Autocall Libraries

This section discusses the system dependencies of using autocall libraries. For general information, see SAS Macro Language: Reference.

An autocall library contains files that define SAS macros. SAS supplies some autocall macros. To use the autocall facility, you must have the SAS system option MAUTOSOURCE set. When SAS is installed, the SASAUTOS system option is used in the SAS configuration file to tell SAS where to find the default macros that are supplied by SAS Institute. You can also define your own autocall macros and store them in a Windows directory.

If you store autocall macros in a Windows directory, the file extension must be .SAS. Each macro file in the directory must contain a macro definition that has a macro name that is the same as the filename. For example, a file named PRTDATA.SAS that is stored in a directory must define a macro named PRTDATA.

To use your own autocall macros in your SAS programs, you must tell SAS where to find them using the SASAUTOS system option. The syntax of the SASAUTOS option is given in SASAUTOS System Option: Windows.

You can set the SASAUTOS system option when you start SAS, or you can use it in an OPTIONS statement during your SAS session. You should edit your SAS configuration file to add your autocall library to the library concatenation that is supplied by SAS Institute, as in the following example:

-sasautos (c:\mymacros
          !sasroot\core\sasmacro
          !sasroot\base\sasmacro
          !sasroot\stat\sasmacro
          more library specifications
          )

Autocall libraries are searched in the order in which you specify them. If you use the preceding SASAUTOS option setting and call a macro named PRTDATA, the directory C:\MYMACROS is searched first for the macro; then each of the !SASROOT libraries is searched.