CONTROLFILE REUSE

This command is often suggested eg. during database creation, or controlfile creation (when cloning a database).

But I don't understand what the 'REUSE' keyword actually does. Is it somehow 're-using' an existing controlfile, but if so, which one?

Or.....does it always follow the CONTROLFILE command?

Cheers,
Don

CONTROLFILE REUSE Clause
Specify CONTROLFILE REUSE to reuse existing control files identified by the initialization parameter CONTROL_FILES, thus ignoring and overwriting any information they currently contain. Normally you use this clause only when you are re-creating a database, rather than creating one for the first time. You cannot use this clause if you also specify a parameter value that requires that the control file be larger than the existing files. These parameters are MAXLOGFILES, MAXLOGMEMBERS, MAXLOGHISTORY, MAXDATAFILES, and MAXINSTANCES.

If you omit this clause and any of the files specified by CONTROL_FILES already exist, Oracle returns an error.