DROPSYM subcommand — delete symbols

Use the DROPSYM subcommand to delete symbols from the symbol table in a source description for a dump. The source description is in the dump directory allocated with ddname IPCSDDIR and is your current dump directory. The current dump directory is your user dump directory or, for users with write access authority, might be the sysplex dump directory.

You can delete symbols when you want to free space in the dump directory.

Related subcommands
- EQUATE
- LISTSYM
- RENUM
- STACK

Syntax

  { DROPSYM }  { (symbol-list) | * }
  { DROPS   }
              [ DROP|NOPURGE ]
              [ NODROP       ]
              [ PURGE        ]
              [ SUMMARY | NOSUMMARY ]

-------- SETDEF-Defined Parameters -------------------------
Note: You can override the following SETDEF parameters.
See SETDEF subcommand — set defaults.

              [ ACTIVE | MAIN | STORAGE          ]
              [ DSNAME(dsname) | DATASET(dsname) ]
              [ FILE(ddname) | DDNAME(ddname)    ]
              [ PATH(path-name)                  ]
              [ TEST | NOTEST                    ]

Parameters
symbol-list or *

Specifies the symbols to be deleted. You can specify one symbol, a range of symbols, a list of symbols, a combination of these, or, with an asterisk (*), all symbols in the symbol table. Enclose more than one symbol or range of symbols in parentheses. The list can contain up to 31 symbols, ranges, or both.
The symbols follow the IPCS naming conventions for symbols. See IPCS symbols.

If you specify a single symbol or a list of symbols, the subcommand deletes only the specified symbol or symbols.

If you specify a range of symbols, the symbol name must follow the naming conventions for symbols. See IPCS symbols. IPCS deletes all symbols whose names begin with the first character string through all symbols whose names begin with the second character string. A range of symbols is inclusive: the subcommand deletes all the symbols in the range and at both ends of the range.

DROP or NODROP

NOPURGE or PURGE

Defines which symbols are eligible for deletion. The default is NOPURGE.
DROP and NOPURGE specify that only symbols with the DROP attribute are to be deleted.

NODROP specifies that only symbols with the NODROP attribute are to be deleted.

PURGE specifies that the NODROP attribute is ignored and all specified symbols are deleted.

SUMMARY or NOSUMMARY

SUMMARY indicates that a processing summary (a final total line) is to be produced.
NOSUMMARY specifies that a processing summary is to be suppressed. The NOSUMMARY parameter is useful to turn off summary messages when the subcommand is invoked within a CLIST or a REXX exec.

ACTIVE or MAIN or STORAGE

DSNAME(dsname) or DATASET(dsname)

FILE(ddname) or DDNAME(ddname)

Specify the source of the source description containing the symbol. If one of these parameters are not specified, the source is your current source.
Return Codes
See Standard subcommand return codes for a description of the return codes produced by the DROPSYM subcommand.
Example 1: Delete a range of ASCB symbols.
- Action
```
COMMAND ===> dropsym (ascb00001 : ascb00050) nodrop
```
- Result
  DROPSYM deletes the ASCB symbols for ASID 1 through 50.
Example 2: Delete all symbols in the symbol table.
- Action
```
COMMAND ===> dropsym * purge
```
- Result
  DROPSYM deletes every entry in the symbol table, including X, for the current dump. If you omit the PURGE parameter, this example deletes all symbols except those with the NODROP attribute.