Operands

The TAPEDEL operands are described in the table below.

Table 1. List of operands for TAPEDEL command
Operand Description
VOL volspec Volspec is a space-delimited list of one or more volume specifications. A volume specification can be a single volume identifier or a volume range. For more details on how to specify ranges, refer to TAPEADD
volid Volid is a volume identifier. A volume identifier can be one to six characters. No edit checking is performed on the characters within the volid, but embedded blanks are not valid.
volid1-volid2 Volid1-volid2 is a volume identifier range. A range specification is only valid for numeric values in the right-most part of the volume identifier. If the left-most part contains non-numeric data, all of the following conditions must be met:
  • The non-numeric data must be identical for volid1 and volid2.
  • The identifiers must be of equal length.
  • The numeric portion of volid1 must be less than the numeric portion of volid2.

For example, RA0001-RA0050 and 000001-000050 are valid ranges, but RA0001-RX0050 ("RA" and "RX") and 00001-000050 (one has five digits, the other has six) are not valid ranges.
Minus_sign ( - ) As of PTF UI48913, the minus sign with at least one space on both sides ( - ) is an exclusion operator. Volumes following the minus sign will be excluded from the list of volumes to be processed. A minus sign cannot be the first operator in a volume specification and only a single occurrence is permitted. For example, VOL V00000-V00005 - V00003-V00004 is equivalent to volumes V10001 V10002 V10005. Note that a minus sign connected to a VOLSER on one side with a space on the other side is never valid.
FILE filespec
Specifies a file, filespec, that contains one or more volume serial numbers. The filespec includes:
  • fname, which is the name of the file to be processed, and
  • ftype, which is the type of file to be processed.
When the FILE operand is specified, the file can contain multiple records. Each record in the file can contain multiple, space-delimited volume specifications and, optionally, a single exclusion character followed by volume specifications of any volumes that are to be excluded.

You can use the FM or VADDR option of the TAPCMD command to specify the location of the file.
POOL SYS Specifies tapes to be deleted from the system inventory. None of the related information is retained.
POOL powner pname Specifies an existing pool from which EXTERNAL tapes are to be deleted.
QRY QEND As of PTF UI48913, allows you to specify TAPEQRY parameters that result in a list of volumes that is processed by the TAPEMOD command. Both QRY and QEND must be specified. The specification can be any valid parameters and operands of the TAPEQRY command except SHORT, LONG, MSG, RDR, and TERSE. All tapes in the result set from the query are processed, unless LIST is specified immediately before the QEND delimiter. In that case, no volumes are processed and information for the volumes that otherwise would have been processed is sent to the requestor. See TAPEQRY for additional information. See "Example of using QRY QEND parameters" below.
LIST As of PTF UI48913, lists the volumes that would otherwise have been processed if LIST had not been specified. When LIST is specified, it must be the last parameter before QEND; otherwise, it will be treated as a TAPEQRY parameter. No processing occurs when LIST is specified. The information returned is in the same format as a TAPEQRY command with SHORT specified.
FREE Specifies that delete processing will be performed only for tapes that are free.
FORCE Deletes tapes without regard to the volume attributes. The use of this operand may result in loss of data especially when POOL SYS is specified. When a private pool is specified, this option will delete an EXTERNAL volume from the catalog regardless of the volume attributes
CAUTION:
The use of FORCE with POOL SYS is NOT recommended because loss of data may result. The loss of data can occur because internal volumes in private pools may be deleted from the catalog regardless of the volume attributes, including when the use status is USED and the expiration date has not been reached.
TERSE Suppresses the informational messages EUM0010I, EUM0074I, EUM0083I, EUM0084I, EUM0288I, and EUM0291I for the requestor.

Example of using QRY QEND parameters

The following example demonstrates the use of QRY and QEND to set the User Hold Status to HOLD for all volumes in the SYSTEM BACKUP pool that have a VOLSER which begins with P and have a User Hold Status of NOHOLD. When using QRY and QEND, first use the LIST parameter before the QEND parameter to see what volumes will be affected when the LIST parameter is removed.

TAPEMOD QRY VOL P* POWNER SYSTEM PNAME BACKUP HSTAT NOHOLD QEND HSTAT HOLD

The parameters between QRY and QEND are passed to TAPEQRY, which supports regular expressions such as P* for VOLID. The volumes in the list generated by TAPEQRY are then modified, unless LIST is specified immediately before QEND. In that case, the volumes in the list that would otherwise have been modified are listed and no modifications occur.