topic How to extract file information on a web server in SAS Programming

How to extract file information on a web server

J111 — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 09:56:21 GMT

Hello,

we are able to extract the last modified date of a file on Linux using the following code,

and we would like to extract similar information from a web server/ local.

* Running on a Linux folder ;

filename myfile '/opt/sas/spf/xyz/abc.csv' ;

data last_updated ;

opt=FOPTNAME(FOPEN('myfile'),5) ;

optval=FINFO(FOPEN('myfile'),upcase(opt)) ;

run ;

Here we get the required information

Last Modified

31Jan2023:15:29:01

However a log ERROR appears for running on a web server/windows :

filename fileref 'C:\Temp\abc.csv' ;

data a(drop=fid);

infile fileref truncover obs=1;

fid=fopen('fileref');

moddate=finfo(fid,'Last Modified');

run;

ERROR: Physical file does not exist, /opt/sas/config/Lev1/SASApp/C:\Temp\abc.csv.

Do we need to install Samba in order to solve this issue ? another solution you might have ?

What would the code be ?

Thanks a lot

Re: How to extract file information on a web server

ChrisHemedinger — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 12:38:23 GMT

It looks like the file you are referencing is not on the server, but on a local C drive. Since SAS is running on the server, it cannot "see"/access the files on your local machine. For this to work, those files would need to be somewhere that the SAS server can access. If your SAS is running on Linux, then this could be a network file share/Samba share (which you mentioned).

The main thing to remember is that all file references in SAS code must be coded to access from the SAS environment, not your local machine, if the SAS environment is running on a central server.

Re: How to extract file information on a web server

J111 — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:16:06 GMT

Hello, We get the same error if the csv is local or if it is located on the web and not at the Linux server.

Thanks your reply is helpful.

Re: How to extract file information on a web server

Tom — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:26:10 GMT

@J111 wrote:

Hello, We get the same error if the csv is local or if it is located on the web and not at the Linux server.

Thanks your reply is helpful.

Do you get the error the FIRST time you run that code? Or the only on the second, third, etc ?

You did not CLOSE the file you OPENED.

data a(drop=fid);
   infile fileref truncover obs=1;
   fid=fopen('fileref');
   moddate=finfo(fid,'Last Modified');
   fid=fclose(fid);
run;