Date:         Tue, 12 Aug 1997 14:27:53 -0500
Reply-To:     Dwight Eggers <eusdee1@EXU.ERICSSON.SE>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Dwight Eggers <eusdee1@EXU.ERICSSON.SE>
Subject:      dynamic setting of SASAUTOS option

I am trying to change my SASAUTOS option dynamically.  I am running into
a problem that appears to relate to the length of my macro variable
containing the new set of directories.  I am defining what I want
SASAUTOS to become in a macro variable, newautos.  When I attempt to
reset the option with
 
  option sasautos=&newautos;
 
and then look at the contents of this option, I find that a portion
of the list of directories is being distorted, with a sequence of '/'s being
substituted.  I am using 6.11 on a unix system.
 
I infer that this is related to the length of newautos, which is about 160
characters when this fails, is because if I do the same thing with a shorter
list of directories it succeeds okay.  Also, If I explicitly enter the
statement, with the newautos variable expanded, and let it span two lines
the operation works okay.
 
Is there some limit on the input buffer that I am exceeding?  Any other
ideas on how to perform this operation?  Is this instead a macro quoting
problem?
 
Dwight.Eggers@ericsson.com