To protect oneself from rapid depletion of backups given a, "Post me when the SDF changes" situation and a beserk SDF-generator one simply needs to apply a minimum age on any backup-to-be-deleted. Couple that with a maximum-versions-to be-retained mechanism plus a notify-when-backup- disallowed-due-to-age-of-oldest-version process and (I think) all bases
would be covered. (Of course, the minidisk where the backups are held is itself backed up on a cyclic basis to meet the need to recover a VERY OLD backup. Make minimum age for deletion 1 day and backup the disk daily and nothing will ever be, "lost accidentally".) I've never had reason to look closely at this part of V/SEG but I'd be surprised if it's not do-able by any user of the product who's also a sem i- competent Rexx coder in < 1 day and possibly do-able in exits (I'll leave Phil to provide a considered opinion <g>). Like others, I do wonder if the existence of a well-respected product tha t already does the job puts the damper on any further commercial developmen t of this capability inside IBM. Why reinvent the wheel where there are so many other wheels crying out to be invented! Regards Jeff Gribbin
