Use the ALTER SYSTEM statement to dynamically alter your Oracle Database instance. The settings stay in effect as long as the database is mounted.
Modifies a database, or the files and filegroups associated with the database. Adds or removes files and filegroups from a database, changes the attributes of a database or its files and filegroups, changes the database collation, and sets database options. Database snapshots cannot be modified
alter database 数据文件、表空间、日志文件等等,和物理上的文件有关系的一些变更,也就是对数据库的更改,一般改变的是物理上的,通过alter database操作时会触发controlfile header和其他一些物理文件头信息的变化
比如 :alter dtabase rename datafile
alter system 动态的改变实例的属性(参数),也就是对实例的更改,一般是逻辑上的
比如:alter system set db_cache_size
alter session 改变的的是一个会话的属性
比如:alter session set nls_language
For further information see: