Re: BFILE vs. BLOB

[Don Jerman]

Last time I danced with this topic (8.1.5), BFILE required the file to exist somewhere accessable to the data server (like on a mounted file system) that you create an alias for with CREATE DIRECTORY.  But the data server could not create or write the file.  So you have to let the application write to a directory mounted by your Oracle server, without overwriting any old BFILE data and without deleting any files that are still referenced by the database.  Sounded complicated to me. If you must modify the data BFILEs are out, unless you let the app do it, and then you might as well just store the file names.  Sounds good for static content that must be streamed back with the query, though. Of course, 8.1.7 may have fixed this... "Koivu, Lisa" wrote:   Good morning all, I have to start storing binary files in our database somehow.  I'm reading up on BFILES and BLOBs. Seems like one of the differences is that BLOBs are manipulated within the database, and BFILEs are not.  Can anyone comment on how fast (or not fast) the DBMS_LOB. routines are when operating in fairly large BLOBs?  I'm leaning toward BFILEs to avoid having the database do anything other than just keep a pointer to the file and keep the transaction length as short as possible.  FWIW, I'll only need to accept a file and store it, and return it back to the app when requested. Another question:  Anyone using temporary BLOBs (8i)? Any comments, gotchas, boogie men are appreciated. Thanks Lisa Rutland Koivu Oracle Database Administrator Qode.com 4850 North State Road 7 Suite G104 Fort Lauderdale, FL  33319 V: 954.484.3191, x174 F: 954.484.2933 C: 954.658.5849 http://www.qode.com "The information contained herein does not express the opinion or position of Qode.com and cannot be attributed to or made binding upon Qode.com."

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