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SYSTASK |
Valid in: | anywhere in a SAS program |
OS/2 specifics: | all |
Syntax | |
Details | |
See Also |
Syntax |
SYSTASK COMMAND "host-command" <XWAIT | NOXWAIT> <TASKNAME=taskname> <MNAME=name-var> <STATUS=stat-var> <SHELL<="shell-command">>; |
SYSTASK LIST <_ALL_ |
taskname>
|
SYSTASK KILL taskname <taskname...>; |
systask command "find ""my text"" c:\mydir\myfile.sas"
Note: The host-command that you specify cannot
require input from the keyboard.
Details |
SYSTASK allows you to execute host-specific commands from within your SAS session or application. Unlike the X statement, SYSTASK runs these commands as asynchronous tasks, which means that these tasks execute independently of all other tasks that are currently running. Asynchronous tasks run in the background, so you can perform additional tasks while the asynchronous task is still running.
For example, to execute the OS/2 DIR command in the SAS WORK directory, you might use this statement:
systask command "dir c:\temp\sas temporary files\" taskname="workdir" status=dirstat;The return code from the DIR command is saved in the macro variable DIRSTAT. The output from the command is displayed in the the SAS log.
Note: Program
steps that follow the SYSTASK statements in SAS applications usually depend
on the successful execution of the SYSTASK statements. Therefore, syntax errors
in some SYSTASK statements will cause your SAS application to abort.
There are two types of tasks that can be run with SYSTASK:
The SYSRC macro variable contains the return code for the SYSTASK statement. The status variable that you specify with the STATUS option contains the return code of the process started with SYSTASK COMMAND. To ensure that a task executes successfully, you should monitor both the status of the SYSTASK statement and the status of the process that is started by the SYSTASK statement.
If a SYSTASK statement cannot execute successfully, the SYSRC macro variable will contain a non-zero value. For example, there may be insufficient resources to complete a task, or the SYSTASK statement may contain systax errors. With the SYSTASK KILL statement, if one or more of the processes cannot be terminated, SYSRC is set to a non-zero value.
When a task is started, its status variable is set toNULL. You can use the status variables for each task to determine which tasks failed to complete. Any task whose status variable is NULL did not complete execution. See WAITFOR for more information about the status variables.
Unlike the X statement, you cannot use the SYSTASK statement to start a new interactive session.
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Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.