Dbms_lob.fileopen failed though utl_file.fgetattr works fine

Question

Hi ,
I am using Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Prod.
I am working on loading MS .doc into Oracle.
I have created dir using following code:
BEGIN
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE
'CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY TEST_SN1 AS'||
'''\\inecg-sdc11\XYZ_ABC2\DT-AUTOMATION\DUMMY_12LNEW''';
END;
I have verified the existence of file(Status.doc) using utl_file.fgetattr using the following code:
DECLARE
ex BOOLEAN;
flen NUMBER;
bsize NUMBER;
BEGIN
utl_file.fgetattr('TEST_SN1', 'Status.doc', ex, flen, bsize);
IF ex THEN
insert into test_msg values('File Exists');
ELSE
insert into test_msg values('File Does Not Exist');
END IF;
insert into test_msg values('File Length: ' || TO_CHAR(flen));
insert into test_msg values('Block Size: ' || TO_CHAR(bsize));
commit;
END;
the code succuessfully returns the msg 'File exists' along with the file length .
I have also tried opening the file using utl_file and dbmc_lob package+
SQL> DECLARE
2 vInHandle utl_file.file_type;
3 vNewLine VARCHAR2(250);
4 BEGIN
5 vInHandle:= utl_file.fopen('TEST_SN1', 'Status.doc', 'R');
6 utl_file.fclose(vInHandle);
7 END;
8 /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
But the following code still produces error ORA-22288:+
This is what the output was:
SQL> declare
2 l_bfile bfile;
3 begin
4 l_bfile := bfilename( 'TEST_SN1', 'Status.doc' );
5 dbms_lob.fileopen( l_bfile );
6 dbms_lob.fileclose( l_bfile );
7 end;
8 /
declare
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-22288: file or LOB operation FILEOPEN failed
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_LOB", line 523
ORA-06512: at line 5
Even though the file exists and Oracle is able to identify the file, I cant figure out what is
stopping my code to open that file.
Please help me to figure out the problem.
For more undertstanding ,You can also refer the my conversation with Tom Kyte at following link:
http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:636223754581#2815252100346024210
Thanks a million tons!
Regards
Saurabh Nolakha,
Bangalore

Answer 1

Hi,
Thanks for your quick response.
The file Status.doc which I am trying to access is in remote server at path *\\inecg-sdc11\XYZ_ABC2\DT-AUTOMATION\DUMMY_12LNEW* .Though the path is not mapped to the WINDOWS system where Oracle is installed but I am able to access the file(open and read) from that system.
Do you mean that I need to map the network drive to that system?*
if yes, then why UTL_FILE is working perfectly?*
Also, in my requirement, theres a high possibility that the path(of remote server) may change in future(if mapped).So ,is there any alternative for that?*
Please provide your useful suggestions
Regards
Saurabh Nolakha