--recursion-method is magical; see MasterSlave::find_slave_hosts(). It tries multiple methods. The docs for tools say that "processlist" is the default: "The processlist method is the default, because SHOW SLAVE HOSTS is not reliable." That's not entirely true: the tool tries both, it just tries processlist first. If the method is set explicitly via the command line option, it should only try the given method.
--recursion-method is magical; see MasterSlave: :find_slave_ hosts() . It tries multiple methods. The docs for tools say that "processlist" is the default: "The processlist method is the default, because SHOW SLAVE HOSTS is not reliable." That's not entirely true: the tool tries both, it just tries processlist first. If the method is set explicitly via the command line option, it should only try the given method.