How to create a library in a subfolder - limit on number of subfolders?

[kz_]

I'm wondering why this works 

libname name1 "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5";

but this doesn't

libname name2 "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5/subfolder6";

Is there a limit on the number of subfolders? The two lines are exactly the same except for the final folder name. 

I'm using SAS Studio. Thanks. 

[Reeza]

Neither of those should work, libnames are restricted to 8 characters.

library_name and library_name2 are both longer than 8 characters. 

Please post your log.

Limits on path length would be via the OS (Windows sometimes limits to 256 characters) not SAS AFAIK.

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@kz_ wrote:

I'm wondering why this works 

libname library_name "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5";

but this doesn't

libname library_name2 "/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4/subfolder5/subfolder6";

Is there a limit on the number of subfolders? The two lines are exactly the same except for the final folder name. 

I'm using SAS Studio. Thanks. 

---

[kz_]

You're right - library_name isn't actually the name I'm using.

For clarity, I wanted to use something generic rather than the actual names on my computer. 

I'm using Linux Mint - would that limit the path name?

(I can't post the actual log because the folder names are sensitive information.)

[Kurt_Bremser · Accepted solution]

Operating systems pose a limit on the total length of a pathname, usually in the 200 byte range. If there's UTF characters in the names, this limit can be reached long before the number of visible characters exceeds it.

[Patrick]

@Kurt_Bremser Are you sure it's 200? That feels very short and less than I believe I've used in the past.

Google tells me:

Linux has a maximum filename length of 255 characters for most filesystems (including EXT4), and a maximum path of 4096 characters.

@kz_ 

How long is your path (the string)?

If the path is really rather long then another - and earlier reached - limitation could be the max. length for a line of SAS code. There is a SAS option to increase this. 

What you could try to ensure that the length of the line of code isn't the limiting factor:

%let subfolder4=/folder/subfolder/subfolder2/subfolder3/subfolder4;
libname <libref> "&subfolder4/subfolder5/subfolder6";

I guess if it's really the OS and the length of the path then you would need a symbolic link to shorten the path.

[Kurt_Bremser]

@Patrick  You are right about Linux, and on the commercial UNIX variants the limit is 1024.

What I had in the back of my head was the 260 byte MAX_PATH of Windows. And the 255 byte limit of each filename (directories are also files when it comes to names).

Bottom line: we need to see how (exactly) the LIBNAME fails.

[kz_]

I like this idea, but unfortunately, using &subfolder4 didn't work.

[Reeza]

I get that error when the folder doesn't exist.
Does the folder exist prior to the libname statement?
Can you confirm that from SAS using something like this:
https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Tips-from-the-Community/SAS-Tip-Check-if-a-directory-exists/td-p/...

[kz_]

Yes, it exists - I can even see it in the 'Server Files and Folders' menu.

[Reeza]

And you got the path by right clicking, selecting properties and copying that to the libname statement?
And that path is not working for you?

[kz_]

Yes, and the file path works in, for example, proc iml with a saveRDS statement, so I know that I have privileges to write to it. 

[Reeza]

Then you should open a ticket with SAS tech support.

Without more code, log or screenshots we can't really help you.

[Reeza]

And just a note in case you didn't know if you're on unix the path is likely case sensitive.

[Patrick]

WHAT is not working? Do you get an error? And what's the error?

Does subfolder5 and subfolder6 already pre-exist or do you expect SAS to create these folders. If the latter (with option dlcreatedir set) then be aware that you can only create one folder at a time so if you need a deeper structure then you need to issue the same libname statement each time with one more sub-folder added to the path.

[kz_]

The error is 

ERROR: Library library_name does not exist 

All of the folders have already been created, and the subfolder contains SAS datasets.