Eric, I believe that the behavior you are seeing is consistent with the designs of IDCAMS and ISMF.
As far as I know, the IDCAMS ALTER command has no notation to indicate a "null" management class. The ISMF ALTER command is handled by PGM(DGTFAL01), which normally invokes a CLIST called DGTQAL01 to invoke IDCAMS ALTER. For example, if you specify any value for the management class except hyphen, an ISPF variable called IDCBUF will be set to 'dsname' MGMTCLAS(mc-name) The CLIST DGTQAL01 then issues: ALTER &IDCBUF Specifying a hyphen for management class causes PGM DGTFAL01 to first invoke DGTFAL05, which uses SVC 26 (i.e. CAMLST/LOCATE) to update the management class to "null", and then invoke the CLIST DGTQAL01, which invokes IDCAMS ALTER. In other words, a management class of hyphen is something special that ISMF offers and has implemented via a separate interface (i.e. DGTFAL05). I believe that there are at least two other possibilities: 1) Use DF/dss to COPY the dataset (to some other name) and specify NULLMGMTCLAS (or NMC). A DUMP with DELETE followed by a RESTORE with NULLMGMTCLAS (or NMC) accomplishes the same thing without requiring the dataset to be renamed. 2) An IDCAMS ALTER that specifies NEWNAME will redrive the management class ACS routine. Define a new management class called NULL. Add a WHEN clause to SELECT statement in the management class ACS routine: WHEN (&MGMTCLAS EQ 'NULL') /* USER REQUESTS NO MGMT CLASS */ DO SET &MGMTCLAS = '' EXIT END Specifying "ALTER old-dsname NEWNAME(new-dsname) MGMTCLASS(NULL)" will result in the ACS routine setting it to '' I hope some of this information helps. Alan -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Eric Gustavison Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:42 AM To: IBM-MAIN@bama.ua.edu Subject: null out MGMTCLAS I need to run an ALTER on a number of datasets that nullifies the MANAGEMENTCLASS. I've tried IDCAMS ALTER with MGMTCLAS(), MGMTCLAS(''), MGMTCLAS(-), and a number of other combinations. Nothing seems to be allowed in batch, whereas I can specifiy a '-' in MANAGEMENTCLASS in the ISMF panels and it works just fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html