SAS Cleanwork: What it does

[iSAS]

Would just like to clarify how SAS Cleanwork works. Does it delete sessions that are still up and running on the Server side but not on the client side?

[AndrewHowell]

Cleanwork utility - SAS 9.4 Companion for Windows, Fifth Edition

Cleanwork utility - SAS 9.4 Companion for UNIX Environments, Fifth Edition

"Deletes any leftover Work directories, utility directories, or both, whose associated SAS process has ended."

What "client side" SAS processes are you referring to?

[SASKiwi]

A clear case of read the manual:

http://documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=hostwin&docsetTarget=p03ktuo5yud2usn1qakys69p076s.htm&docsetV...

To summarise: it discovers and removes SAS temporary files that are no longer opened by a SAS session. It doesn't do anything with SAS sessions.

[iSAS]

Hello SASKiwi. Thanks for the information.
So what if for the meantime I have a temporary file that I won't use as of the moment but I will do so later, does that mean that If I apply cleanwork prior to using it again it won't be available anymore?

[SASKiwi]

@iSAS - this only applies to SAS WORK or utility libraries. These are deleted at the end of every SAS session anyway if SAS closes normally. Cleanwork removes folders created by SAS sessions that didn't close properly. If you need to keep a "temporary" file put it in a SAS permanent library if it is a SAS file. 

[LinusH]

As long as your session is active cleanwork won't touch your files/temporary data sets.