Starting Up and Shutting Down a Database

STARTUP [FORCE] [RESTRICT] [PFILE=filename] [EXCLUSIVE]
[PARALLEL [RETRY]] [SHARED [RETRY]]
[MOUNT [dbname] | OPEN [open_options] [dbname] | NOMOUNT]

where open_options has the following syntax:

READ {ONLY | WRITE [RECOVER]} | RECOVER

Starts an Oracle instance with several options, including mounting and opening a database.

SHUTDOWN [ABORT|IMMEDIATE|NORMAL]

Shuts down a currently running Oracle instance, optionally closing and dismounting a database.