At 15:15 -0700 on 08/01/2011, Skip Robinson wrote about Re: Orphan GDG problem:
This is fascinating info. I've always wondered what the Vnn was for.
As I noted, it is a way to allow you to replace a generation up to (in theory) 99 times while preserving the Generation Number (Absolute and Relative). I have used this capability in the past to replace a generation by duping the original with a new Vyy but the same Gxxxx (you need to make the output name absolute and go DISP=CATLG).
Another piece of trivia. Tape Labels have fields for the G and V fields and they are filled in by DOS. Thus in theory you can create a GDG tape file in DOS that has the full 17 characters of the DSN label filled in and thus create a 26 character GDG file name where the tape label contains the full DSN not the normal last 8 characters and .GxxxxVyy. I am not sure if Z/OS (and the prior MVS code) will use these fields if the filename does not end in GxxxxVyy (although I think they are filled in when the file is created even though the G and V are redundantly also part of the 17 Character File Name field).
Question though: in an SMS environment, you can't have uncataloged data sets lying around. What happens to the V00 guy?
It gets deleted just like when a GDG rolls off the stack when there are more than the max count (assuming that the setting on the GDG base is the default value of DELETE). I have the impression that it can be set to KEEP which leaves a rolled GDG as uncataloged - I do not think this applies to SMS which would do a force delete even if the setting is KEEP.
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