Porting SAS files to other platforms and versions
SAS uses its transport file format to port files between operating and, where the need arises, different software versions. As with many things, there is more than one method to create these transport files: PROC CPORT/CIMPORT and PROC COPY with the XPORT engine. The former method is for within version transfer of SAS files between different operating systems (UNIX to Windows, for instance) and the latter is for cross-version transfer (SAS9 to SAS 8, for example). SAS Institute has a page devoted to this subject which may share more details.