The UTILLOC option specifies
one or more locations for a type of utility file that is introduced
as part of the SAS 9 architecture. These utility files are comparable
to SAS files with a type of UTILITY, but they are not members of the
Work library or any other SAS library. UTILLOC utility files are primarily
used by applications that are enabled for multiple threads of execution.
Each location that is
specified for the UTILLOC option identifies a single place at which
utility files can be created. If multiple locations are specified,
then the locations are used on a rotating basis by SAS applications
as utility files are required.
For applications that
use multiple utility files at the same time, specifying multiple locations
that correspond to separate physical I/O devices might improve performance
by reducing competition for device resources.
For the SORT procedure,
the UTILLOC= system option affects the placement of the utility files
only if the multi-threaded SAS sort is used. The multi-threaded SAS
sort can be invoked when the THREAD system option is specified and
the value of the CPUCOUNT= system option is greater than 1. The multi-threaded
SAS sort can also be invoked when you specify the THREADS option in
the PROC SORT statement. The multi-threaded sort stores all temporary
data in a single utility file within one of the locations that are
specified by the UTILLOC= system option. The size of this utility
file is proportional to the amount of data that is read from the input
data set. A second utility file of the same size can be created in
another of these locations when the amount of data that is read from
the input data set is large or the amount of memory that is available
to the SORT procedure is small.