Runtime error using utl_file package

Question

Hi Friends,
This is the procedure for reading sample data from flat file , but it won't work.
create or replace procedure test_utl_file
is
ftype utl_file.file_type;
ch varchar2(200);
begin
ftype := utl_file.FOPEN('C:\oracle\temp','data.txt,R');
utl_file.get_line(ftype,ch);
dbms_output.put_line(ch);
end;
This code is compiled succesfully , but at runtime it shows an error msg
ORA-29280: invalid directory path
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_FILE", line 33
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_FILE", line 436
ORA-06512: at "SCOTT.TEST_UTL_FILE", line 7
ORA-06512: at line 1
I had entered the directory entry in int.ora file
utl_file_dir=C:\oracle\temp
& i used another way also,
by using alter set utl_file_dir=C:\oracle\temp scope=spfile;
Can anyone help me to resolve this problem.
Rgrds,
Anand

Answer 1

What database version are you using?
The UTL_FILE_DIR parameter has been deprecated by oracle in favour of direcory objects because of it's security problems.
The correct thing to do is to create a directory object e.g.:
CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY mydir AS 'c:\myfiles';
Note: This does not create the directory on the file system. You have to do that yourself and ensure that oracle has permission to read/write to that file system directory.
Then, grant permission to the users who require access e.g....
GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY mydir TO myuser;
Then use that directory object inside your FOPEN statement e.g.
fh := UTL_FILE.FOPEN('MYDIR', 'myfile.txt', 'r');
Note: You MUST specify the directory object name in quotes and in UPPER case for this to work as it is a string that is referring to a database object name which will have been stored in uppercase by default.