4.6 Overview of Reporting on Backups and the RMAN Repository

You can obtain information from the RMAN repository in several different ways:

The RMAN LIST and REPORT commands provide extensive information on available backups and how they can be used to restore and recover your database. LIST is described in "Listing RMAN Backups, Archived Logs, and Database Incarnations" and REPORT is described in "Reporting on Backups and Database Schema".
When the database is open, a number of V$ views provide direct access to RMAN repository records in the control file. If your database is registered in a recovery catalog, RC_ views that mostly correspond to the V$ views provide direct access to the RMAN repository data stored in the recovery catalog. You can query views from either group in SQL*Plus. Some V$ views such as V$DATAFILE_HEADER, V$PROCESS, and V$SESSION, contain information not found in the recovery catalog views. The V$ views are documented in Oracle Database Reference and the RC_ views are documented in Oracle Database Backup and Recovery Reference .
The RESTORE command supports a PREVIEW clause, which provides detailed information about how RMAN can restore and recover all or part of your database, given the set of backups available. RESTORE... PREVIEW is documented in "Previewing Backups Used in Restore Operations: RESTORE PREVIEW".

Note:

If backups have been manipulated outside of the control of RMAN (for example, if some disk-based backups have been deleted, or tape backups are temporarily unavailable or permanently lost) then see Chapter 8, "Recovery Manager Maintenance Tasks" for details on how to update the RMAN repository record of backups to reflect the actual set of available backups, using commands such as CHANGE, CROSSCHECK, and DELETE. Otherwise, the output of the commands and views listed here may be misleading, and RMAN may not be able to find the backups to restore and recover your database until you update the repository.