Date:         Fri, 4 Oct 1996 23:39:02 -0700
Reply-To:     Andrew James Llwellyn Cary <ajlcary@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Andrew James Llwellyn Cary <ajlcary@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Organization: Cary Consulting Services
Subject:      Annoying Feature of the Week. SAS Catalogs memory management.

I inadvertently saved an output stream (9 MB file) to my SASUSER.Profile
catalog by issuing a SAVE command instead of a FILE command.
When I discovered it (actually my sysop did), I deleted the unwanted
catalog entry and get rid of it and free up the space.
 
To my astonishment, deleting it did not release the space. After
checking the on WEB usage notes, I find that deleting catalog entries
does not free up their space (ie it's a feature- not a bug). The only
way to free up the space is to copy the catalog.
 
The problem is that the profile catalog is open when SAS is running and
I cannot use SAS to copy the catalog onto itself. A true catch 22.
 
The solution is to copy the catalog to a different LIBNAME and exit SAS.
Use your host system commands to copy the copy onto the original file
and everything should be copasetic...
 
 
--
Andrew J. L. Cary                     | I Reckon that the Opinions
Senior Curmudgeon                     | expressed here DO represent
Cary Consulting Services, Newark, CA  | those of the management of
ajlcary@ix.netcom.com                 | Cary Consulting Services