Real vs reported file size?

Question

the following procedure is returning the error:
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-22993: specified input amount is greater than actual source amount
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_LOB", line 639
ORA-06512: at "BANINST1.LOAD_CLOB", line 14
ORA-06512: at line 1
I printed out the reported size from DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(in_file)
it returns 7262. Via trial and error, I found that the largest acceptable value I could set for 'AMOUNT' to be 7246. This is the same charactor count (7246) my editor shows for 'in_file'. Why is the function call DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(in_file) reporting 16 charactors more?
CREATE TABLE js_holder (
js_name varchar(30),
js_body CLOB );
CREATE DIRECTORY foos as 'USR$DISK:[CLEMENSD.SQL_EDIT]';
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE Load_CLOB IS
dest_clob CLOB;
in_file BFILE := BFILENAME('foos', 'supernote.js');
dst_offset number := 1 ;
src_offset number := 1 ;
lang_ctx number := DBMS_LOB.DEFAULT_LANG_CTX;
warning number;
BEGIN
DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE(100000);
INSERT INTO js_holder(js_name, js_body)
VALUES('supernote', empty_clob())
RETURNING js_body INTO dest_clob;
DBMS_LOB.OPEN(in_file, DBMS_LOB.LOB_READONLY);
DBMS_LOB.LoadCLOBFromFile(
DEST_LOB => dest_clob,
SRC_BFILE => in_file,
AMOUNT => DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(in_file),
DEST_OFFSET => dst_offset ,
SRC_OFFSET => src_offset,
BFILE_CSID => DBMS_LOB.DEFAULT_CSID,
LANG_CONTEXT => lang_ctx,
WARNING => warning );
DBMS_LOB.CLOSE(in_file);
COMMIT;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Loaded File using DBMS_LOB.LoadCLOBFromFile.');
END;
then the following:
SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> exec load_clob

Answer 1

Hi Dancy,
A quick search on Metalink reveals note 412239.1. I can't reproduce the content here because of the whole T&C around using Metalink, but basically it's not a bug, the BFILE must have the correct binary attributes - "record format of variable length/Stream_Lf" (if that means anything).
That implies the file you are looking at isn't in fact binary and that, unlike other platforms, bfiles on VMS must be binary (which has interesting ramifications for anyone writing portable code, I didn't know this). Maybe use UTL_FILE instead to write to a CLOB?
HTH
Chris