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Using the V6TAPE Engine

In contrast to the V6 engine, the V6TAPE engine does not support indexing and compression of observations. Also, you cannot have a mixed mode, sequential-format SAS data library; you can store only Version 6 or Version 5 sequential SAS data sets on one tape, not some of each.

Note:   For information about accessing SAS files on tape, see Accessing SAS Files on Tape.  

When to Use the V6TAPE Engine

Use the V6TAPE engine to create sequential-format SAS data libraries either on disk or on tape and to access files in sequential data libraries. The primary purpose of this engine is to enable you to back up Version 6 SAS data sets, catalogs, or whole data libraries. The V6TAPE engine makes it possible to back up applications that contain both SAS data sets and SAS catalogs.

In contrast to the V6 engine, the V6TAPE engine has the following limitations:

• Because the V6TAPE engine is a sequential engine, it cannot be used with the POINT= option of the SET statement or with the FSBROWSE, FSEDIT, or FSVIEW procedure. If you want to use these features of the SAS language with sequential SAS data sets, then use the COPY procedure to copy them to a disk-format SAS data library. (See Notes on Tape Usage.)

• In a single DATA step or PROC step, you can use only one SAS data set from a particular sequential SAS data library.

How to Select the V6TAPE Engine

There are three ways to select the V6TAPE engine:

• Specify V6TAPE as the value of the engine option in the LIBNAME statement or specify V6TAPE LIBNAME function, or in the Engine: field of the New Library dialog box. You can open the New Library dialog box by issuing the LIBASSIGN command in the command window.

• For an existing SAS data library that contains only Version 6 sequential-format SAS data sets, do not specify a value for engine in the LIBNAME statement or LIBNAME function, or select Default as the type in the Engine: field of the New Library dialog box. The SAS System then selects the V6TAPE engine automatically. SAS also selects the V6TAPE engine automatically if you use the DCL DEFINE command to assign an OpenVMS logical name to an existing Version 6 sequential-format data library and then use that logical name as a libref in a SAS file specification.

• Set the value of the SEQENGINE= system option to V6TAPE. This option tells SAS which sequential engine to use as the default when no engine is specified and there are no existing SAS data sets.

Member Types Supported

The V6TAPE engine supports files with all Version 6 member types:

ACCESS	INDEX
CATALOG	MDDB
DATA	PROGRAM
DMDB	VIEW
FDB

Engine/Host Options Used by the V6TAPE Engine

The V6TAPE engine recognizes all the data set options that are documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary. For more information about data set options, see Data Set Options.

Data Set Options Used by the V6TAPE Engine

The V6TAPE engine recognizes all the data set options that are documented in SAS Language Reference: Dictionary except for COMPRESS=, REUSE=, and CNTLLEV=. For more information about data set options, see Data Set Options.

System Options Used by the V6TAPE Engine

The V6TAPE engine uses the BUFNO= and BUFSIZE= system options. For information about these system options, see BUFNO= and BUFSIZE=.

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