Clearing a Redo Log File

A redo log file might become corrupted while the database is open, and ultimately stop database activity because archiving cannot continue. In this situation the ALTER DATABASE CLEAR LOGFILE statement can be used to reinitialize the file without shutting down the database.

The following statement clears the log files in redo log group number 3:

ALTER DATABASE CLEAR LOGFILE GROUP 3;

This statement overcomes two situations where dropping redo logs is not possible:

• If there are only two log groups

• The corrupt redo log file belongs to the current group

If the corrupt redo log file has not been archived, use the UNARCHIVED keyword in the statement.

ALTER DATABASE CLEAR UNARCHIVED LOGFILE GROUP 3;

This statement clears the corrupted redo logs and avoids archiving them. The cleared redo logs are available for use even though they were not archived.

If you clear a log file that is needed for recovery of a backup, then you can no longer recover from that backup. The database writes a message in the alert log describing the backups from which you cannot recover.

If you want to clear an unarchived redo log that is needed to bring an offline tablespace online, use the UNRECOVERABLE DATAFILE clause in the ALTER DATABASE CLEAR LOGFILE statement.

If you clear a redo log needed to bring an offline tablespace online, you will not be able to bring the tablespace online again. You will have to drop the tablespace or perform an incomplete recovery. Note that tablespaces taken offline normal do not require recovery.