Setting Location for Personal Stata Files on IAC Stats Server

Categories
Statistics Server
Platform: Windows

The default location for personal Stata files is in a location under the C: drive.  This usually doesn't present a problem on personal workstations, but unlike a workstation, the stats server does not allow all users unrestricted read-write access to all locations on the C: drive.  So, for those who need to add personal Stata files, we recommend redefining the PERSONAL location within Stata.

Setting Your Personal Directory For a Single Session

You can see the various locations Stata uses with the sysdir command:

sysdir
   STATA:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\
 UPDATES:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\ado\updates\
    BASE:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\ado\base\
    SITE:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\ado\site\
    PLUS:  c:\ado\plus\
PERSONAL:  c:\ado\personal\
OLDPLACE:  c:\ado\

Note the line for PERSONAL. You can change the PERSONAL location with a command like this:

  sysdir set PERSONAL \\prism.nas.gatech.edu\gt1234

Of course, you'll need to decide where you want Stata to find your personal files -- the example above is to a file share on prism, but different users may have different network locations they prefer.

Now the sysdir command will show your new PERSONAL location:

sysdir
   STATA:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\
 UPDATES:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\ado\updates\
    BASE:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\ado\base\
    SITE:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Stata11\ado\site\
    PLUS:  c:\ado\plus\
PERSONAL:  \\prism.nas.gatech.edu\gt1234\
OLDPLACE:  c:\ado\

Stata should now be able to find your personal files in the PERSONAL location.

Setting Your Personal Directory Permanently

If you want this location to be defined automatically every time you use Stata, you can put the command from above into a profile.do file under your personal directory on the stats server -- this location would be

  C:\Users\gtaccount\profile.do

This .do file is automatically invoked every time you start Stata, so you won't have to redefine your PERSONAL location manually every time.

Adding ADO Files to your Personal Directory

To instruct Stata to install ado files into this location for personal use, first issue the command

  net set ado PERSONAL

Finding New Commands on Stata

One easy method to find new commands is to use Stata's "findit" command. For example, to search for a command called "xtoverid":

  findit xtoverid

and then follow the links for a point-and-click installation.