External links

An external link is a type of symbolic link that you can use to associate an MVS data set or PDS member with a z/OS UNIX path name. The external link lets the NFS client user transparently access an MVS data set using a path name. A program using the exec() family of functions or the exec (BPX1EXC, BPX4EXC) — Run a program, loadhfs (BPX1LOD, BPX4LOD) — Load a program into storage by path name, or spawn callable services can also access an MVS data set using an external link.

The data set appears in a mounted z/OS UNIX directory with z/OS UNIX files. If you are working with both MVS data sets and z/OS UNIX files on the workstation, with an external link you can have one directory for both the data sets and the files—for example, /host, instead of /host/ds for the data sets and /host/zfs for the files.

For information about how to create an external link when working at the host, see Creating an external link.