DISPLAY and EXECUTE: Specifying whether to delete the backup versions

Explanation

DISPLAY and EXECUTE are mutually exclusive, required parameters specifying whether to delete the ABARS or backup versions or just to produce a listing of the ABARS or backup versions eligible for deletion.

DISPLAY

produces a line in the listing for every ABARS or backup version eligible for deletion based on the appropriate input parameters or management class attributes. The listing is written to a particular output class or DASD data set, depending on the value of the OUTDATASET | SYSOUT parameter.

EXECUTE

specifies that the ABARS or backup versions should be deleted based on the input parameters and management class attributes. The output consists of an ARC0734I message for each backup version eligible for deletion. The messages are written to the backup activity log, depending on the values specified by SETSYS ACTLOGMSGLVL:

FULL specifies that all ARC0734I messages are produced.
EXCEPTIONONLY specifies that an ARC0734I message is produced only when there is a failure.
REDUCED has the same effect as EXCEPTIONONLY.

Defaults

None.

Usage notes:

If the DISPLAY parameter is specified, no backup versions are deleted. If, however, any backed up, cataloged data sets have been scratched and do not already have a scratch date recorded, the current date is recorded as the scratch date for those data sets. This scratch date is used by subsequent EXPIREBV commands to determine whether active backup versions of these cataloged data sets are eligible for deletion.
When EXPIREBV is invoked and it detects a scratched data set, it creates a scratch date for that data set. The date is stored in the BCDS MCB record in a 4-byte field MCBSCDR (offset X'48', packed decimal). The date can be displayed using the FIXCDS command. When EXPIREBV is again invoked and it encounters the same data set—which now has an established scratch date—it deletes the data set (when the data set meets the criteria for deletion). Thus, if you are running EXPIREBV for the first time, you do not get a list of deleted data sets. On subsequent occurrences, you will get a list, as long as the data sets meet the criteria for deletion.