cut & pasted from Oracle 8i ILT PDF
Code:
Recover Syntax

Recover a mounted database:
SQL> recover database;
SQL> recover datafile ‘/disk1/data/df2.dbf’;
SQL> alter database recover database;

Recover an opened database:
SQL> recover tablespace USER_DATA;
SQL> recover datafile 2;
SQL> alter database recover datafile 2;


Recover Syntax
One of the following commands may be issued to recover the database:
• RECOVER [AUTOMATIC] DATABASE
Can only be used for a closed database recovery.
• RECOVER [AUTOMATIC] TABLESPACE  | 
Can only be used for an opened database recovery.
• RECOVER [AUTOMATIC] DATAFILE  | 
Can only used for both an opened and closed database recovery.
where: automatic automatically applies archived and
redo log files.
Note: ALTER DATABASE may be placed in front of the RECOVER command. This
is not recommended because some error messages get suppressed and do not show up
on screen during recovery.
regards

[Edited by pando on 05-08-2002 at 04:17 AM]