What's New in the SAS 9.0 and 9.1 Companion for UNIX

Overview

New and enhanced features for Base SAS improve ease of use and SAS performance under the UNIX operating environment:

SAS for the AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris operating environments is 64-bit only.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is now the default mail handler.
Sharing files between UNIX and Windows has been simplified.
Using the MODULE family of SAS functions and CALL routines, you can invoke a routine that resides in an external shared library from within SAS.
Universal Printing is the new default printing mechanism. SAS does not support host printing functionality.

Note:

This section describes the features of SAS software under the UNIX operating environment that are new or enhanced since SAS 8.2.
z/OS is the successor to the OS/390 operating system. Throughout this document, any reference to z/OS also applies to OS/390, unless otherwise stated.

Migrating 32-Bit SAS Files to 64-Bit SAS Files

Starting in SAS 9.0, SAS for the AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris operating environments is 64-bit only. Consequently, some SAS files (such as your SAS catalogs) that were created in 32-bit releases of SAS cannot be read by the V9 engine. You can read and write to your 32-bit SAS data sets, SAS/ACCESS views from Oracle or SYBASE, SQL views, or MDDB files from a 64-bit SAS session using CEDA. However, you cannot update these files.

You can use the MIGRATE procedure to convert all of your SAS files to 64-bit. For more information about the MIGRATE procedure, see the Migration Community at support.sas.com/rnd/migration.

Note: If you use Remote Library Services (RLS) to access SAS files on a server, see the SAS/CONNECT User's Guide for information about accessing Version 6 SAS files.

Accessing SAS Files from Previous Releases

On the 64-bit AIX, HP-UX, and Solaris platforms, the V6 and V6TAPE read-only engines provide read-only access to your Release 6.12 data sets. See SAS Language Reference: Concepts for more information about the compatibility of V6 files with SAS 9.1.

On the Tru64 and Linux platforms, you still have read and write access to your Release 6.12 data sets.

Restricted System Options

Your site administrator can specify SAS system options for your site, a specific group, or an individual user in a restricted configuration file. Because these options are restricted, you cannot change the specified value. Use the new RESTRICT option in the OPTIONS procedure to see all the system options that have been restricted. For information about creating a restricted configuration file, see the SAS System Configuration Guide for UNIX.

Executing UNIX Commands within a SAS Session

umask is added to the list of UNIX commands cd , pwd, or setenv that SAS checks before executing the SAS equivalent in a session when you use the X command, X statement, CALL system routine, or %SYSEXEC.

Sending E-mail from within Your SAS Session

The default mail handler is SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), which supports attachments.
The new BCC option in the FILENAME statement enables you to send blind copy e-mails during a SAS session.
Using the Send Mail dialog box, you can now do the following:
- include the contents of an active SAS window (such as the Program Editor or Log) in the body of your e-mail.
- attach the contents of a non-text window to your e-mail. Examples of non-text windows include a graph generated by SAS/GRAPH and an image in your PROC REPORT output.

Accessing Shared Executable Libraries from SAS

Shared libraries in UNIX contain executable programs that are written in various programming languages. These libraries store useful routines that might be needed by many applications. Using the MODULE family of SAS functions and CALL routines, you can invoke a routine that resides in an external shared library from within SAS. You can access the shared library routines by using a DATA step, the IML procedure, and SCL code.

Changes to the cleanwork Command

The cleanwork command can now be used to delete utility directories whose associated SAS process has ended.

SAS Resources

The SAS.useNativeXmTextTranslations X resource specifies whether any XmText widget translations are inherited by all instances of the Text, Combo Box, and Spin Box widgets that are used by the SAS X Motif user interface.
The SAS.webBrowser resource is no longer supported. The SAS.helpBrowser resource now specifies the pathname of the World Wide Web browser for use when viewing the online help or when the WBROWSE command is issued.
The following resources that were used to control your ODS results are no longer supported:
- SAS.resultsHTML
- SAS.resultsUseWork
- SAS.resultsTmpDir
- SAS.resultsHTMLStyle
- SAS.resultsListing
- SAS.resultsAutoNavigate
To set the values for your ODS output, use the Results tab in the Preferences dialog box.

SAS Language Elements

Commands

The following commands are obsolete:

DLGPRT
DLGPRTMODE
DLGPRTPREVIEW
DLGPRTSETUP.

Functions and CALL Routines

To call a specific routine or module that resides in a shared library, you can use the MODULE function.
You can store the contents of a memory address in a numeric variable on 32-bit and 64-bit platforms by using the PEEKLONG function. This function replaces the PEEK function, which was valid only on 32-bit platforms.

Statements

The following option is new in the FILE, FILENAME, and INFILE statements:
- TERMSTR= enables the sharing of UNIX and PC formatted files.
The following options are new in the %INCLUDE statement:
- BLKSIZE= specifies the number of bytes that are physically read or written in an I/O operation.
- ENCODING= specifies the encoding to use when reading from the specified source.
- LRECL= specifies the record length (in bytes).
- RECFM= controls the record format.

Procedures

To see all the system options that have been set by your site administrator, use the RESTRICT option in the OPTIONS procedure.
The BMDP procedure is obsolete.

System Options

The following system options are new:
- You can specify the location of the Program Editor autosave file by using the AUTOSAVELOC system option.
- If you create a customized table of contents and index for the SAS Help and Documentation, use the HELPINDEX and HELPTOC system options to specify the file location.
- SSLCALISTLOC, SSLCERTLOC, SSLCLIENTAUTH, SSLCRLCHECK, SSLCRLLOC, SSLPVTKEYLOC, and SSLPVTKEYPASS are new system options that support Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) authentication.
- To set permissions for the temporary Work library when it is created, use the WORKPERMS system option.
The following system options are enhanced:
- If you specify only a directory path for the ALTLOG, LOG, ALTPRINT, or PRINT system options during SAS invocation, then the default filename for your log or procedure output file is <filename</span>.LOG or <filename</span>.LST, where <filename</span> is the name of your SAS job.
- SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the new default for the EMAILSYS system option.
- V9 is a new value for the ENGINE system option.
- MAX is the new default for the SORTSIZE system option. The value of MAX is based on your operating environment.
The following system options have values that are obsolete:
- Because the CoSort utility is no longer supported, cosort is not a valid value for the SORTNAME system option.
The following system options are obsolete:
- PROCLEAVE
- SORTLIB
- SYSLEAVE
- XPRINTNM.

The UNBUFLOG system option has been replaced by the LOGPARM system option, which is available in all operating environments. For details, see SAS Language Reference: Dictionary