topic Re: Copy the file in SAS Programming

Copy the file

SASdevAnneMarie — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:59:14 GMT

Hello Experts,

I would like to copy the files (SAS EG 8.3) :

	option noxwait;
        x 'cp C:\Users\XX\Desktop\Document\Lettre.pdf,
            C:\Users\XX\Desktop\Documents_2024\Lettre.pdf');

But the file is not copied and I don't have an error message.

Thank you for your help.

Re: Copy the file

andreas_lds — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 11:48:43 GMT

Things to check/do:

- Is sas running local or on a server? If it is running on a server, you can't copy local files.

- Is xcmd enabled?

- Change noxwait to xwait.

- Post the log.

Re: Copy the file

FreelanceReinh — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 12:31:21 GMT

Also, the name of the DOS command is copy, not cp. (And better remove the unbalanced parenthesis at the end. The comma is redundant.)

Re: Copy the file

Kurt_Bremser — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 13:53:54 GMT

Whenever you need to run an external command, use the PIPE method:

filename xcom pipe "copy C:\Users\XX\Desktop\Document\Lettre.pdf C:\Users\XX\Desktop\Documents_2024\Lettre.pdf 2>&1";

data _null_;
infile xcom;
input;
put _infile_;
run;

This way, all messages returned from the command end up in the SAS log for inspection.

Re: Copy the file

SASdevAnneMarie — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 16:06:30 GMT

Finally I used this function :

filename src "\\XXX \&PDF." recfm=n;
		filename dst "\\XXX \&PDF." recfm=n;
		%let rc = %sysfunc(FCOPY(src,dst));
		%put %sysfunc(SYSMSG());