Error while writing to file using UTL_FILE

Question

I've created below mentioned directory object and also granted the user appdevnew the appropriate previleges under SYSTEM user. Before giving this command, i've manually created the folder in c drive and created myspool.log file manually. Is it needed or can be created programmatically?
CREATE DIRECTORY mydir AS 'C:\mydir';
GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY MYDIR TO appdevnew;
Then logged into appdevnew and ran the block below. But i had been shown with error code ora-29280.
DECLARE
hnd UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE;
BEGIN
hnd := UTL_FILE.FOPEN ('mydir', 'myspool.log', 'w',80);
UTL_FILE.PUT_LINE (hnd, 'Some text here..', TRUE);
UTL_FILE.FCLOSE (hnd);
END;
/

Answer 1

Hi,
It's a common problem, people think utl_file can see their PC's, whereas in fact the code runs on a server sometimes miles away and has no clue about your PC! You aren't the first and you won't be the last either.
As for creating a directory, I take it you mean to somehow issue 'mkdir' or the equivalent to create an OS level directory (or Folder, as this is Whinedoze) on the server? You have to be careful with terminology here, because people will think (and quite rightly to) that you are referring to directory objects which utl_file now uses.
There is no native way of doing this in PL/SQL. You can if you wish write a java stored procedure which then gives you this ability inside PL/SQL. However, I would question the need to actually dynamically create OS directories. Better do it just once for setup and be done. Less moving parts, less headaches.
And I don't know what you mean by the file extension at all. You opened a file with the extension .log so that's what you will get. If you somehow asked utl_file to open a file called myspool.log and you ended up with myspool.txt this would be a bug and you had best log this with Oracle Support. However, if you are somehow confusing the file extension (a naming convention foisted on us by Micro$oft) with the actual contents of a file (plain text ascii or binary) then the answer is, in 9i, utl_file only gives you the abilty to write text files. Writing binary is available in 10g.
There are workarounds to write binary files in 9i.
HTH
Chris
Message was edited by:
Chris Poole (because I can't spel)
Message was edited by:
Chris Poole (still can't spel)