topic Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local) in SAS Enterprise Guide

Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

invalid — Thu, 07 May 2020 18:17:23 GMT

In EG i can per program choose either Local (windows machine with SAS EG) or SASapp (unix server with SAS running) to run the sas code.

I can use File Copy task to copy a file between the two. But then I need to "hardcode" the same path in TWO programs (one running on SASApp and one running on local).

If the project is shared between users i must make sure all users have access to that folder to transfer a file SASapp <-> local. To get around this i want it to be dynamic. Ideally i would like to copy a dataset between SASapp WORK and Local WORK, (ie %sysfunc(pathname(work,L)) evaluated on respective machine). But then SASApp need to know the path to WORK on the Local machine.

Can i set a macro variable on SASApp and then transfer that value to the local session somehow?

Re: Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

andreas_lds — Thu, 07 May 2020 18:42:42 GMT

A macro-variable is bound to the session, a session running on a server is, most likely, not able to access local directories. So this won't work.

Re: Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

ChrisHemedinger — Thu, 07 May 2020 19:04:41 GMT

If you are copying data sets, look at the Upload SAS Data Sets and Download SAS Data Sets tasks. These can copy SAS data set files from a remote SAS library to a local PC folder, or vice versa.

If these are just general files, I can't think of a clean way of doing what you want (copy macro values from local session to remote). I can think of one very messy way though.

On Local SAS, run a SAS program that writes out current macro var values of interest to a local file (maybe even as a program, with %LET statements).
Use Copy Files task to transfer that file to your remote SAS session (SASApp).
On SASApp, run a program to %include the file you just copied. Now you have these macro variables in your session.

Re: Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

Reeza — Thu, 07 May 2020 19:05:58 GMT

Have you tried SYSRPUT or SYSLPUT?

SYSLPUT looks appropriate in this case:

https://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=mcrolref&docsetTarget=p13mg8ttnegfzxn15lz4aky4d3p5.htm&docsetVersion=9.4&locale=en

You can choose which session to pass the macro variable to, if you have multiple open using the REMOTE session ID and REMOTE option.

@invalid wrote:

In EG i can per program choose either Local (windows machine with SAS EG) or SASapp (unix server with SAS running) to run the sas code.

I can use File Copy task to copy a file between the two. But then I need to "hardcode" the same path in TWO programs (one running on SASApp and one running on local).

If the project is shared between users i must make sure all users have access to that folder to transfer a file SASapp <-> local. To get around this i want it to be dynamic. Ideally i would like to copy a dataset between SASapp WORK and Local WORK, (ie %sysfunc(pathname(work,L)) evaluated on respective machine). But then SASApp need to know the path to WORK on the Local machine.

Can i set a macro variable on SASApp and then transfer that value to the local session somehow?

Re: Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

Quentin — Thu, 07 May 2020 20:01:59 GMT

I like Chris's idea, but I think I would transfer them with a SAS data set. You've got dictionary.macros, which holds all of the macro variables. I would think you could use PROC SQL to create a dataset from that, then push that dataset to the other SAS session, and then read the data set in a DATA step and use CALL SYMPUTX to re-generate the macro variables. One thing to keep in mind is that a macro variable with length >200 will have multiple records in dictionary.macros.

Here's a similar example of saving and restoring macro vars (which wouldn't actually handle long values, but could be adapted for your need): https://support.sas.com/kb/46/300.html

If you do it a lot, you can imagine writing macros %SaveMacroVars(out=/*output dataset name*/,mvars=/*list of macro vars to save*/) and %RestoreMacroVars(data=/*name of dataset previously created by %SaveMacroVars*/).

Re: Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

ChrisHemedinger — Thu, 07 May 2020 20:15:17 GMT

SYSRPUT and SYSLPUT apply to SAS/CONNECT -- when you have two SAS sessions talking directly to each other. That's SAS <--> SAS.

But with your typical EG setup, you don't have SAS/CONNECT in the middle. It's EG connecting to your local SAS, and EG connecting to your remote SAS. EG uses SAS Integration Technologies for this work. SAS Integration Technologies supports [any client]<-->SAS, where [any client] might be EG, SAS Add-In for MS Office, SAS DI Studio, etc.

Re: Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

ChrisHemedinger — Thu, 07 May 2020 20:19:45 GMT

I think @invalid was looking to grab just the one value (path to WORK). But if I follow @Quentin down the path of over-engineering, then you could just use the Download Data Set task to "download" SASHELP.VMACRO to a sas7bdat, then use Upload SAS Data Set to copy to any library on your remote server.

Re: Copy macrovar from one server to another (sasapp <-> local)

invalid — Wed, 13 May 2020 11:34:59 GMT

Thanks all for the input.

If the code fails i don't want large file to be orphaned in the users personal folder. That is why i want to transfer it to work directly.

It seems the best solution is:

On local write macrovars with path to Local work to file
Transfer file to SASapp (make sure it's to somewhere where all users have access, ie a personal folder)
Read in file with macrovar on SASapp
Remove file on SASapp to clean up their personal folder
Transfer large data file from SASapp to Local PC work