I
Export/Import
Part I describes the Export and Import utilities. These utilities are complementary. Export writes data from an Oracle database into a transportable operating system file. Import reads data from this file back into an Oracle database. You can use Export and Import to accomplish the following tasks:
- move data between Oracle databases, even if the databases are on different systems or platforms
- move data from one tablespace or schema to another
- repartition data in tables
- store definitions of database objects (such as tables, clusters, and indexes) with or without the data
- archive inactive data or store temporary data
- store Oracle data in operating system files outside a database
- upgrade to new releases of Oracle
- back up entire Oracle databases or back up only tables whose data changed since the last export, using an incremental export or a cumulative export
- selectively back up parts of a database in a way that requires less storage space than a system backup
- restore a database by importing from incremental or cumulative exports
- restore tables that were dropped, if they had been exported previously
- move data between older and newer versions or releases of Oracle
- save space or reduce fragmentation on the platform used by the Oracle database
