topic Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders? in New SAS User

How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 04:17:40 GMT

I'm wondering why this works

libname name1 "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5";

but this doesn't

libname name2 "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5/subfolder6";

Is there a limit on the number of subfolders? The two lines are exactly the same except for the final folder name.

I'm using SAS Studio. Thanks.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Reeza — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 03:29:46 GMT

Neither of those should work, libnames are restricted to 8 characters.

library_name and library_name2 are both longer than 8 characters.

Please post your log.

Limits on path length would be via the OS (Windows sometimes limits to 256 characters) not SAS AFAIK.

@kz_ wrote:

I'm wondering why this works

libname library_name "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5";

but this doesn't

libname library_name2 "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5/subfolder6";

Is there a limit on the number of subfolders? The two lines are exactly the same except for the final folder name.

I'm using SAS Studio. Thanks.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Patrick — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 03:27:16 GMT

WHAT is not working? Do you get an error? And what's the error?

Does subfolder5 and subfolder6 already pre-exist or do you expect SAS to create these folders. If the latter (with option dlcreatedir set) then be aware that you can only create one folder at a time so if you need a deeper structure then you need to issue the same libname statement each time with one more sub-folder added to the path.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 04:12:05 GMT

The error is

ERROR: Library library_name does not exist

All of the folders have already been created, and the subfolder contains SAS datasets.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 04:17:05 GMT

You're right - library_name isn't actually the name I'm using.

For clarity, I wanted to use something generic rather than the actual names on my computer.

I'm using Linux Mint - would that limit the path name?

(I can't post the actual log because the folder names are sensitive information.)

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 06:23:55 GMT

Operating systems pose a limit on the total length of a pathname, usually in the 200 byte range. If there's UTF characters in the names, this limit can be reached long before the number of visible characters exceeds it.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Shmuel — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 06:27:10 GMT

Why are you using long path like "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5" ?

why not:

"/folder/subfolder/subfolder1"
"/folder/subfolder/subfolder2"
etc.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Patrick — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 23:47:26 GMT

@Kurt_Bremser Are you sure it's 200? That feels very short and less than I believe I've used in the past.

Google tells me:

Linux has a maximum filename length of 255 characters for most filesystems (including EXT4), and a maximum path of 4096 characters.

@kz_

How long is your path (the string)?

If the path is really rather long then another - and earlier reached - limitation could be the max. length for a line of SAS code. There is a SAS option to increase this.

What you could try to ensure that the length of the line of code isn't the limiting factor:

%let subfolder4=/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4;
libname <libref> "&subfolder4/subfolder5/subfolder6";

I guess if it's really the OS and the length of the path then you would need a symbolic link to shorten the path.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 14:04:21 GMT

@kz_ wrote:

The error is

ERROR: Library library_name does not exist

All of the folders have already been created, and the subfolder contains SAS datasets.

This is the error you get later when you try to use the library. Please copy/paste the complete log of the LIBNAME statement into a window opened with this button:

You can mask sensitive parts of the path.

Edit: corrected FILENAME to LIBNAME.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Kurt_Bremser — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 14:03:13 GMT

@Patrick You are right about Linux, and on the commercial UNIX variants the limit is 1024.

What I had in the back of my head was the 260 byte MAX_PATH of Windows. And the 255 byte limit of each filename (directories are also files when it comes to names).

Bottom line: we need to see how (exactly) the LIBNAME fails.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 21:05:08 GMT

It's a shared directory - I don't have control over it.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 21:10:15 GMT

This is actually the error when I try to create the library:

libname name '/name1/name2/name3/name4/name5';
NOTE: Library NAME does not exist.

And when I remove the last subfolder, I get:
NOTE: Libref NAME was successfully assigned as follows:
Engine: V9
Physical Name: /name1/name2/name3/name4

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 21:13:07 GMT

I like this idea, but unfortunately, using &subfolder4 didn't work.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Reeza — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 21:39:27 GMT

I get that error when the folder doesn't exist.
Does the folder exist prior to the libname statement?
Can you confirm that from SAS using something like this:
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Tips-from-the-Community/SAS-Tip-Check-if-a-directory-exists/td-p/475988

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Reeza — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 21:40:11 GMT

And just a note in case you didn't know if you're on unix the path is likely case sensitive.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 22:49:17 GMT

Yes, it exists - I can even see it in the 'Server Files and Folders' menu.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Reeza — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 22:54:57 GMT

And you got the path by right clicking, selecting properties and copying that to the libname statement?
And that path is not working for you?

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

kz_ — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 23:01:47 GMT

Yes, and the file path works in, for example, proc iml with a saveRDS statement, so I know that I have privileges to write to it.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Reeza — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 00:00:48 GMT

Then you should open a ticket with SAS tech support.

Without more code, log or screenshots we can't really help you.

Re: How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

Kurt_Bremser — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 07:14:27 GMT

@kz_ wrote:
It's a shared directory - I don't have control over it.

You can create (or have created) a shorter direct link to the subdirectory.