Docs Menu

Docs HomeDevelop ApplicationsMongoDB Manual

Database Commands

On this page

  • Command Syntax
  • User Commands
  • Database Operations
  • Auditing Commands

All command documentation outlined below describes a command and its available parameters and provides a document template or prototype for each command. Some command documentation also includes the relevant mongo shell helpers.

To run a command against the current database, use db.runCommand():

db.runCommand( { <command> } )

To run an administrative command against the admin database, use db.adminCommand():

db.adminCommand( { <command> } )

Note

For details on specific commands, including syntax and examples, click on the specific command to go to its reference page.

When you run a database command, you specify the command as a document to db.runCommand(). The document's key is the command to run, and the value is typically supplied as 1. The value does not affect the output of the command for example:

db.runCommand( { hello: 1 } )
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
aggregate
Performs aggregation tasks such as $group using an aggregation pipeline.
Limited support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.
Counts the number of documents in a collection or a view.
Limited support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.
Displays the distinct values found for a specified key in a collection or a view.
Limited support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.
Performs map-reduce aggregation for large data sets.
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Performs a geospatial query that uses MongoDB's haystack index functionality.
No support for serverless instances.
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Deletes one or more documents.
Yes
Selects documents in a collection or a view.
Limited support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.
Returns and modifies a single document.
Yes
Returns the success status of the last operation.
Yes
Returns batches of documents currently pointed to by the cursor.
Yes
Inserts one or more documents.
Yes
Deprecated. Resets the last error status.
No
Updates one or more documents.
Yes
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Removes cached query plan(s) for a collection.
Clears index filter(s) for a collection.
Lists the index filters for a collection.
Sets an index filter for a collection.
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Starts an authenticated session using a username and password.
This is an internal command to generate a one-time password for authentication.
Yes
Terminates the current authenticated session.
Yes
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Creates a new user.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Deletes all users associated with a database.
Removes a single user.
No support for M10 clusters.
Grants a role and its privileges to a user.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Removes a role from a user.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Updates a user's data.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Returns information about the specified users.
Limited support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Creates a role and specifies its privileges.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Deletes the user-defined role.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Deletes all user-defined roles from a database.
Assigns privileges to a user-defined role.
Specifies roles from which a user-defined role inherits privileges.
Flushes the in-memory cache of user information, including credentials and roles.
Removes the specified privileges from a user-defined role.
Removes specified inherited roles from a user-defined role.
Returns information for the specified role or roles.
Yes
Updates a user-defined role.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Internal command that applies oplog entries to the current data set.
No support for serverless instances.
Displays information about this member's role in the replica set, including whether it is the primary.
Yes
Deprecated. Use hello instead.
No
Forces the elected primary to abort sync (catch up) then complete the transition to primary.
Yes
Prevents the current member from seeking election as primary for a period of time.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Returns the replica set's configuration object.
Returns a document that reports on the status of the replica set.
Initializes a new replica set.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Enables or disables a maintenance mode, which puts a secondary node in a RECOVERING state.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Applies a new configuration to an existing replica set.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Dynamically resizes the oplog for a replica set member. Available for WiredTiger storage engine only.
No support for M10 clusters.
Forces the current primary to step down and become a secondary, forcing an election.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Explicitly override the default logic for selecting a member to replicate from.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.

Tip

See also:

Replication for more information regarding replication.

Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
No support for serverless instances.
Associates a shard with a zone. Supports configuring zones in sharded clusters.
No support for serverless instances.

Returns information on whether the chunks of a sharded collection are balanced.

New in version 4.4.

No support for serverless instances.
Starts a balancer thread.
No support for serverless instances.
Returns information on the balancer status.
No support for serverless instances.
Stops the balancer thread.
No support for serverless instances.
Internal command that validates index on shard key.
Clears the jumbo flag for a chunk.
No support for serverless instances.
Removes orphaned data with shard key values outside of the ranges of the chunks owned by a shard.
No support for M0, M2, M5 clusters.
Enables sharding on a specific database.
No support for serverless instances.
Forces a mongod / mongos instance to update its cached routing metadata.
No support for serverless instances.
Internal command that reports on the state of a sharded cluster.
Internal command that returns the config server version.
Verifies that a process is a mongos.
Yes
Returns a list of configured shards.
No support for serverless instances.
Internal command that migrates chunks between shards.
No support for serverless instances.
Reassigns the primary shard when removing a shard from a sharded cluster.
No support for serverless instances.
Provides the ability to combine chunks on a single shard.
No support for serverless instances.

Refines a collection's shard key by adding a suffix to the existing key.

New in version 4.4.

Starts the process of removing a shard from a sharded cluster.
Removes the association between a shard and a zone. Supports configuring zones in sharded clusters.
No support for serverless instances.
Internal command to sets the config server version.
Yes
Enables the sharding functionality for a collection, allowing the collection to be sharded.
No support for serverless instances.
Reports whether the mongod is a member of a sharded cluster.
Yes
Creates a new chunk.
No support for serverless instances.
Internal command that determines split points.
Yes
Deprecated. Internal command that affects connections between instances in a MongoDB deployment.
Yes
Adds or removes the association between a range of sharded data and a zone. Supports configuring zones in sharded clusters.
No support for serverless instances.

Tip

See also:

Sharding for more information about MongoDB's sharding functionality.

Command
Description
Atlas Support

Abort transaction.

New in version 4.0.

Yes

Commit transaction.

New in version 4.0.

Yes

Expire sessions before the sessions' timeout period.

New in version 3.6.

Yes

Kill all sessions.

New in version 3.6.

No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Kill all sessions that match the specified pattern

No support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.

New in version 3.6.

Kill specified sessions.

New in version 3.6.

Refresh idle sessions.

New in version 3.6.

Yes

Starts a new session.

New in version 3.6.

Yes
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Copies a non-capped collection as a new capped collection.
Add options to a collection or modify a view definition.
Yes
Defragments a collection and rebuilds the indexes.
Converts a non-capped collection to a capped collection.
No support for serverless instances.
Creates a collection or a view.
Yes
Builds one or more indexes for a collection.
Yes
Returns a document that contains information on in-progress operations for the database instance.
Yes
Removes the specified collection from the database.
Yes
Removes the current database.
Yes
Drops outgoing connections to the specified list of hosts.
Yes
Removes indexes from a collection.
Yes
Returns the md5 hash for files stored using GridFS.
Yes
Flushes pending writes to the storage layer and locks the database to allow backups.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Unlocks one fsync lock.

Retrieves the global default read and write concern options for the deployment.

New in version 4.4.

Yes
Retrieves configuration options.
Limited support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.
Kills the specified cursors for a collection.
Yes
Terminates an operation as specified by the operation ID.
Limited support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Returns a list of collections in the current database.
Yes
Returns a document that lists all databases and returns basic database statistics.
Yes
Lists all indexes for a collection.
Yes
Rotates the MongoDB logs to prevent a single file from taking too much space.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Rebuilds all indexes on a collection.
Changes the name of an existing collection.
Yes
Enables or disables features that persist data that are backwards-incompatible.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Changes the minimum number of data-bearing members (i.e commit quorum), including the primary, that must vote to commit an in-progress index build before the primary marks those indexes as ready.
Yes
Modifies configuration options.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.

Sets the global default read and write concern options for the deployment.

New in version 4.4.

Yes
Shuts down the mongod or mongos process.
No support for M0, M2, M5 and M10 clusters.
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Internal command that reports on the capabilities of the current MongoDB instance.
Yes
Displays statistics about the MongoDB build.
Yes
Reports storage utilization statics for a specified collection.
Yes
Reports statistics on the outgoing connections from this MongoDB instance to other MongoDB instances in the deployment.
Yes
Reports the authentication state for the current connection.
Yes
Returns the data size for a range of data. For internal use.
Returns hash value a database and its collections.
Reports storage utilization statistics for the specified database.
Limited support for M0, M2, and M5 clusters.
Internal command that converts an ObjectId to a string to support tests.
Yes
Returns information on the execution of various operations.
Yes
Reports on features available in the current MongoDB instance.
Yes
Returns a document with the run-time arguments to the MongoDB instance and their parsed options.
Yes
Returns recent log messages.
Yes
Returns data that reflects the underlying host system.
Internal command to support testing.
Yes
Lists all database commands provided by the current mongod instance.
Yes
Internal command that returns information on locks that are currently being held or pending. Only available for mongod instances.
Internal command that reports on intra-deployment connectivity. Only available for mongos instances.
Yes
Internal command that tests intra-deployment connectivity.
Yes
Interface for the database profiler.
Yes
Returns a collection metrics on instance-wide resource utilization and status.
Yes
Deprecated in 4.4. Use connPoolStats instead.
No support for serverless instances.
Returns raw usage statistics for each database in the mongod instance.
No support for serverless instances.
Internal command that scans for a collection's data and indexes for correctness.
Internal command that returns information on the current client.
Yes
Name
Description
MongoDB Atlas Support
Posts a custom message to the audit log.
Yes
← $natural