ORA-39146 Directory Object Parameter Tips

Question:  I am running expdp from the command line without any regiments and I get this error:

oracle> expdp  

ORA-39002: invalid operation
ORA-39070: Unable to open the log file.
ORA-39145: directory object parameter must be specified and non-null  

How do I fix the ORA-39146 error?

Answer:  The expdp invocation is different in the older export (exp) and the data pump export (expdp because expdp requires the directory argument). 

The oerr utility shows this for the ORA-39145 error:  

ORA-39145: directory object parameter must be specified and non-null  

Cause: No directory object was provided in either an dbms_datapump.add_file API call or to the directory parameter used by the Data Pump command line clients.

Action: Correct the directory object parameter and retry the operation  

The fix for the ORA-39146 is to grant exp_full_database, create an export directory and use it in the command line argument to expdp:  

1.  grant exp_full_database to user:  
   
   SQL> connect oracle/mypass;  
   Connected.  
   
   SQL > grant exp_full_database to fred;  
   Grant succeeded.
     
2.  In SQL*Plus, create the directory with the create directory command:  
   
   SQL>  create directory exp_dir as ‘/u01/app/oracle/mysid/exports’;
     
3.  From the UNIX/Linux/DOS prompt, add the directory argument when invoking expdp:
   
   > expdp directory=exp_dir  

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