Moving SAS datasets from Windows environment to a Unix one

[juanvenegas]

I have some sas datasets on my local machine that i downloaded from the sas website. I believe these datasets are in a Windows format. I want to be able to use a FTP program to drop them onto a server that's in Unix. So far these files can't be open and I believe its because the datasets are only available in Windows. Does any body have any suggestions on how to resolve this issue. Much appreciated!

[ballardw]

Proc Cport from Windows to create a transport file, move the file, then use Proc Cimport on the Unix system to create native Unix version data set. You can do this for an entire SAS library

Or Proc Copy xport engine librname, move the resulting file, the read back to the other system with Proc copy and xport engine libname.

[SASKiwi]

To move SAS datasets between different operating systems one way is to PROC CPORT them from the source OS SAS and PROC CIMPORT them in the target OS SAS. 

[Tom]

Since version 7 (which nobody used, but that is when they changed the file format) SAS datasets can be ported AS IS between Windows and Unix.  Make sure to transfer them as BINARY files if you are using FTP.  The extension on Version 7 format SAS datasets is sas7bdat .

https://go.documentation.sas.com/?docsetId=lrcon&docsetTarget=n0oj2nagtyy32yn17pj01t6vytaw.htm&docse...

Once you have access to them on Unix you might want to recreate them using the native engine for your version of SAS to make using them faster.  SAS has some migration utilities, but really you just need PROC COPY.

If the files are version 6 (or older) then you will need to convert them before copying.

If the files are CATALOGS instead of datasets then you will need to convert them before copying.

[34reqrwe]

check/modify the permissions on the Unix side to ensure that you/sas has sufficient rights to open the datasets

[ChrisNZ]

You can use the OUTREP option to create them before a simple FTP binary transfer; this way they'll be in the native unix format.