Syntax
------

LOAD_FILE(file_name)

Description
-----------

Reads the file and returns the file contents as a string. To use this
function, the file must be located on the server host, you must specify the
full path name to the file, and you must have the FILE privilege. The file
must be readable by all and it must be less than the size, in bytes, of the
max_allowed_packet system variable. If the secure_file_priv system variable is
set to a non-empty directory name, the file to be loaded must be located in
that directory.

If the file does not exist or cannot be read because one of the preceding
conditions is not satisfied, the function returns NULL.

Since MariaDB 5.1, the character_set_filesystem system variable has controlled
interpretation of file names that are given as literal strings.

Statements using the LOAD_FILE() function are not safe for statement based
replication. This is because the slave will execute the LOAD_FILE() command
itself. If the file doesn't exist on the slave, the function will return NULL.

Examples
--------

UPDATE t SET blob_col=LOAD_FILE('/tmp/picture') WHERE id=1;

URL: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/load_file/