Why pipe command or X command doesn't rightly start script on EG Server?

whymath — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:43:09 GMT

I am sure that my EG Server allow me to submit x command or pipe command.

But if I submit:

x "test.vbs";

Things goes strange, I can see a vbs process in task manager on EG Server computer, but the vbs task never stop until I mannually terminate it.

So I test this:

filename temp pipe "calc";
data _null_;
  infile temp;
  input text $256.;
run;

I switch to EG Server computer and there is a Windows Calculator process in task manager(the highlighted one), but no software interface of Windows Calculator can be seen.

What's wrong with it?

Re: Why pipe command or X command doesn't rightly start script on EG Server?

ChrisHemedinger — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 17:18:39 GMT

It looks like your server is allowing XCMD (an option that is typically disabled on server environments), so that's not the blocker.

But, when using EG to connect to a SAS session on a Windows server, the SAS is running "headless" -- meaning it has no Windowing/UI capacity. So when you launch another process that generates a UI interaction, it does not work as you would expect. It's an odd thing to do anyway -- use EG to tell SAS to launch another app on the server.

Regarding the VBS, it very much depends on what you want that VBS to do. VB Script is a legacy scripting technology that is not even deployed on newer Windows Server setups, with Microsoft positioning PowerShell as the tool of choice for automation in Windows apps.

topic Re: Why pipe command or X command doesn't rightly start script on EG Server? in SAS Enterprise Guide

Why pipe command or X command doesn't rightly start script on EG Server?

Re: Why pipe command or X command doesn't rightly start script on EG Server?