Can't get load_file() working in mysql - mysql

Question

I've been struggling for 2 nights now to get load_file() to work, but the results are NULL.
I run version "5.6.19-0ubuntu0.14.04.1".
Example:
mysql> show variables like '%secure%';
+------------------+-------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+------------------+-------------+
| secure_auth | ON |
| secure_file_priv | /root/load/ |
+------------------+-------------+
mysql> show variables like 'max_allowed%';
+--------------------+----------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------+----------+
| max_allowed_packet | 16777216 |
+--------------------+----------+
mysql> desc xmlDocs;
+-------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| fileName | varchar(30) | NO | PRI | NULL | |
| server | varchar(20) | NO | | NULL | |
| doc_content | blob | NO | | NULL | |
+-------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
mysql> insert into xmlDocs values ('test','test',load_file('/root/load/test.xml'));
ERROR 1048 (23000): Column 'doc_content' cannot be null
File permissions:
drwxrwxr-x 5 mysql mysql 4096 Nov 24 08:18 .
drwx------ 6 root root 4096 Nov 24 08:33 ..
drwxr--r-- 5 root root 4096 Nov 22 16:24 EU1
drwxr--r-- 5 root root 4096 Nov 22 16:26 server
-rwxrwxrwx 1 mysql mysql 83440 Nov 24 08:18 test.xml
drwxr--r-- 5 root root 4096 Nov 22 16:24 US1
Checked:
MySql has execute and even owns the dir
Mysql ows the file
DB user = root
Filesize < max_allowed_packets
secure-file-priv is set
I have no apparmor running
Without setting secure-file-priv it can read non important data like /etc/passwd effortlessly :P. Also from "/" i can import, but nowhere else.
When setting secure-file-priv, I can get it to work from "/" only!
Same file, no secure-file-priv set:
mysql> insert into xmlDocs values ('test','test',load_file("/root/load/test.xml"));
ERROR 1048 (23000): Column 'doc_content' cannot be null
mysql> insert into xmlDocs values ('test','test',load_file("/etc/test.xml"));
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Typical ... been looking for 2 days and 5 minutes after posting it here i figured it out.
The file to be loaded, not just the folder it's located in must have execute ... EVERY folder in it's path up to "/" must have execute!