Is there any easy way to save BLOB into client-side file system in Oracle?

Question

Is there any easy way to save BLOB as a binary file into client-side file system with using of only standard Oracle utilities (such as sqlplus or sqlldr for example)?

I've already looked onto UTL_FILE package, but actually I have two problems with it:

1. I have doubts that it can work with client-side file system.
2. I have no privilege to CREATE DIRECTORY in schema where BLOBs are saved and so that I can't work with UTL_FILE at all.

Also, I know that I can just write some homebred utility in any language (Java for example); connect to Oracle, select my BLOB and save it in binary format. But I'd look for some easier way before doing this.

Answer 1

Would you really want a database writing a BLOB, for example winword.exe, to your local PC ? This is the sort of thing that is intentionally quite protected.

It is very client driven, so the best place to start is with whatever is running on your local machine. I'd go with a Java routine, or if you've got APEX running, a simple procedure that will push the BLOB out through the browser and let the browser prompt you for what to save it.