Oracle LRM-00123: invalid character 0 found in the input file

Normally when you want to start your oracle database you simply use the startup command. However in some cases you do want to start your database with some specific parameters set and you are stating them in your pfile. Meaning you initiate some of your database parameters from your pfile.

When starting your database with a pfile you can use the following command while connected via sqlplus as sysdba:

startup pfile=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/dbs/initDB11G.ora

this will result in something like below

SQL> startup pfile=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/db_1/dbs/initDB11G.ora
ORACLE instance started.

Total System Global Area 2142715904 bytes
Fixed Size 1337688 bytes
Variable Size 671090344 bytes
Database Buffers 1459617792 bytes
Redo Buffers 10670080 bytes
Database mounted.
Database opened.
SQL>

In some cases you might run into an error when trying to do so. Some of the common error messages (error message combinations are below)


LRM-00123: invalid character 0 found in the input file
ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters

The combination of a LRM-00123 and the ORA-01078 indicates most likely that you have specified the spfile in your startup command instead of your pfile. 

LRM-00109: could not open parameter file '/u01/app/oracle/.........'
ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters

Combination of LRM-00109 and ORA-01078 indicates that you most likely have made a typo in the path to your pfile.