Which files are required for a full recovery of the database in ARCHIVELOG mode?

Eamon

The answer is ACD, however it does depend on what exactly is meant by “full recovery”.
This term “full recovery” is not mentioned at all in the Oracle documentation set at
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/index.htm

For example
1. If we lose a datafile and then we restore and recover it, well we would use the online redo logs for this but not a Backup control file. (Hey we are doing a “full recovery” here as opposed to a “point in time recovery”)
2. If we lost the entire database, including the online redo logs then we would not use the online redo logs for a full recovery but we would have to restore a Backup control file and also all the latest archive redo logs that we have available for this incarnation of the database.

Scenario 2 probably better describes a “Full recovery” and that is more than likely why the answer is ACD.

This question is from the book
http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-Database-All-Guide-CD-ROM/dp/0071629181
By the way the answer it gives is
A, C, D. To perform a full recovery of the database that is in ARCHIVELOG, you would need the database datafiles, the archived redo logs, and a backup controlfile.

So now the issue of D and E, well I would imagine that the exact phrase is somewhat important for exams and in the documentation, but for real world DBA work somewhat less so.

In RMAN the “control file autobackup” feature creates a “Backup control file”.
Also user backups refer to the creation of a “Backup control file”.
Both of these can be seen in the documentation
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/backup.112/e10642/toc.htm

The term “Control file from a backup” is not used in the oracle documentation, well except for
file:///C:/orant/ORA1120/doc/E11882_01/server.112/e10820/dynviews_1094.htm
where it refers to that of a standby database.

So yes there is a difference between D and E.