Other temporary data sets

If you are using virtual I/O (VIO), you can allocate space for temporary data sets, and then VIO assigns them system-generated names. Otherwise, ISPF allocates temporary control and listing data sets, as needed, for its own internal use. You are usually not aware of their existence. They are assigned these names:

prefix.userid.SPFTEMPn.CNTL
prefix.userid.SPFTEMPn.LIST
prefix.userid.SPFTEMPn.WORK
prefix.userid.appl-idzzzz.BACKUP
prefix.userid.appl-idzzzz.BACKUPI
prefix.userid.SPFnnn.OUTLIST

Note: The data set name used can be modified under the operation of site-defined options. See the section "Temporary data set names" in ISPF Planning and Customizing Guide.

prefix: The data set prefix in your TSO profile. It is used only if you have one and it is different from your user ID.
userid: Your user ID.
n: A number that corresponds to the logical screen that is active. n can be between 0-9 and A-W for CNTL data sets and between 1-9 and A-W for LIST and WORK data sets, where 1 is the first logical screen, 9 is the ninth logical screen, A is the tenth logical screen, and so on.
appl-id: The application ID.
zzzz: A number from 0001-0008, or higher if customized, controlled by the edit recovery table (appl-id EDRT for the EDREC service and appl-id EIRT for the EDIREC service) and the number of concurrent edit calls that are active.
nnn: A number generated by ISPF, which has a range of 100-999.

These data sets are deleted:

By edit recovery when the data sets are no longer needed
When you specifically request that they be deleted.
By Move/Copy when no IEBCOPY errors are encountered.