Disposition controlled by time

When you create a data set, tell the system how long to keep it by coding a retention period or an expiration date.

Use the RETPD or EXPDT DD parameter:

   //ddname  DD  RETPD=nnnn,...
   //ddname  DD  EXPDT=yyddd,...
       or
   //ddname  DD  EXPDT=yyyy/ddd,...

As long as the time period has not expired, the system will not delete or write over a data set on direct access space. This is true even if a DD statement specifies a disposition of DELETE (other than DISP=(NEW,DELETE)) for the data set. The data set is eligible for deletion once the expiration date or retention period has been reached.

When the expiration date of a data set is the current date, the data set is considered expired. The system will delete it or write over it if requested in a DD statement.

Deleting before expiration date or retention period

If it is necessary to delete a data set before the expiration date or retention period, do one of the following:

For data sets cataloged in a VSAM catalog, use the DELETE command; this makes the space occupied by the data set available for reallocation. See z/OS DFSMS Access Method Services Commands.
For data sets cataloged in a non-VSAM catalog, delete the catalog entry with the IEHPROGM utility as described in z/OS DFSMSdfp Utilities.
For the data set control block, use a SCRATCH macro with the OVRD parameter; this makes the space occupied by that data set available for reallocation. See z/OS DFSMSdfp Advanced Services.

Examples

//D3  DD  DSNAME=DSDEF,DISP=(NEW,KEEP),UNIT=3390,
//     VOLUME=SER=668888,SPACE=(TRK,(1,1)),EXPDT=2006/032
//D4  DD  DSNAME=DSFS.PGM,DATACLAS=DCLAS2,DISP=(NEW,KEEP),
//      EXPDT=2006/032