https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/A-lock-is-not-available-for/m-p/41502#M8497 It looks like your sas session needs to use catalog system in library del.<BR /> This not standard, so only you can know why this is the case.<BR /> <BR /> And you also need to look what processes are using this file. For example, if you have 2 sas sessions requiring write access to this catalog, the 2nd one will complain that the first one is locking the file. Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:52:35 GMT ChrisNZ 2009-06-07T22:52:35Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/A-lock-is-not-available-for/m-p/41501#M8496 Users of SAS 8.2 received this message and were frozen at the SAS splash screen.<BR /> <BR /> ERROR: A lock is not available for del.system.catalog, lock held by another process.<BR /> <BR /> I've been told that <U>http://support.sas.com/kb/8/130.html</U> doesn't apply because each user stores temporary files on their personal c: drive. Can anyone tell me how to prevent this error? Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:18:23 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/A-lock-is-not-available-for/m-p/41501#M8496 deleted_user 2009-06-05T20:18:23Z https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/A-lock-is-not-available-for/m-p/41502#M8497 It looks like your sas session needs to use catalog system in library del.<BR /> This not standard, so only you can know why this is the case.<BR /> <BR /> And you also need to look what processes are using this file. For example, if you have 2 sas sessions requiring write access to this catalog, the 2nd one will complain that the first one is locking the file. Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:52:35 GMT https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Programming/A-lock-is-not-available-for/m-p/41502#M8497 ChrisNZ 2009-06-07T22:52:35Z