DELETE

The DELETE command deletes catalogs, VSAM data sets, non-VSAM data sets, and objects. The syntax of the DELETE command is:

Command	Parameters
DELETE	(entryname[ entryname ...])
	[ALIAS\|
	ALTERNATEINDEX\|
	CLUSTER\|
	GENERATIONDATAGROUP\|
	LIBRARYENTRY\|
	NONVSAM\|
	NVR\|
	PAGESPACE\|
	PATH\|
	TRUENAME\|
	USERCATALOG\|
	VOLUMEENTRY\|
	VVR]
	[ERASE\|NOERASE]
	[FILE(ddname)]
	[FORCE\|NOFORCE]
	[MASK\|NOMASK]
	NODISCONNECT
	[PURGE\|NOPURGE]
	[RECOVERY\|NORECOVERY]
	[SCRATCH\|NOSCRATCH]
	[CATALOG(catname)]

For VSAM RLS recoverable data sets, DELETE CLUSTER removes all pending recovery information for the sphere.

Recommendation: Do not delete any entryname for which there is any activity on any system in the sysplex, that is, active units of recovery, commits or back outs. Before deleting any entryname for which there is currently no activity but for which there are shunted log records, use the SHCDS PURGE command to clear the owed sync point (commit or back out). Otherwise, when the sync point is eventually retried, it will fail. In addition, you might receive unpredictable results on a future backout if a data set with the same name is later created.

DELETE can be abbreviated: DEL