Is Directory Creation necessary for BFILE ?

Question

I created a table with one column as bfile
while inserting the value in that column using directory
it works fine
but when i use direct path instaed of directory it gives value error.
for example: INSERT INTO ABC_BFILE_TEST (B)
VALUES ( BFILENAME('/export/home/devmgr','karan.txt'));
this inserts the row but with value error iam not able to open this document.
for example: INSERT INTO ABC_BFILE_TEST (B)
VALUES ( BFILENAME('DIRECTORY1','karan.txt'));
NOW IN THIS CASE directory1 is directory which i created in database
and represents the same path '/export/home/devmgr' and it works fine
Actually i have to pass the path and file name on runtime
so i dont want to create directory.
Could anybody help me on this.
Your reply is highly appreciable. :)

Answer 1

But, as Michael says, I wouldn't recommend using UTL_FILE_DIR parameter.
It has a big security flaw in that whatever paths you set in it are available for read/write to ALL database users. Not generally a good idea to let every database user have access to all the specified folders on the file system.
And if you really do think that's the best way to do what you need, you should never (I repeat... NEVER!) set the utl_file_dir parameter to "*" as this will give every database user access to the whole filesystem of the database server, which could be disasterous.