In SAS^® 9.2, if you called the FEXIST function for a file defined with the FILENAME statement using the FTP engine, SAS did not always correctly indicate when the file did not exist.

If FTP returned a return code between 400 and 500, the FEXIST function indicated that the file existed when in reality it did not. In SAS 9.3, this has been fixed so that SAS correctly indicates that the file does not exist.

Here are some examples of messages that you might see in your SAS log from any release:

NOTE: <<< 451 Transfer aborted: send error

NOTE: <<< 426 Failure writing network stream

The following alternative code accurately determines whether a file accessed with the FTP FILENAME engine exists. This code runs under any operating system.

%let MVS_FTP=machine.domain1.company.com;
%let FTPUSER=user-ID;
%let FTPPASS=password;
%let FILE=physical-file-name;

FILENAME DLR_IN FTP '' LS 
host="&MVS_FTP"
  user="&FTPUSER"
  pass="&FTPPASS" debug
  ;
data _null_;
    infile DLR_IN;
    input;
    if _infile_="&FILE" then do; 
        call symput('RC',"FILE FOUND");
	    stop;
    end;
    else call symput('RC',"FILE NOT FOUND");
run;
%put &RC;

Note: When the remote host is z/OS and the first high-level qualifier (HLQ) of the physical-file-name does not match the remote user-ID, you will need to use CD= to change from the default current working directory path (user-ID) to the first HLQ of the physical-file-name.

Operating System and Release Information