G'Day, We are evaluating some volume backup jobs which execute about 45 steps in average and write out to the same output scratch tape. I noticed that some jobs in particular have each step (from the second to the 45th step) refer to the first step e.g. // VOL=(,RETAIN,,,REF=*.STEP01.TAPE) I know prior to OS390 this was necessary, however this is no longer done. I personally code the REF=* to point to the previous step instead of STEP01. My question is, if I refer back to STEP01.TAPE, does the tape rewind back to the position where STEP01 dsn was created and then skips forward to write out the next dsn? Does coding the previous step for the REF=* save I/O time or there is no difference at all? I hope I was able to word my question clearly. I would appreciate your comments before I embark on changing the jcls. Thanks.
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