When you specify a system option at initialization, it must be preceded by a hyphen
(-). For on or off options, just
list the keyword corresponding to the appropriate setting. For example, the following
command invokes SAS and indicates that SAS output should not be centered:
c:\sas\sas.exe -nocenter
For options that take
a value, do not use an equal sign; follow the option name with a space
and then the value. For example, the following SAS command invokes
SAS with a line length of 132:
c:\sas\sas.exe -linesize 132
Physical names (that is,
directory names or filenames) should be enclosed in double quotation marks when you use them
in the SAS command or in the SAS configuration file. The quotation marks are especially
necessary when the file or
pathname that you are specifying contains a space or single quotation mark character, which
are valid characters in Windows filenames. For example, the following SAS command
invokes SAS and indicates that autocall macros are stored in the
C:\SAS\CORE\SASMACRO
directory:
c:\sas\sas.exe -sasautos "c:\sas\core\sasmacro"
Double quotation marks
are also needed when an option value contains '=', as shown
in this example:
c:\sas\sas.exe -set fruit "navel=orange"
To specify more than
one option in the SAS command, simply separate each option with a
space. For example, the following SAS command combines the three options
shown previously in this section:
c:\sas\sas.exe -linesize 132 -nocenter
-sasautos "c:\sas\core\sasmacro"
The SAS configuration file must contain only option settings; it cannot contain SAS
statements. The file can
contain SAS comments. For example, a configuration file named MySASConfig.CFG can
contain these option specifications (among others):
-nocenter
-noxwait
-pagesize 60
All SAS system options can appear in a SAS configuration file. For more information
about SAS configuration files, see
SAS Configuration Files .