This topic describes the two interfaces used to delete members: STOW and DESERV DELETE. DESERV only supports PDSEs but it does support deleting names longer than 8 bytes.

When the primary name is deleted, the system also deletes all aliases. If an alias is deleted, the system deletes only the alias name and its directory entry.

A PDSE member is not actually deleted while in use. Any program connected to the member when the delete occurs can continue to access the member until the data set is closed. This is called a deferred delete. Any program not connected to the member at the time it is deleted cannot access the member. It appears as though the member does not exist in the PDSE.

Unlike a PDS, after a PDSE member is deleted, it cannot be accessed. (The pointer to the member is removed so that the application can no longer access it. The data can be overwritten by the creation of another member later.)

With DESERV DELETE, it is possible to define a list of PDSE member names (primary and alias) that are to be deleted. The DESL_NAME_PTR fields of the DESL array are used to point to the names to be deleted. The DELETE function requires the caller to pass a DCB open for output or update. The names are processed in DESL sequence. As with any PDSE member deletion, if a primary name is deleted, all the associated aliases are also deleted. Codes in the DESL indicate whether the DELETE was successful for each of the names in the list. The DESL_SMDE_PTR is ignored. The DELETE function terminates processing of entries in the list if it encounters an error where the return code value is greater than RC_WARN. Currently the only error for which processing can continue is when a name is not found, DESRS_NOTFOUND.