SAS Companion for the CMS Environment

Configuration Files

A configuration file contains SAS system options that are set automatically when you invoke SAS. SAS uses two types of configuration files:

the system configuration file, SASV8SYS CONFIG, which is on the SAS system disk and is used by all users at your site. Your SAS Installation Representative sets up the system configuration file for your site.
a user configuration file, which is generally used by an individual user.

Creating a User Configuration File

To create a user configuration file, follow these steps:

Use any text editor to write SAS system options into a CMS file. If you use CONFIG as the filetype, then you will not need to specify the filetype in the CONFIG= system option. (See Specifying a User Configuration File .)
Specify one or more system options in each line. A configuration file can contain any system option except the CONFIG= and VERBOSE options. (If either of these options appears in a configuration file, it is ignored; no error or warning message appears.) Use the same syntax that you would use for specifying system options with the SAS command (see Specifying System Options in the SAS Command ), but do not include the SAS command itself. For example, a configuration file might contain the following lines:
```
NODATE
NOCENTER
LINESIZE=68
PAGESIZE=60
```
Note: Comment lines must start with an asterisk in column 1. Embedded comments may be enclosed with /* ... */.
Save the new configuration file.

Specifying a User Configuration File

If you name your configuration file SASV8 CONFIG, then you do not need to specify it in the SAS command. SAS looks for a file that is named SASV8 CONFIG and if it finds one, it concatenates it to the system configuration file (SASV8SYS CONFIG).

To specify a different user configuration file, use the CONFIG= system option in the SAS command. For example, the following SAS command invokes SAS and tells it to use the configuration file named MYCONFIG:

sas (config=myconfig

The CONFIG filetype is assumed. If your configuration file has a different filetype, then you must specify the filetype, and you must enclose the file specification in quotation marks. For example, the following SAS command specifies the configuration file named CFG1 CFGFILES.

sas (config='cfg1 cfgfiles'

SAS searches your minidisks and accessed SFS directories in standard CMS search order. When it finds the user configuration file, SAS concatenates the file to the SASV8SYS CONFIG file.

Note: You may include either the filemode or the SFS directory in the CONFIG= option. Otherwise, the standard filemode search order is used. [cautionend]

You can have multiple configuration files, but you can use only one configuration file per SAS session.

Displaying the Contents of Configuration Files

When you invoke SAS, you can use the VERBOSE system option to write the contents of all configuration files to your terminal as SAS initializes.

For example, suppose your system configuration file contains the following system options:

LINESIZE=80 PAGESIZE=60

Suppose that you have also created your own configuration file, MYCONFIG SAS, and that it contains the following option:

FULLSTIMER

Now suppose that you use the following command to invoke SAS:

SAS (CONFIG=MYCONFIG VERBOSE

The contents of both the system configuration file and MYCONFIG SAS are written to your terminal.

Note: Alternatively, you may use the OPLIST system option instead of the VERBOSE option when invoking SAS. The difference is that the OPLIST option directs output to the SAS log. [cautionend]

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