Problem Note 68944: SAS® software fails to start with "ERROR: Unable to initialize the SAS kernel" if an autoexec.sas file resides in a directory with a space in its name
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SAS fails to start if an autoexec.sas file resides in a directory that contains a space in its name and you do not specify an AUTOEXEC system option.
For example, if your home directory is /home/john smith/ and it contains an autoexec.sas file, then running SAS without any AUTOEXEC system option causes SAS to fail with the following errors:
ERROR: Unrecognized SAS option name john/AUTOEXEC.SAS.
ERROR: (SASXKRIN): KERNEL RESOURCE INITIALIZATION FAILED.
ERROR: Unable to initialize the SAS kernel.
ERROR: (SASXKRIN): KERNEL RESOURCE INITIALIZATION FAILED.
ERROR: Unable to initialize the SAS kernel.
A workaround is to specify the AUTOEXEC system option. For the above example, you would specify: sas -autoexec “/home/john smith/autoexec.sas”
If you do not specify an AUTOEXEC system option, SAS checks the following directories for an autoexec.sas file:
- your current directory
- your home directory
- the !SASROOT directory
Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | Product Release | SAS Release | ||
| Reported | Fixed* | Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | Base SAS | HP-UX IPF | 9.4_M7 | 9.4 TS1M7 | ||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 9.4_M7 | 9.4 TS1M7 | ||||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 9.4_M7 | 9.4 TS1M7 | ||||
| Linux for x64 | 9.4_M7 | 9.4 TS1M7 | ||||
| Solaris for x64 | 9.4_M7 | 9.4 TS1M7 | ||||
A fix for this issue for Base SAS 9.4_M7 is available at:
https://tshf.sas.com/techsup/download/hotfix/HF2/I9R.html#68944
You encounter this issue if an autoexec.sas resides in a directory that contains spaces in its name and you do not specify an AUTOEXEC system option.
| Type: | Problem Note |
| Priority: | high |
| Date Modified: | 2022-02-25 09:09:33 |
| Date Created: | 2022-02-24 00:00:34 |