topic Re: Delete invalid folder in SAS Programming

Delete invalid folder

Ramesh_165 — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 22:50:06 GMT

I'm trying to delete the below folder created by mistake (not sure how it got created in the first place though).

Folder name: _Error_Report;GOPTIONS NOACCESSIBLE;;*';*

Tried deleting it manually in egp, and also using the below code.

filename deldir "File_Folder&i..";
data _null_;
rc = fdelete('deldir');
put rc=;
msg2=sysmsg();
put msg2=;
run;

Getting the below errors.

rc=20017
msg2=ERROR: Invalid physical name.

Any help to delete this folder is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ramesh

Re: Delete invalid folder

Reeza — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 22:56:31 GMT

Try using the full path directly in FDELETE? I suspect your FILENAME reference is incorrect, so pass the full file name and see if that works out.

*your file name has _error_report... and &I is usually a number so I don't think it goes where you want it to. You can right click the file, properties and get the path from there.

Re: Delete invalid folder

ChrisNZ — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 01:24:56 GMT

If the server runs does not run under under Windows, you can try something like this:

filename CMD pipe 'rm -rf ""folderpath"" ';
data _null_;
  infile CMD;
  input; 
  put _infile_; 
run;

and report.

Supposing the server runs under Windows:

Windows does not accept stars as part of folder names, so it looks like Windows allowed untoward things here.

Your best bet is to delete it using its short name.

You can see the short name by running the DIR command with the /X option.

Probably something like del _ERROR~1

Re: Delete invalid folder

Ramesh_165 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 16:11:46 GMT

The code pasted above had that incorrect &i, however I had ran it with out the &i.

I tried the actual path directly to the FDELETE command. Still the same error.

Re: Delete invalid folder

Ramesh_165 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 16:12:37 GMT

We don't have "sas x command" enabled in our site. So I'm afraid I can use pipe commands.

Re: Delete invalid folder

Reeza — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 16:15:31 GMT

Post your code and log. The folder was created likely because of a missing semi-colon somewhere.

Re: Delete invalid folder

Ramesh_165 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 17:31:27 GMT

Code:

filename deldir "/usr/apps/.../_Error_Report;GOPTIONS NOACCESSIBLE;;*';*";
data _null_;
	rc = fdelete('deldir');
	put rc=;
	msg2=sysmsg();
	put msg2=;
run;

Log:

1                                                          The SAS System                                14:22 Monday, July 15, 2019

1          ;*';*";*/;quit;run;
2          OPTIONS PAGENO=MIN;
3          %LET _CLIENTTASKLABEL='Program (2)';
4          %LET _CLIENTPROCESSFLOWNAME='Process Flow';
5          %LET _CLIENTPROJECTPATH='';
6          %LET _CLIENTPROJECTPATHHOST='';
7          %LET _CLIENTPROJECTNAME='';
8          %LET _SASPROGRAMFILE='';
9          %LET _SASPROGRAMFILEHOST='';
10         
11         ODS _ALL_ CLOSE;
12         OPTIONS DEV=ACTIVEX;
13         GOPTIONS XPIXELS=0 YPIXELS=0;
14         FILENAME EGSR TEMP;
15         ODS tagsets.sasreport13(ID=EGSR) FILE=EGSR
16             STYLE=HTMLBlue
17             STYLESHEET=(URL="file:///D:/Program%20Files/SASHome/SASEnterpriseGuide/7.1/Styles/HTMLBlue.css")
18             NOGTITLE
19             NOGFOOTNOTE
20             GPATH=&sasworklocation
21             ENCODING=UTF8
22             options(rolap="on")
23         ;
NOTE: Writing TAGSETS.SASREPORT13(EGSR) Body file: EGSR
24         
25         GOPTIONS ACCESSIBLE;
26         filename deldir
26       ! "/usr/apps/../_E
26       ! rror_Report;GOPTIONS NOACCESSIBLE;;*';*";
27         data _null_;
28         	rc = fdelete('deldir');
29         	put rc=;
30         	msg2=sysmsg();
31         	put msg2=;
32         run;

INFO: Character variables have defaulted to a length of 200 at the places given by: (Line):(Column). Truncation can result.
      30:2     msg2
rc=20017
msg2=ERROR: Invalid physical name.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
      real time           0.00 seconds
      user cpu time       0.01 seconds
      system cpu time     0.00 seconds
      memory              349.21k
      OS Memory           55364.00k
      Timestamp           07/17/2019 01:26:07 PM
      Step Count                        58  Switch Count  0
      Page Faults                       0
      Page Reclaims                     50
      Page Swaps                        0
      Voluntary Context Switches        0
      Involuntary Context Switches      0
      Block Input Operations            0
      Block Output Operations           0
      
2                                                          The SAS System                                14:22 Monday, July 15, 2019


33         
34         GOPTIONS NOACCESSIBLE;
35         %LET _CLIENTTASKLABEL=;
36         %LET _CLIENTPROCESSFLOWNAME=;
37         %LET _CLIENTPROJECTPATH=;
38         %LET _CLIENTPROJECTPATHHOST=;
39         %LET _CLIENTPROJECTNAME=;
40         %LET _SASPROGRAMFILE=;
41         %LET _SASPROGRAMFILEHOST=;
42         
43         ;*';*";*/;quit;run;
44         ODS _ALL_ CLOSE;
45         
46         
47         QUIT; RUN;
48

Thanks,

Ramesh

Re: Delete invalid folder

Reeza — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 17:39:56 GMT

You don't actually have the ... in your path do you?

Re: Delete invalid folder

Ramesh_165 — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 18:26:37 GMT

No. The dots are for just posting it in the blog purposes.

Re: Delete invalid folder

Reeza — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 19:23:56 GMT

Well, so far it seems like the issue is still the filename portion. You'll need to figure out how to reference it exactly, the method of copying the path from properties usually works, is that the approach you used?

Re: Delete invalid folder

Patrick — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 19:37:37 GMT

I'm asking myself if the stars in the foldername are creating issues when trying to delete the folder programmatically.

You've posted a picture of the folder. Can't you delete it right there manually with the browser you're using?

Re: Delete invalid folder

ChrisNZ — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 21:56:28 GMT

So you are under unix and the name is probably valid then. There may be special characters there.

You can retrieve the exact name (and process the folder) using one of the many SAS folder-reading utilities on the web, such as this one.

Re: Delete invalid folder

Ramesh_165 — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 17:59:17 GMT

No, the manual delete fails too.

Thanks,

Ramesh

Re: Delete invalid folder

Tom — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 19:31:11 GMT

Did you try using \ in the filename to escape the special characters?

Something like this:

data _null_;
   length filename $500;
   filename = "/path/to/where/file/is/" || "_Error_Report;GOPTIONS NOACCESSIBLE;;*';*";
   filename = tranwrd(filename,'*','\*');
   filename = tranwrd(filename,';','\;');
   filename = tranwrd(filename,"'","\'");
   rc=filename('myfile',filename);
   if rc then put 'Unable to make fileref. ' rc=;
   else do;
     rc=fdelete('myfile');
     if rc then put 'Unable to delete file. ' rc=;
   end;
run;

Or perhaps since it looks like it might be a folder and not a file you need to make sure there aren't any files inside of it before you can delete the folder. Also looks like the syntax for FDELETE() when deleting a folder is different than when deleting a file.

Re: Delete invalid folder

Reeza — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 19:45:18 GMT

Fastest solution is probably to go to the server directly and use an RM (remove) command to delete that file - very carefully of course. If you have x commands enabled (not usually with EG) you may want to consider that anyways.

Re: Delete invalid folder

Ramesh_165 — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 06:31:48 GMT

Yes, I ended up contacting SAS admin at our site. He was able to get into the server and delete the folder for me.

Thank you for time and continuous ideas. I appreciate it!!

Thanks,

Ramesh