Oracle SQL*Plus Pocket Reference, 3rd Edition

Command-Line SQL*Plus

This section covers information essential for interacting with command-line SQL*Plus. Here, you will learn how to start SQL*Plus, enter commands, delimit strings, and name variables.

Starting SQL*Plus

Invoke SQL*Plus by issuing the sqlplus command from your operating system command prompt. On Microsoft Windows systems, use either sqlplus or sqlplusw, depending on whether you want SQL*Plus to run in a command-prompt window or in its own window; you can also select an icon from the Start menu. (Early releases of SQL*Plus on Windows used executable names such as PLUS33 and PLUS80W.)

Warning

Beware of passing your password as a command-line argument to SQL*Plus. Such passwords may be easily visible to other users on Linux and Unix systems.

Syntax for the sqlplus command

The syntax used to invoke SQL*Plus is as follows:

sqlplus [options] [logon] [start]

options ::=  option [option...]

option ::= {-H[ELP]
           |-V[ERSION]
           |-C[OMPATIBILITY]  x.y[.z]
           |-L[OGON]
           |-M[ARKUP]  markup
           |-R[ESTRICT] {1 | 2 | 3}
           |-S[ILENT]}

markup ::= HTML [ON | OFF]
           [HEAD  text] [BODY text] [TABLE text]
           [ENTMAP {ON | OFF}] [PREFORMAT {ON | OFF}]

logon ::= {typical  |  os_authenticated
          |administrative  |  /NOLOG}

typical ::=  username[/password][@net_service_name]

os_authenticated ::= /

administrative ::= {typical  |  os_authenticated}
                   AS {SYSDBA | SYSOPER}

start ::= @{url  |  file_path} [param [param...]]

The -RESTRICT and -MARKUP parameters were introduced in Oracle8i Database. -HELP and -VERSION were introduced in ...