currently the only thing it can do is print a tree-like view of the replication hierarchy. 🌈

The source host can be specified using one of two methods. The first method is to use the standard connection-related command line options: --defaults-file, --password, --host, --port, --socket or --user.

The second method to specify the source host is a DSN. A DSN is a special syntax that can be either just a hostname (like server.domain.com or 1.2.3.4), or a key=value,key=value string. Keys are a single letter:

  • h — Connect to host
  • P — Port number to use for connection
  • S — Socket file to use for connection
  • u — User for login if not current user
  • p — Password to use when connecting
  • F — Only read default options from the given file

pt-replica-find reads all normal MySQL option files, such as ~/.my.cnf, so you may not need to specify username, password and other common options at all. It’s giving “the config already knows, bestie.” 🎀

🚪 EXIT STATUS 🚪

An exit status of 0 (sometimes also called a return value or return code) indicates success. Any other value represents the exit status of the Perl process itself. So 0 is the slay, anything else is the “check the logs” moment. 😭

💅 OPTIONS 💅

This tool accepts additional command-line arguments. Refer to the SYNOPSIS and usage information for details.

  • --ask-pass — Prompt for a password when connecting to MySQL.
  • --[no]buffer-stdout — default: yes

Enables STDOUT buffering. Disable this option if you want to see live progress when using output post-processing tools such as tee or kubectl logs. Live progress is cute when you need it.

  • --charset — short form: -A; type: string

Default character set. If the value is utf8, sets Perl’s binmode on STDOUT to utf8, passes the mysql_enable_utf8 option to DBD::mysql, and runs SET NAMES UTF8 after connecting to MySQL. Any other value sets binmode on STDOUT without the utf8 layer, and runs SET NAMES after connecting to MySQL. Encoding details matter, bestie.

  • --config — type: Array

Read this comma-separated list of config files; if specified, this must be the first option on the command line. First option means first, no sneaky reordering.

  • --database — type: string; short form: -D

Database to use.

  • --defaults-file — short form: -F; type: string

Only read mysql options from the given file. You must give an absolute pathname.

  • --help — Show help and exit.
  • --host — short form: -h; type: string

Connect to host.

  • --mysql_ssl — short form: -s; type: int

Create SSL MySQL connection.

  • --password — short form: -p; type: string

Password to use when connecting. If password contains commas they must be escaped with a backslash: exam\,ple

  • --pid — type: string

Create the given PID file. The tool won’t start if the PID file already exists and the PID it contains is different than the current PID. However, if the PID file exists and the PID it contains is no longer running, the tool will overwrite the PID file with the current PID. The PID file is removed automatically when the tool exits. Self-cleaning PID file behavior? Obsessed.

  • --port — short form: -P; type: int

Port number to use for connection.

  • --recurse — type: int

Number of levels to recurse in the hierarchy. Default is infinite.

See --recursion-method.

  • --recursion-method — type: array; default: processlist,hosts

Preferred recursion method used to find replicas.

Possible methods are:

  • processlist — uses SHOW PROCESSLIST
  • hosts — uses SHOW REPLICAS (SHOW SLAVE HOSTS before MySQL 8.1)
  • none — Do not find replicas

The processlist method is preferred because SHOW REPLICAS is not reliable. However, the hosts method is required if the server uses a non-standard port (not 3306). Usually pt-replica-find does the right thing and finds the replicas, but you may give a preferred method and it will be used first. If it doesn’t find any replicas, the other methods will be tried. It’s basically trying the methods in order like a group chat checking every source.

  • --report-format — type: string; default: summary

Set what information about the replicas is printed. The report format can be one of the following:

  • hostname — Print just the hostname name of the replicas. It looks like:
127.0.0.1:12345
+- 127.0.0.1:12346
   +- 127.0.0.1:12347
  • summary — Print a summary of each replica’s settings. This report shows more information about each replica, like:
127.0.0.1:12345
Version         5.1.34-log
Server ID       12345
Uptime          04:56 (started 2010-06-17T11:21:22)
Replication     Is not a replica, has 1 replicas connected
Filters
Binary logging  STATEMENT
Slave status
Slave mode      STRICT
Auto-increment  increment 1, offset 1
+- 127.0.0.1:12346
   Version         5.1.34-log
   Server ID       12346
   Uptime          04:54 (started 2010-06-17T11:21:24)
   Replication     Is a replica, has 1 replicas connected
   Filters
   Binary logging  STATEMENT
   Slave status    0 seconds behind, running, no errors
   Slave mode      STRICT
   Auto-increment  increment 1, offset 1
  • --resolve-address — Resolve ip-address to hostname. Report will print both IP and hostname.

Example:

10.10.7.14 (dbase1.sample.net)

Might delay runtime a few seconds. Worth it if you want the name reveal.

  • --slave-user — type: string

This option is deprecated and will be removed in future releases. Use --replica-user instead. Deprecated means “please move on,” bestie.

  • --slave-password — type: string

This option is deprecated and will be removed in future releases. Use --replica-password instead. Same energy: deprecated, use the newer one.

  • --replica-user — type: string

Sets the user to be used to connect to the replicas. This parameter allows you to have a different user with less privileges on the replicas but that user must exist on all replicas. Every replica needs to know them, no cap.

  • --replica-password — type: string

Sets the password to be used to connect to the replicas. It can be used with --replica-user and the password for the user must be the same on all replicas.

  • --set-vars — type: Array

Set the MySQL variables in this comma-separated list of variable=value pairs.

By default, the tool sets:

wait_timeout=10000

Variables specified on the command line override these defaults. For example, specifying --set-vars wait_timeout=500 overrides the defaultvalue of 10000.

The tool prints a warning and continues if a variable cannot be set. Warning and continue is the vibe here.

  • --socket — short form: -S; type: string

Socket file to use for connection.

  • --user — short form: -u; type: string

User for login if not current user.

  • --version — Show version and exit.

🎀 DSN OPTIONS 🎀

These DSN options are used to create a DSN. Each option is given like option=value. The options are case-sensitive, so P and p are not the same option. There cannot be whitespace before or after the = and if the value contains whitespace it must be quoted. DSN options are comma-separated. See the percona-toolkit manpage for full details. Case-sensitive means P and p are different girlies, okay?

  • A — dsn: charset; copy: yes — Default character set.
  • D — dsn: database; copy: yes — Default database.
  • F — dsn: mysql_read_default_file; copy: yes — Only read default options from the given file
  • h — dsn: host; copy: yes — Connect to host.
  • p — dsn: password; copy: yes — Password to use when connecting. If password contains commas they must be escaped with a backslash: exam\,ple
  • P — dsn: port; copy: yes — Port number to use for connection.
  • S — dsn: mysql_socket; copy: yes — Socket file to use for connection.
  • u — dsn: user; copy: yes — User for login if not current user.
  • s — dsn: mysql_ssl; copy: yes — Create SSL connection

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

The environment variable PTDEBUG enables verbose debugging output to STDERR. To enable debugging and capture all output to a file, run the tool like:

PTDEBUG=1 pt-replica-find ... > FILE 2>&1

Be careful: debugging output is voluminous and can generate several megabytes of output. Megabytes. Not kilobytes. Bestie, be ready. 😭

🙈 ATTENTION 🙈

Using PTDEBUG might expose passwords. When debug is enabled, all command line parameters are shown in the output. So maybe don’t paste that debug output straight into the group chat. 🫶

⚙️ SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ⚙️

You need Perl, DBI, DBD::mysql, and some core packages that ought to be installed in any reasonably new version of Perl. Reasonably new Perl is the requirement, periodt.

🐛 BUGS 🐛

For a list of known bugs, see https://jira.percona.com/projects/PT/issues.

Please report bugs at https://jira.percona.com/projects/PT. Include the following information in your bug report:

  • Complete command-line used to run the tool
  • Tool --version
  • MySQL version of all servers involved
  • Output from the tool including STDERR
  • Input files (log/dump/config files, etc.)

If possible, include debugging output by running the tool with PTDEBUG; see ENVIRONMENT. Receipts make bug reports iconic. 🎀

⬇️ DOWNLOADING ⬇️

Visit http://www.percona.com/software/percona-toolkit/ to download the latest release of Percona Toolkit. Or, get the latest release from the command line:

wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.tar.gz

wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.rpm

wget percona.com/get/percona-toolkit.deb

You can also get individual tools from the latest release:

wget percona.com/get/TOOL

Replace TOOL with the name of any tool. Mix and match, bestie. 💖

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Baron Schwartz and Daniel Nichter 💖✨

💖 ABOUT PERCONA TOOLKIT 💖

Okay so bestie, context time: this tool is part of Percona Toolkit, which is literally this whole collection of advanced command-line tools for MySQL, all made by Percona. ✨

And the lore? Percona Toolkit got forked from two projects back in June, 2011 — Maatkit and Aspersa. Those were created by Baron Schwartz, and he primarily developed them along with Daniel Nichter. Iconic lineage, honestly. 👑

Want to learn about other free, open-source software from Percona? Go visit <http://www.percona.com/software/> — the vibes are immaculate.

This program is copyright 2011-2026 Percona LLC and/or its affiliates, and 2007-2011 Baron Schwartz.

⚠️ Okay this part is serious, so read it fr fr: THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. No cap — no warranty, none, zero. 💀

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 2; OR the Perl Artistic License. On UNIX and similar systems, you can issue man perlgpl or man perlartistic to read these licenses. 🫶

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License, version 2 along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

⭐ VERSION ⭐

pt-replica-find 3.7.1-4

And that's the whole page, bestie — you made it to the end 🦋. This lil masterpiece is pt-replica-find 3.7.1-4, brought to you by perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-09-01 (she's got a birthday, she's got a version, she's got main character energy 🌈). Now go find those replicas. Slay. 💅

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