Default and explicit branch mastership

Branches can have default mastership or explicit mastership. When a branch is created, it is mastered by the replica that masters the branch type (default mastership). When you transfer mastership of a branch to another replica, that replica masters the branch explicitly.

The output of the describe command shows which replica masters a branch and whether mastership is explicit or default.

For example, the branch type v2.0_port was created at, and is mastered by, the sanfran_hub replica. The test2.txt@@/main/v2.0_port branch has default mastership, as shown by the (defaulted) annotation:

multitool describe test2.txt@@/main/v2.0_port
branch test2.txt@@/main/v2.0_port
  created 18-Aug-00.10:50:34 by John Cole (jcole.user@goldengate)
  branch type: v2.0_port
  master replica: sanfran_hub@/vobs/dev (defaulted)
...

The administrator at the sanfran_hub replica transfers mastership of this branch to the boston_hub replica:

multitool chmaster -nc boston_hub test2.txt@@/main/v2.0_port
Changed mastership of branch "/vobs/dev/test2.txt@@/main/v2.0_port" to "boston_hub"

The output of describe shows that this branch is now mastered explicitly by the boston_hub replica; the (defaulted) annotation is not present:

multitool describe test2.txt@@/main/v2.0_port
branch test2.txt@@/main/v2.0_port
  created 18-Aug-00.10:50:34 by John Cole (jcole.user@goldengate)
  branch type: v2.0_port
  master replica: boston_hub@/vobs/dev
...

When you transfer mastership of a branch type, mastership is transferred for all branches of that type with default mastership. Mastership of branches with explicit mastership is not transferred.

For more information, see the chmaster reference page and Transferring mastership of a branch.