ORA-29283 when writing file to server

Question

I am trying to setup procedure that writes the result of a query to a file on the database server. I am currently testing the writing of file using some generic code.
The database is on Red Hat Linux. The directory was created on the server as the mfts_user account and the oracle user granted read/write access. This was verified by logging into the server as oracle and creating a file via "touch test.txt".
The following 2 procedures/functions were created to test utl_file:
create or replace FUNCTION dump_csv ( p_query IN VARCHAR2
, p_separator IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT ','
, p_dir IN VARCHAR2
, p_filename IN VARCHAR2)
RETURN NUMBER
AS
l_output utl_file.file_type;
l_thecursor INTEGER DEFAULT dbms_sql.open_cursor;
l_columnvalue VARCHAR2(2000);
l_status INTEGER;
l_colcnt NUMBER DEFAULT 0;
l_separator VARCHAR2(10) DEFAULT '';
l_cnt NUMBER DEFAULT 0;
BEGIN
l_output := utl_file.fopen(p_dir, p_filename, 'w');
dbms_sql.parse(l_thecursor, p_query, dbms_sql.native);
FOR i IN 1 .. 255
LOOP
BEGIN
dbms_sql.define_column(l_thecursor, i, l_columnvalue, 2000);
l_colcnt := i;
EXCEPTION
WHEN others
THEN
IF(SQLCODE = -1007) THEN
EXIT;
ELSE
RAISE;
END IF;
END;
END LOOP;
dbms_sql.define_column(l_thecursor, 1, l_columnvalue, 2000);
l_status := dbms_sql.EXECUTE(l_thecursor);
LOOP
EXIT WHEN(dbms_sql.fetch_rows(l_thecursor) <= 0);
l_separator := '';
FOR i IN 1 .. l_colcnt
LOOP
dbms_sql.column_value(l_thecursor, i, l_columnvalue);
utl_file.put(l_output, l_separator || l_columnvalue);
l_separator := p_separator;
END LOOP;
utl_file.new_line(l_output);
l_cnt := l_cnt + 1;
END LOOP;
dbms_sql.close_cursor(l_thecursor);
utl_file.fclose(l_output);
RETURN l_cnt;
END dump_csv;
create or replace PROCEDURE TEST_DUMP_CSV
AS
l_count NUMBER;
l_fn VARCHAR2(30);
BEGIN
SELECT TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS') INTO l_fn FROM DUAL;
l_count := dump_csv( p_query => 'select * from coreq',
p_separator => ',',
p_dir => 'OUTBOUND_NEW_DIR',
p_filename => 'dump_csv' || l_fn || '.csv' );
dbms_output.put_line( to_char(l_count) || ' rows extracted to file dump_csv' || l_fn || '.csv.' );
END TEST_DUMP_CSV;
To test utl_file, I execute as the MAXIMO user:
CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY outbound_new_dir AS '/home/mfts_user/Maximo/outbound_new';
select dump_csv('select * from coreq', ',', 'OUTBOUND_NEW_DIR', 'dump_csv.csv' ) from dual;
Here is the error I get:
ORA-29283: invalid file operation
ORA-06515: at "SYS.UTL_FILE", line 449
ORA-29283: invalid file operation
ORA-06512: at "MAXIMO.DUMP_CSV", line 15
ORA-06512: at line 1
This same setup works on Windows XP when logged in as an Admin user, which tells me that the syntax and logic is correct.
What could be wrong with the Linux setup?

Answer 1

Yes. I read that read/write is automatically granted to the user that creates the DIRECTORY object.
The result of the query you gave was 2 records:
GRANTOR GRANTEE TABLE_SCHEMA TABLE_NAME PRIVILEGE GRANTABLE HIERARCHY
SYS     MAXIMO     SYS     OUTBOUND_NEW_DIR     READ     YES     NO
SYS     MAXIMO     SYS     OUTBOUND_NEW_DIR     WRITE     YES     NO