.IP "\fBInterface\fR"
A network device attached to a port. Records may be identified by
name.
+.IP "\fBQoS\fR"
+Quality-of-service configuration for a \fBPort\fR. Records may be
+identified by port name.
+.IP "\fBQueue\fR"
+Configuration for one queue within a \fBQoS\fR configuration. Records
+may only be identified by UUID.
+.IP "\fBMonitor\fR"
+Connectivity Monitoring attached to an \fBInterface\fR. Records may be
+identified by \fBInterface\fR name.
+.IP "\fBMaintenance_Point\fR"
+Maintenance Point managed by a \fBMonitor\fR.
.IP "\fBMirror\fR"
A port mirroring configuration attached to a bridge. Records may be
identified by mirror name.
.IP "\fBsFlow\fR"
An sFlow configuration attached to a bridge. Records may be
identified by bridge name.
-.IP "\fBMonitor\fR"
-Connectivity Monitoring attached to an interface. Records may be
-identified by interface name.
-.IP "\fBMaintenance_Point\fR"
-Maintenance Point managed by a Monitor.
.PP
Record names must be specified in full and with correct
capitalization. Names of tables and columns are not case-sensitive,
referred to by that name elsewhere in the same \fBovs\-vsctl\fR
invocation in contexts where a UUID is expected. Such references may
precede or follow the \fBcreate\fR command.
+.IP
+Records in the Open vSwitch database are significant only when they
+can be reached directly or indirectly from the \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR
+table. Except for records in the \fBQoS\fR or \fBQueue\fR tables,
+records that are not reachable from the \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR table are
+automatically deleted from the database. This deletion happens
+immediately, without waiting for additional \fBovs\-vsctl\fR commands
+or other database activity. Thus, a \fBcreate\fR command must
+generally be accompanied by additional commands \fIwithin the same
+\fBovs\-vsctl\fI invocation\fR to add a chain of references to the
+newly created record from the top-level \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR record.
+The \fBEXAMPLES\fR section gives some examples that show how to do
+this.
.
.IP "\fR[\fB\-\-if\-exists\fR] \fBdestroy \fItable record\fR..."
Deletes each specified \fIrecord\fR from \fItable\fR. Unless
\fB\-\-if\-exists\fR is specified, each \fIrecord\fRs must exist.
+.IP
+The \fBdestroy\fR command is only useful for records in the \fBQoS\fR
+or \fBQueue\fR tables. Records in other tables are automatically
+deleted from the database when they become unreachable from the
+\fBOpen_vSwitch\fR table. This means that deleting the last reference
+to a record is sufficient for deleting the record itself. For records
+in these tables, \fBdestroy\fR is silently ignored. See the
+\fBEXAMPLES\fR section below for more information.
.
.IP "\fBwait\-until \fItable record \fR[\fIcolumn\fR[\fB:\fIkey\fR]\fB=\fIvalue\fR]..."
Waits until \fItable\fR contains a record named \fIrecord\fR whose
.IP
.B "\-\- \-\-id=@m create Mirror name=mymirror select-dst-port=@eth0,@eth1 select-src-port=@eth0,@eth1 output-port=@eth2"
.PP
-Remove the mirror created above from \fBbr0\fR and destroy the Mirror
-record (to avoid having an unreferenced record in the database):
+Remove the mirror created above from \fBbr0\fR, which also destroys
+the Mirror record (since it is now unreferenced):
.IP
-.B "ovs\-vsctl destroy Mirror mymirror \-\- clear Bridge br0 mirrors"
+.B "remove Bridge br0 mirrors mymirror"
.SS "Quality of Service (QoS)"
.PP
Create a \fBlinux\-htb\fR QoS record that points to a few queues and
.B "ovs\-vsctl clear Port eth1 qos"
.PP
To deconfigure the QoS record from both \fBeth0\fR and \fBeth1\fR and
-then delete the QoS record:
+then delete the QoS record (which must be done explicitly because
+unreferenced QoS records are not automatically destroyed):
.IP
.B "ovs\-vsctl \-\- destroy QoS eth0 \-\- clear Port eth0 qos \-\- clear Port eth1 qos"
.PP
.IP
.B "ovs\-vsctl set NetFlow br0 active_timeout=60"
.PP
-Deconfigure the NetFlow settings from \fBbr0\fR and delete the NetFlow
-record (to avoid having an unreferenced record in the database):
+Deconfigure the NetFlow settings from \fBbr0\fR, which also destroys
+the NetFlow record (since it is now unreferenced):
.IP
-.B "ovs\-vsctl destroy NetFlow br0 \-\- clear Bridge br0 netflow"
+.B "ovs\-vsctl clear Bridge br0 netflow"
.SS "sFlow"
.PP
Configure bridge \fBbr0\fR to send sFlow records to a collector on
.IP
.B "\-\- set Bridge br0 sflow=@s"
.PP
-Deconfigure sFlow from br0 and destroy the sFlow record (to avoid
-having an unreferenced record in the database):
+Deconfigure sFlow from br0, which also destroys the sFlow record
+(since it is now unreferenced):
.IP
-.B "ovs\-vsctl \-\- destroy sFlow br0 \-\- clear Bridge br0 sflow"
+.B "ovs\-vsctl \-\- clear Bridge br0 sflow"
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
.IP "0"
Successful program execution.
.
.BR ovsdb\-server (1),
.BR ovs\-vswitchd (8).
-\