Separate sas windows - do they use the same work space?

[cdubs]

Trying to run two programs simultaneously, both of which by themselves may near the limit of what WORK allows. If I run them simultaneously in two different SAS windows (I just open SAS twice...), wondering if they'll be using the same work space? 

Thanks! 

[Reeza · Accepted solution]

If you've opened it twice, then no.

You can check it out though. This will show you the actual path to your work folder and you can check that they are not the same. 

%put %sysfunc(pathname(work));

[AngusLooney]

So, DI Studio absolutely opens multiple SAS instances on the server(s) it's running on, and no just for each job window. Additional ones get spawned for things like view tables directly from the folders etc.

Enterprise Guide uses just one, with a single work library (and physical directory).

The being able to determine the physical directory via %sysfunc(pathname(work)) can be very useful, but watch out if you're on a grid, as you could end up on multiple different servers.

There are a range of macro variables, and sysfunc calls you can utilise to find out the server you're on, the PID of the SAS process you're using etc, which open up a realm of possibilities, depending on your environment.