Lost in Space

Hi Folks,

You are hired as a DBA for an Oracle 8.1.7 database on Solaris. You are new to Unix. The system admin is on sick leave for a week.
What type of unix commands should you be using just to check the database?

I already setup my laptop to talk to the database but I wanted to access the following on the box.( I know I am getting some Unix books)
but just need some quick commands to do these things.
How do I get to the
-Alert log
-Init.ora...(That I can get to it from the command line) but need to access that on unix box.
-Check datafiles
-Check tablespaces

Any recommendations and advice are welcomed
Thank you

cd /path/to_whatever (a lot like DOS)

cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms or whatever

What are you environment variables?
env|more

What from Oracle is running on the box?
ps -ef|grep ora

How to become the user 'oracle' (or whatever the name is)
su - oracle

Where is the home directory for 'oracle'
As oracle, just enter cd and hit return, then enter pwd

You can also look in /etc/passwd to see oracle's home directory

Where the files are:
same commands in SQL*Plus as you use on Windows

I reccomend "Unix for Oracle DBA's" an O'Reilly handbook that is about $8. Start creating aliases and learn some basics, this book will get you there and you can breeze through it in a day.

The ones on my bookshelf are:

Oracle9i UNIX Administration Handbook
UNIX Shell Programming
UNIX Power Tools
Solaris 8 The Complete Reference
Instant UNIX
UNIX in a Nutshell
UNIX Made Easy

Holy cow, with that many UNIX books, I just realized I'm on the verge of being a UNIX geek. Gotta remember that the upshot is "Chicks dig UNIX."

Guys
I thank you all for the input and your prompt response.