Difference between init.ora db_name and query in sqlplus I have a question about the content of the file init.ora, according to oracle documentation.


  DB_NAME specifies a database identifier of up to 8 characters. This parameter must be specified and must correspond to the name specified in the CREATE DATABASE statement.


In my understanding the command sqlplus knows to which database connect because it reads the information from the init.ora file.

My init.ora file is as follow

db_name='ORCL'
memory_target=1G
processes = 150


I think is the default one, I would think that the name of my database would appeared in the db_name parameter, then I perform a query in sqlplus to get the name of the database and the result is



My question is why the name is BO1 if in the init.ora is ORCL?
By the way I don't have any other init.ora



Thanks in advance
During startup , Oracle searches for initialization file :


  In the platform-specific default location, Oracle Database locates
  your initialization parameter file by examining filenames in the
  following order:
  
  spfile$ORACLE_SID.ora
  spfile.ora
  init$ORACLE_SID.ora
  The first two
  filenames represent SPFILEs and the third represents a text
  initialization parameter file.


In your screenshot you have spfileBO1.ora, and it seems your $ORACLE_SID environment variable is set to BO1.  If you want to start the server using init.ora, you should do it manually  :

SQLPLUS command:

STARTUP PFILE = /path/init.ora