Startup and shutdown from command line with version 9i

Question

Hi, i'm an Oracle newbie. I heard it's possible to startup and shutdown an oracle (instance? or database? which one is it) from the command line.
A little background on what it is that I want to do:
I'm looking to backup a database by copying the files that make up the database to a location from where they will be commited to tape media. To do this I must shutdown the database, copy the files, and startup the database again.
At the moment the backups are full exports which I find unnecessary since it is a development database which is never used at night. It is therefore not an issue if we want to shut it down and re-start it after a few minutes. (I think it would take longer to export as opposed to copy the files right?)
I need help and advice :
1. Is my way of going about this correct ?
2. How do I startup/shutdown from the command line (sqlplus user/password command) or should I use another utility ?
Thanks,
Gabriel

Answer 1

set oracle_sid=ORCL ==> your database namethis is NOT always true. It's instance name. usually, we set instance name is same as database name.But we also can set instance name is different from database name.
for example.
C:\>oradim -new -sid abc123
C:\>set ORACLE_SID=abc123
C:\>sqlplus /nolog
SQL*Plus: Release 9.0.1.4.0 - Production on Tue Jun 20 22:40:59 2006
(c) Copyright 2001 Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
SQL> conn / as sysdba
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> startup pfile=E:\ora901DB\admin\init.ora
ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area  344748244 bytes
Fixed Size                   282836 bytes
Variable Size             184549376 bytes
Database Buffers          159383552 bytes
Redo Buffers                 532480 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL> select name from v$database;
NAME
DB901
SQL> select instance_name from v$instance;
INSTANCE_NAME
abc123