In releases prior to SAS^® 9.3, the following error occurs when you run PROC EXPORT or PROC IMPORT steps in batch mode in UNIX environments:

   ERROR: Cannot open X display. 
          Check the name/server access authorization.

The SAS process might also appear to become unresponsive, or hang.

These procedures were originally designed to be run only in interactive mode, and therefore expect a calling terminal. The error occurs when they are run in batch mode because the procedures attempt to display the SAS Session Manager icon, which requires a valid X display.

To avoid the problem, upgrade to SAS 9.3 or later.
As a workaround, PROC EXPORT and PROC IMPORT can be run in batch mode if you specify the -NOTERMINAL option when launching a SAS process. Here is an example of the syntax:

   sas myprogram.sas -noterminal

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