Hi,

I have done a full hot database backup as shown below.
However I have some questions about the backup .....

1. Do I need to issue a 'alter system archivelog current' before I
start to backup my archived redo logs?
2. How do I backup incremental archived logs?
3. Do I need to generate a log switch before ending the backup?
4. It is recommended to compress the backup files?

....... Backup all the tablespaces .......

alter tablespace USERS begin backup;
host cp /data/users01.dbf /backup/users01.dbf.bak
host compress -f /backup/users01.dbf.bak
alter tablespace USERS end backup;

....... Backup all the archived redo logs .......

host cp $ORACLE_HOME/arch/arch*.arc /backup/arch
host compress -f /backup/arch/*

....... Backup contolfile .......

alter database backup controlfile to '/backup/controlfile.bck';