Language Reference

PACKAGE INSTALL Statement

PACKAGE INSTALL "fullname"<(collection )> …;

PACKAGE INSTALL fileref<(collection )> …;

This statement is supported only by the IML procedure.

Packages are distributed as ZIP files. The PACKAGE INSTALL statement unzips the ZIP file and installs the package in a predetermined location.

You can specify the package to be installed in two ways:

"fullname": specifies the ZIP file’s fully qualified name (which includes both the path and the file name) in quotation marks. You can specify multiple names in a single statement.
fileref: specifies a file reference that was previously created by the FILENAME statement.

You can also specify the following option in parentheses:

collection: specifies the collection into which the package is to be installed. You can specify PUBLIC or PRIVATE; you cannot install a package in the SYSTEM collection. By default, the package is installed in the PRIVATE collection. At some sites, you might need administrative privileges in order to install a package in the PUBLIC collection.

For example, the following statement installs the Pkg1 package from the ZIP file named C:\Packages\Pkg1.zip :

package install "C:\Packages\Pkg1.zip";

The following statements are an equivalent way to install the Pkg1 package:

filename ThePkg "C:\Packages\Pkg1.zip";
package install ThePkg;

The PACKAGE INSTALL statement creates a directory named Pkg1 in a directory whose location is system-dependent and then unzips the contents of the ZIP file into that directory. The previous examples do not specify a collection, so the package is installed in the PRIVATE collection.

You should install a package only once. SAS/IML software does not allow you overwrite a package that is already installed. To install a newer version of a package in the same collection, you must uninstall the older version and then install the newer version.

Some operating systems (notably Linux) are case-sensitive. When you specify a ZIP file on a case-sensitive operating system, be sure to match the case of the file name in the operating system.

Last updated: May 07, 2026