I've argued for the usefulness of FILE LABELs. Unfortunately, they sometimes don't seem to be written -- I'm sure, a syntax or semantic error on my part. Here's a snippet of my SPSS code to save a file:

SPSS SYNTAX ----------- FILE LABEL 'JM0629.SAV: Analysis file for 6-mo. Denver, 07 Jul 2004'. SAVE OUTFILE=!TEMP_SV(JM0629) /KEEP= [long list of variables]

SYSFILE INFO ------------- And here's the beginning of the SYSFILE INFO for that file [clicked up from the GUI]:

SYSFILE INFO 'C:\B_Client\Martha Lang\SPSS SAVE-short term\JM0629.sav'.

SysInfo

SYSFILE INFO: C:\B_Client\Martha Lang\SPSS SAVE-short term\JM0629.sav

File Type: SPSS Data File

Creation Date: 07 Jul 04 Creation Time: 20:15:09

Label: Not Available

N of Cases: 2217

Total # of Defined Variable Elements: 54 # of Named Variables: 54

IN REGULAR OUTPUT -----------------

This time, the label doesn't seem to be in NOTES, either. This is regular output, for a trivial FREQUENCIES. (By the way, pasting NOTES from regular output into plain text is ridiculously difficult! I've edited to readability as best I can.)

GET FILE='C:\B_Client\Martha Lang\SPSS SAVE-short term\JM0629.sav'. EXECUTE . FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=has_denv /ORDER ANALYSIS .

Notes Output Created 09 Jul 04 15:18:06 Comments Input Data C:\B_Client\Martha Lang\SPSS SAVE-short term\JM0629.sav Filter <none> Weight <none> Split File <none> N of Rows in Working Data File 2217 Missing Value Handling Definition of Missing User-defined missing values are treated as missing. Cases Used Statistics are based on all cases with valid data. Syntax FREQUENCIES VARIABLES=has_denv /ORDER ANALYSIS . Resources Total Values Allowed 18724 Elapsed Time 0:00:00.88