sqlplus /nolog outputting --help and exiting`

Question

UPDATE: It works in cmd and when I run cmd from the bash client. Would still love for it to work in git bash, but I have a workaround.

I am trying to run the sqlplus /nolog command in my git bash client on windows. However, when I run that command, it starts up a session, displays information as if I typed sqlplus --help then exits. I can remote into one of our linux servers and run the command there as expected, but I can't get it to work locally.

I don't have a glogin.sql file.

What do I need to do to get the sqlplus /nolog command to work as expected?

user@computer ~/currentLocation
$ sqlplus /nolog

SQL*Plus: Release 12.1.0.2.0 Production on Thu Oct 26 09:19:45 2017

Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle.  All rights reserved.


SQL*Plus: Release 12.1.0.2.0 Production

Copyright (c) 1982, 2014, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Use SQL*Plus to execute SQL, PL/SQL and SQL*Plus statements.

Usage 1: sqlplus -H | -V

    -H             Displays the SQL*Plus version and the
                   usage help.
    -V             Displays the SQL*Plus version.

Usage 2: sqlplus [ [<option>] [{logon | /nolog}] [<start>] ]

  <option> is: [-C <version>] [-L] [-M "<options>"] [-NOLOGINTIME] [-R <level>]
               [-S]

    -C <version>   Sets the compatibility of affected commands to the
                   version specified by <version>.  The version has
                   the form "x.y[.z]".  For example, -C 10.2.0
    -L             Attempts to log on just once, instead of
                   reprompting on error.
    -M "<options>" Sets automatic HTML markup of output.  The options
                   have the form:
                   HTML [ON|OFF] [HEAD text] [BODY text] [TABLE text]
                   [ENTMAP {ON|OFF}] [SPOOL {ON|OFF}] [PRE[FORMAT] {ON|OFF}]
    -NOLOGINTIME   Don't display Last Successful Login Time.
    -R <level>     Sets restricted mode to disable SQL*Plus commands
                   that interact with the file system.  The level can
                   be 1, 2 or 3.  The most restrictive is -R 3 which
                   disables all user commands interacting with the
                   file system.
    -S             Sets silent mode which suppresses the display of
                   the SQL*Plus banner, prompts, and echoing of
                   commands.

  <logon> is: {<username>[/<password>][@<connect_identifier>] | / }
              [AS {SYSDBA | SYSOPER | SYSASM | SYSBACKUP | SYSDG | SYSKM}] [EDITION=value]

    Specifies the database account username, password and connect
    identifier for the database connection.  Without a connect
    identifier, SQL*Plus connects to the default database.

    The AS SYSDBA, AS SYSOPER, AS SYSASM, AS SYSBACKUP, AS SYSDG,
    and AS SYSKM options are database administration privileges.

    <connect_identifier> can be in the form of Net Service Name
    or Easy Connect.

      @[<net_service_name> | [//]Host[:Port]/<service_name>]

        <net_service_name> is a simple name for a service that resolves
        to a connect descriptor.

        Example: Connect to database using Net Service Name and the
                 database net service name is ORCL.

           sqlplus myusername/mypassword@ORCL

        Host specifies the host name or IP address of the database
        server computer.

        Port specifies the listening port on the database server.

        <service_name> specifies the service name of the database you
        want to access.

        Example: Connect to database using Easy Connect and the
                 Service name is ORCL.

           sqlplus myusername/mypassword@Host/ORCL

    The /NOLOG option starts SQL*Plus without connecting to a
    database.

    The EDITION specifies the value for Session Edition.


  <start> is: @<URL>|<filename>[.<ext>] [<parameter> ...]

    Runs the specified SQL*Plus script from a web server (URL) or the
    local file system (filename.ext) with specified parameters that
    will be assigned to substitution variables in the script.

When SQL*Plus starts, and after CONNECT commands, the site profile
(e.g. $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin/glogin.sql) and the user profile
(e.g. login.sql in the working directory) are run.  The files may
contain SQL*Plus commands.

Refer to the SQL*Plus User's Guide and Reference for more information.

Answer 1

Just run into the same issue, and found your post. Use this command instead: sqlplus //nolog