Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide

Appendix A. SQL*Plus Command Reference

SQLPLUS

The SQLPLUS command is used from the operating system prompt to start SQL*Plus, and is discussed in Chapter 2.

SQLPLUS [[-SILENT] [username[/password][@connect]|/|/NOLOG] 
[@scriptfile [arg1 
            arg2 
            arg3...]]]|-|-?

where:

SQLPLUS

Is the command to use when invoking SQL*Plus. On a Unix system this will be lowercase sqlplus. From Windows or MS-DOS, you may need to use PLUS80 or PLUS80W. Beginning with release 8.1, the command under Windows, or from a DOS prompt, will always be SQLPLUS.

-S[ILENT]

Tells SQL*Plus to run in silent mode. No startup messages, such as the copyright message, will be displayed. No command prompt will be displayed, and no commands will be echoed to the screen. This is useful if you are invoking SQL*Plus from within some other program, and you want to do it transparently. Normally you would use this option in conjunction with invoking a script file.

username

Is your database username.

password

Is your database password.

connect

Is the connect string, or host string, telling SQL*Plus the database to which you want to connect.

/

Use a forward slash instead of your username, password, and connect string when you want to connect to a local database using operating-system authentication.

/NOLOG

Tells SQL*Plus not to connect you to any database at all. You will get a SQL> prompt, but you must issue a CONNECT command before you can do much else.

scriptfile

Is the name of a SQL*Plus script file you want to run. SQL*Plus will start up, execute ...