--- a/onclient.txt
+++ b/onclient.txt
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ By default, the JDBC driver will refuse 
 	'No file upload handler has been registered with the JDBC driver'
 
 or in JdbcClient:
-	'Error [22000] !HY000!data.csv: No file upload handler has been registered with the JDBC driver;
-	'Error [22000] cannot transfer files from client'
+	'Error [22000] data.csv: No file upload handler has been registered with the JDBC driver'
 
 This is for security reasons.  However, you can register a callback to handle
 these requests from the server:
@@ -30,6 +29,8 @@ these requests from the server:
 	MyUploader handler = new MyUploadHandler();
 	conn.unwrap(MonetConnection.class).setUploadHandler(handler);
 
+or provide the JdbcClient startup argument: --csvdir "/path/to/csvfilesdir"
+
 Here, MyUploadHandler is an implementation of the interface MonetConnection.UploadHandler,
 which looks like this:
 
@@ -83,9 +84,10 @@ is currently no way to signal errors to 
 
 The interface for downloading is similar to that for uploading.
 
-Class org.monetdb.util.FileTransferHandler provides a default implementation of
-both MonetConnection.UploadHandler and MonetConnection.DownloadHandler.  You
-pass it a directory name and a flag indicating whether the contents of that
-directory can be assumed to be UTF-8 encoded. It is intended for situations
-where you do not need to generate or transform data while uploading.
+Class org.monetdb.util.FileTransferHandler provides a default implementation
+of both MonetConnection.UploadHandler and MonetConnection.DownloadHandler for
+reading from and writing to local csv files. You pass the FileTransferHandler
+constructor a directory name and a flag indicating whether the contents of
+the csv files data are UTF-8 encoded. FileTransferHandler is intended for
+situations where you do not need to generate or transform data while uploading.
 

--- a/release.txt
+++ b/release.txt
@@ -185,9 +185,29 @@ The following java.sql.* interfaces are 
   * java.sql.SQLXML
   * java.sql.Struct
 
-Since version VERSION_NUMBER, the MonetDB JDBC driver has support for the
-ON CLIENT clause of the COPY statement. You can register callback to provide
-data when the server asks for it, see onclient.txt for more information.
+
+Since release 3.2 (monetdb-jdbc-3.2.jre8.jar), the MonetDB JDBC driver has
+support for the ON CLIENT clause of the COPY statement. To make use of
+this functionality you must register handlers for upload and download of data.
+The MonetConnection class has been extended with 2 methods:
+ public void setUploadHandler(UploadHandler uploadHandler)
+ public void setDownloadHandler(DownloadHandler downloadHandler)
+The API has been extended with interfaces and utility class:
+ public interface org.monetdb.jdbc.MonetConnection.UploadHandler
+ public interface org.monetdb.jdbc.MonetConnection.DownloadHandler
+ public class org.monetdb.util.FileTransferHandler
+  which implements MonetConnection.UploadHandler, MonetConnection.DownloadHandler
+See onclient.txt for more information on how to use these from Java.
+
+The JdbcClient application has also been extended to support COPY ...
+ON CLIENT functionality. However for security reasons you must provide an
+explicit new startup argument
+  --csvdir "/path/to/csvdatafiles"
+or on MS Windows
+  --csvdir "C:\\path\\to\\csvdatafiles"
+in order to allow the JdbcClient to down/up load data to/from local csv files.
+All csv data in the local files must be UTF-8 encoded and uncompressed.
+
 
 Notes and Tips for Java Programmers using MonetDB JDBC driver:
 - Close JDBC ResultSet, Statement, PreparedStatement, CallableStatement and
@@ -251,3 +271,4 @@ Warning:
 Note: as of Febr 2021 (monetdb-jdbc-3.0.jre8.jar) we compile all
  the java sources to target: Java SE 8 (profile compact2), so
  you need a JRE/JDK JVM of version 8 or higher to use it.
+ 

--- a/src/main/java/org/monetdb/client/JdbcClient.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/monetdb/client/JdbcClient.java
@@ -67,7 +67,8 @@ public class JdbcClient {	/* cannot (yet
 	 *
 	 * <pre>Usage java -jar jdbcclient.jre8.jar
 	 *		[-h host[:port]] [-p port] [-f file] [-u user]
-	 *		[-l language] [-d database] [-e] [-D [table]] [-X&lt;opt&gt;]
+	 *		[-l language] [-d database] [-e] [-D [table]]
+	 *		[--csvdir /path/to/csvfiles] [-X&lt;opt&gt;]
 	 *		| [--help] | [--version]
 	 * or using long option equivalents --host --port --file --user --language
 	 * --dump --echo --database.
@@ -100,6 +101,8 @@ public class JdbcClient {	/* cannot (yet
 	 * -e --echo     Also outputs the contents of the input file, if any.
 	 * -q --quiet    Suppress printing the welcome header.
 	 * -D --dump     Dumps the given table(s), or the complete database if none given.
+	 * --csvdir      The directory path where csv data files wil be read from or
+	 ^               written to when COPY ... ON CLIENT commands are executed.
 	 * -Xoutput      The output mode when dumping.  Default is sql, xml may be used for
 	 *               an experimental XML output.
 	 * -Xhash        Use the given hash algorithm during challenge response.
@@ -144,6 +147,9 @@ public class JdbcClient {	/* cannot (yet
 				"if connecting to monetdbd).");
 		copts.addOption("l", "language", CmdLineOpts.CAR_ONE, "sql",
 				"Use the given language, defaults to 'sql'.");
+		copts.addOption(null, "csvdir", CmdLineOpts.CAR_ONE, null,
+				"The directory path where csv data files are read or " +
+				"written when using ON CLIENT clause of COPY command.");
 
 		// arguments which have no argument(s)
 		copts.addOption(null, "help", CmdLineOpts.CAR_ZERO, null,
@@ -222,7 +228,8 @@ public class JdbcClient {	/* cannot (yet
 			System.out.print(
 				"Usage java -jar jdbcclient.jre8.jar\n" +
 				"\t\t[-h host[:port]] [-p port] [-f file] [-u user]\n" +
-				"\t\t[-l language] [-d database] [-e] [-D [table]] [-X<opt>]\n" +
+				"\t\t[-l language] [-d database] [-e] [-D [table]]\n" +
+				"\t\t[--csvdir /path/to/csvfiles]] [-X<opt>]\n" +
 				"\t\t| [--help] | [--version]\n" +
 				"or using long option equivalents --host --port --file --user --language\n" +
 				"--dump --echo --database.\n" +
@@ -339,11 +346,27 @@ public class JdbcClient {	/* cannot (yet
 			dbmd = null;
 		}
 
-		// register file data uploadHandler to allow support for: COPY INTO mytable FROM 'data.csv' ON CLIENT;
-		FileTransferHandler FThandler = new FileTransferHandler("", true);
-		con.unwrap(MonetConnection.class).setUploadHandler(FThandler);
-		// register file data downloadHandler to allow support for: COPY select_query INTO 'data.csv' ON CLIENT;
-		con.unwrap(MonetConnection.class).setDownloadHandler(FThandler);
+		oc = copts.getOption("csvdir");
+		if (oc.isPresent()) {
+			final String csvdir = oc.getArgument();
+			if (csvdir != null) {
+				// check if provided csvdir is an existing dir
+				// else a download of data into file will terminate the JDBC connection!!
+				if (java.nio.file.Files.isDirectory(java.nio.file.Paths.get(csvdir))) {
+					final FileTransferHandler FThandler = new FileTransferHandler(csvdir, true);
+
+					// register file data uploadHandler to allow support
+					// for: COPY INTO mytable FROM 'data.csv' ON CLIENT;
+					((MonetConnection) con).setUploadHandler(FThandler);
+
+					// register file data downloadHandler to allow support
+					// for: COPY select_query INTO 'data.csv' ON CLIENT;
+					((MonetConnection) con).setDownloadHandler(FThandler);
+				} else {
+					System.err.println("Warning: provided csvdir \"" + csvdir + "\" does not exist. Ignoring csvdir setting.");
+				}
+			}
+		}
 
 		stmt = con.createStatement();	// is used by processInteractive(), processBatch(), doDump()