Getting Started with SAS under OpenVMS

Configuration Files

A SAS configuration file contains SAS system options that are set automatically when you invoke SAS. Configuration files can contain only SAS system option settings and are processed before SAS initializes.

SAS ships with a default configuration file, sasv9.cfg, which is located in SAS$ROOT:[000000]. This file contains the master settings for SAS and should not be altered or deleted. If you need to override the settings in the default configuration file, you can create one of the following configuration files.

Six Types of Configuration Files

Under OpenVMS, the OpenVMS logical name SAS$CONFIG is used to refer to SAS configuration files. This logical name can exist in one or more of the process-, job-, group-, system-, or cluster-level logical name tables.

Six types of configuration files can be created:

The process-level configuration file should contain the system option settings that you, as an individual user, want to have in effect each time you invoke SAS.
The job-level configuration file should contain the system option settings that you want to have in effect for a particular SAS job. (You can have multiple job-level configuration files, one for each job or for a group of jobs.)
The group-level configuration file should contain the system option settings that your group manager or system manager has defined for members of your workgroup.
The system-level configuration file should contain the system option settings that your system manager has defined for all users at your site.
The cluster-level configuration file should contain the system option settings that your system manager wants shared across e-mail nodes in your cluster. The cluster-level file is valid only for OpenVMS 7.2 or later.
The restricted configuration files contain system options that are set by the site administrator and cannot be changed by the user. Options can be restricted globally, by group, or by user. For more information about restricted configuration files, see the Configuration Guide for SAS 9.2 Foundation for OpenVMS on HP Integrity.

Ask your system manager which of these configuration files are used at your site.

Determining the Configuration Files That SAS Processed

To see which configuration files were processed for your SAS session, submit the following code:

proc options option=config value; run;

All of the configuration files that SAS processed are listed as the value of the CONFIG= system option.

Steps for Creating a Configuration File

To create a configuration file, follow these steps:

Use any text editor to write SAS system options into an OpenVMS file. Use .CFG as the file extension.
Specify one or more system options in each line. A configuration file can contain any system option except the VERBOSE system option. (If this option appears in a configuration file, it is ignored; no error or warning message appears.)

Note: You can specify the CONFIG= system option inside a configuration file to point to an additional configuration file. Because the options specified in this additional file are processed at the point of the CONFIG= specification, their precedence will be lower than the next option listed in the original configuration file.

When specifying a system option, use the same syntax that you would use for specifying system options with the SAS command (see Specifying System Options in the SAS Command) -- except, do not include the SAS command itself. For example, a configuration file might contain the following lines:
```
/SASUSER=DISK:[JQK.SASUSER]/WORK=[JQK.SASWORK]
/DMS/LINESIZE=80/PAGESIZE=60
/FULLSTIMER
```
Note: You cannot include comment lines in a configuration file.
Close the new configuration file.
Create the logical name SAS$CONFIG in the appropriate logical name table. For example, the following DEFINE DCL command creates the logical name SAS$CONFIG in the process-level logical name table:
```
$ DEFINE SAS$CONFIG-
_$ DISK:[DIRECTORY]MYCONFIG.CFG
```
For more information about creating logical names, see OpenVMS User's Manual.

Specifying a User Configuration File

If you have created the OpenVMS logical name SAS$CONFIG, then SAS automatically executes the configuration file that is associated with that logical name. If SAS$CONFIG exists in more than one logical name table, then SAS executes the configuration files in the order in which they are listed in Precedence for System Option Specifications.

Alternatively, you can use the CONFIG= system option in the SAS command to tell SAS where to find your configuration file. For example, the following SAS command invokes SAS and tells it to use the process-level configuration file MYCONFIG.CFG:

$ SAS92/CONFIG=DISK:[DIRECTORY]MYCONFIG.CFG

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 OpenVMS display as SAS initializes.

The output from the VERBOSE system option displays the following:

all of the configuration files that are found (except for the default configuration file)
all of the options that have been set, along with their values

Note: Because some options are set by default, more options will be displayed than were specified in the configuration files. In the output, the host options will be listed first, followed by the options that are valid in all operating environments. [cautionend]

Example: Displaying the Contents of Your Configuration Files

Suppose your site has a system-level configuration file, DISK:[SYSTEM]SYSCONFIG.CFG (defined by the logical name SAS$CONFIG in your system-level logical name table) that contains the following system options:

/LINESIZE=80/PAGESIZE=60

Suppose that you have also created your own configuration file, MYCONFIG.CFG, and that it contains the following options:

/FULLSTIMER

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

$ SAS92/CONFIG=MYCONFIG.CFG/VERBOSE

The output should be similar to the following:

Contents of Configuration File

The /VERBOSE option was specified.
SYSTEM SAS$CONFIG file
PROCESS SAS$CONFIG
Option        Value
======        ======
APPLETLOC      SAS$ROOT:[MISC.APPLETS]
CONFIG         DISK:[SAS92]SASV9.CFG
               DISK:[SYSTEM]SYSCONFIG.CFG 
               DISK:[USER]MYCONFIG.CFG
XKEYPAD        ON
XLOGICAL       ON
XOUTPUT        ON
XSYMBOL        ON
ABORT          RECOVER NOSYSLOG NODUMP
CODEGEN        ON
FULLSTIMER     ON
HELPLOC        SAS$ROOT:[X11.NATIVE_HELP]
JREOPTIONS     -Djava.ext.dirs=/sas$root/misc/base:/sas$root/misc/applets
MSG            SAS$MSG:
SETJMP         ON
VERBOSE        ON
MAPS           SAS$MAPS:
SASHELP        SAS$HELP
NODMS
NOOBJECTSERVER
NODMR
NODMSEXP
NOEXPLORER
PAGESIZE       60
LINESIZE       80
TEXTURELOC     SAS$ROOT:[MISC.TEXTURES]
FONTSLOC       SAS$ROOT:[MISC.FONTS]
MVARSIZE       8192
MSYMTABMAX     51200
UNIVERSALPRINT
NEWS           SAS$NEWS:
SASUSER        SAS$USER:
WORK           SAS$WORKROOT:

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