topic Re: Make files in work persistant in Administration and Deployment

Make files in work persistant

DumptyHumpty — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 14:13:58 GMT

I know how to make datasets and other files in sas work persistant if I have control over the code that is executed on the sas server. Actually this is described in an article that I found, when I was searching for a problem solution: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Procedures/save-work-file-in-a-permanent-folder/td-p/46339

I'm an administrator of a sas server that executes sas code that is dynamically generated in a web service outside sas. So there is no way for me to inject sas code that copies files from work to a persistant data location. I still have the need to see what is contained in the temporary files for debugging and analysis.
Is there a way to tell sas on a configuration level to keep files in work or copy it to a persistant data location, so that I have access to it after the sas session has ended?

Solutions and ideas for solutions are welcome.

Thanks in advance

Roland

Re: Make files in work persistant

JosvanderVelden — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 14:35:43 GMT

Have a look at the paper 'Tips for Managing SAS® Work Libraries': https://support.sas.com/resources/papers/proceedings15/3196-2015.pdf You may also want to analyze the cleanwork utility and maybe even this paper: https://www.lexjansen.com/mwsug/2006/coders/MWSUG-2006-CC01.pdf

Re: Make files in work persistant

Tom — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 15:00:55 GMT

Here is a method that will not depend on what the system admins have done.

Make sure your code is creating/referencing the "work" files using single level names. MYDATA instead of WORK.MYDATA.

Then you can create a USER libref and SAS will automatically use USER.MYDATA instead of WORK.MYDATA for the single level name MYDATA references. Or look into the USER= option to use a different libref for the location where you want the single level names to go.