About the Batch Export and Import Tools

The batch import and export tools enable you to perform promotions from an operating system command line or from a batch script. These tools provide the same capabilities as the Export SAS Package and Import SAS Package wizards, with the following exceptions:
  • The wizards provide the option of either including or excluding associated physical content such as table data and source code files. When you use the batch tools, the promotion automatically includes all associated content except physical files for tables and external files. For tables and external files, the batch tools do not provide the option of promoting physical files. For stored processes, you can use a global option to prevent the batch import tool from importing source code files.
  • In the export wizard, you can display a list of the objects on which an object depends and then individually specify which of these objects to export. In the batch export tool, you can select a global option to include all dependent objects.
The batch export and import tools are useful for the following purposes:
  • to perform ad hoc promotion jobs from the command line, as an alternative to using the wizards
  • to create promotion jobs that are to be run on a scheduled basis or a repeated basis
This chapter tells how to access the batch export and import tools and provides detailed syntax descriptions and examples. As you use the batch tools, be sure to refer to the Promotion Tools Overview and the Reference Information for Promotion Tools.
CAUTION:
Use of the batch import tool to import SAS 9.1.3 packages can result in a significant number of broken metadata associations, such as tables with no associated library, jobs with missing tables, transformations within jobs with missing mappings, and expressions within mappings with missing columns.
As a best practice, you should use the batch import tool to import a SAS 9.1.3 package only if the resources associated with the imported objects have the same values in the two environments. Otherwise, it is strongly recommended that you use the Import SAS Package wizard in either SAS Management Console or SAS Data Integration Studio. For more information, see Using the Batch Import Tool to Import a Package That Was Created in SAS 9.1.3.