still a security nightmare, but you could grant 'CREATE ANY DIRECTORY' to your application account and then create the directory object at runtime as well. On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 2:01 PM, John Dunn <JDunn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > OK, thanks > > The biggest issue I have with utl_file is needing to define utl_file_dir= > > Since the directories we need to access are not known till run time we have > to specify utl_file_dir=*, which is a security nightmare. > > > > > ** > > *John * > -- Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.orawin.info