BLOBs and SQL*Loader

[mattinVS]

Hi,

have to load a mass of data (some million records) on a regular basis (into Oracle 10g release 2). While I am sure that sqlldr can achieve the needed performance for the "text" part of the data I am unsure about how to optimally organize the binary data (pictures) that is associated.
Currently I am using the control file option
ext_fname FILLER CHAR(40),
"DATA" LOBFILE(ext_fname) TERMINATED BY EOF

What I would prefer (because it would avoid opening millions of small picture files) is having all pictures within the text data files or at least having multiple pictures (with preceding byte length) in one file.

Can sqlldr be used like that? Or is there an even better way?

Best regards from sunny (but cold) Black Forrest,
Mattin