Oracle provides several methods which one can use to perform logical database backup and recovery. Of these, the common utilities used are the import and export tools. Many times they are used to move schema definitions and data between different Oracle instances and users.
While still supported on 10g the original import (imp) and export (exp) utilities were replaced in 10g with the faster and more advanced Data Pump-based, impdp and expdp.
On 11g just imp will be
stilllstill available, so if you using 10g, now is the time to starting using data pump.
If you're using Oracle9i or earlier, and are looking for more information on using the original utilities, see
this page. If you're using 10g or 11g, more information on the Data Pump-based utilities can be found
here.