Lets spend just a minute looking alittle more at the history of backups using the "list" RMAN command. Using the "list backup" RMAN statement we can list the backups we've made.
[oracle@vixen oracle]$echo $ORACLE_SID
cuddle
[oracle@vixen oracle]$rman nocatalog
Recovery Manager: Release 10.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
Copyright (c) 1995, 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.
RMAN> connect target /
connected to target database: CUDDLE (DBID=251015092)
using target database controlfile instead of recovery catalog
RMAN> list backup;
List of Backup Sets
===================
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ---------------
1 Full 441M DISK 00:01:23 15-OCT-04
BP Key: 1 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20041015T175207
Piece Name: /export/rman/rman_CUDDLE_01g2k8m8_1_1.bus
List of Datafiles in backup set 1
File LV Type Ckp SCN Ckp Time Name
---- -- ---- ---------- --------- ----
1 Full 396472 15-OCT-04 /u02/oradata/cuddle/system01.dbf
2 Full 396472 15-OCT-04 /u02/oradata/cuddle/undotbs01.dbf
3 Full 396472 15-OCT-04 /u02/oradata/cuddle/sysaux01.dbf
4 Full 396472 15-OCT-04 /u02/oradata/cuddle/users01.dbf
BS Key Type LV Size Device Type Elapsed Time Completion Time
------- ---- -- ---------- ----------- ------------ ---------------
2 Full 2M DISK 00:00:02 15-OCT-04
BP Key: 2 Status: AVAILABLE Compressed: NO Tag: TAG20041015T175207
Piece Name: /export/rman/rman_CUDDLE_02g2k8ou_1_1.bus
Controlfile Included: Ckp SCN: 396502 Ckp time: 15-OCT-04
SPFILE Included: Modification time: 15-OCT-04
RMAN>
Here we can see 2 backup pieces, the first contains the datafiles for the "cuddle" database, is 441MB in side, was made to disk and took 1 minute and 23 seconds to make. We aslo see the peices tag (notice the tag is the same for both peices). Notice also that each datafile in the backup peice has a Checkpoint System Change Number (Ckp SCN) associated with it (SCNs were covered earlier). The second peice is 2MB in size, took 2 seconds to backup and was done to disk. Notice that the second peice lists the modification time for the SPFILE and the SCN for the Controlfile.
The list command has a number of argument that can allow you to tailor the output to just about any way you want to see it. A nice and consice output is seen using "list backup summary".
See a complete list of options to the RMAN list command in the Oracle Database Recovery Manager Reference manual:
http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10770/toc.htm