What's New in the SAS 9.3 Companion for UNIX Environments

Overview

The following categories list the areas of change for SAS in UNIX environments:
In the second maintenance release for SAS 9.3, a section was added that shows how to convert a UNIX datetime value to a SAS datetime value.

Concatenating Files in autoexec.sas

You can concatenate your files in an autoexec.sas file by using the APPEND and INSERT system options with the AUTOEXEC system option. For more information, see Inserting and Appending Autoexec Files.

Deprecated Option

The PRODTOC option has been deprecated.

Documentation Enhancements

  • The error message in the SYSTASK statement has been updated to provide more information about the error.
  • References to TAPE engines have been removed from the documentation, along with references to the FILECLOSE= data set option, which specifies how a tape is positioned when a SAS data set is closed.

Encoding for Pathnames on Disk

SAS normally uses the default session encoding when referencing external files and directories. The PATHENCODING environment variable provides an alternative encoding for external file and directory references. PATHENCODING is valid only for files that are located on disk. When the PATHENCODING environment variable has a valid encoding value, SAS transcodes the pathname in the specified encoding. For a list of valid encoding values on UNIX, see UNIX Encoding Values in SAS National Language Support (NLS): Reference Guide.

Identifying Where the Value of a SAS System Option Is Set

The VALUE option in the PROC OPTIONS statement enables you to identify how the option was set (for example, in a configuration file, on a command line, and so on). For more information, see Determining How a SAS System Option Was Set.

SAS Output

The following changes were made to SAS output:
  • When you run SAS interactively, the LISTING destination is closed by default. The HTML destination is open by default, and HTMLBlue is the default style. Also, ODS Graphics is enabled by default.
  • When you run SAS in batch mode, the LISTING destination is open and is the default. ODS Graphics is not enabled by default.

Processing Files on Tape

If you have files on tape, use a staging directory so that files can be processed directly from disk. The use of tape drives on UNIX is no longer supported.

SAS Statement Option

The following statement option has been enhanced:
NOSETPERM
The NOSETPERM LIBNAME option affects assignments to a path. The option specifies that permission settings are not inherited from one library member to another library member when members are open with the same libref.

SAS System Options

The following system options have been enhanced:
ALTLOG
The ALTLOG system option can use directives to enable you to control when log copies are open and closed, and how they are named, based on real-time events such as time, month, and day of week.
AUTOEXEC
The AUTOEXEC system option supports the use of multiple files. You can use the APPEND and INSERT options to concatenate multiple files in your autoexec.sas file.
STIMEFMT
The STIMEFMT system option enables you to customize the format of the output from the STIMER and FULLSTIMER system options.
VERBOSE
As in SAS 9.2, the output from the VERBOSE system option lists the options and their values. In 9.3, an additional list is created that identifies where the options were set. This list is first written to a journal file, and then it is written to the SAS log. If SAS fails to initialize, output is still available even though a SAS log was not created.

SAS Window Enhancement

The Results tab in Preferences dialog box has a new check box, Use ODS Graphics. Checking this box enables you to automatically generate graphs when running procedures that support ODS graphics. Use ODS Graphics is turned on by default.

Converting a UNIX Datetime Value to a SAS Datetime Value

A UNIX datetime value is stored as the number of seconds since January 1, 1970. A SAS datetime value is stored as the number of seconds since January 1, 1960. To convert a UNIX datetime value to a SAS datetime value, you must add 10 years in seconds to the UNIX datetime value. For more information, see Converting a UNIX Datetime Value to a SAS Datetime Value.
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