Accessing Your Directories or Minidisks

When you use the Shared File System, the directories within your file space are usually accessed so that you can manipulate them using CMS commands. If your files are stored on minidisks and are not permanently linked you must link to the minidisks before you can access them. Permanent links are those which have been established for you through your z/VM directory entry. These minidisks are then a part of your virtual machine configuration every time you log on.

Note: For more information on linking additional minidisks, for example, temporarily to another user's minidisk, see Linking and Sharing Minidisks.

By accessing directories and establishing a file mode letter for them, you can save time typing many commands. If a command accepts a file mode, you can simply specify the file mode, rather than the entire directory name, to process the command.

By accessing your directories or minidisks and establishing file mode letters for them, you can control:

Which directories or minidisks are to contain the new files that you create.
Whether you can write on a minidisk or whether you can only read from it (its read/write status).
The command search order for programs executing in your virtual machine. (For more information, see File Mode Letters and Numbers.)

If you want to know which file modes (directories or minidisks) you currently have access to, enter:

query accessed

You will see a display like this:

Mode   Stat  Files  Vdev  Label/Directory
A       R/W      3  DIR   VMSYSU:VMUSER.
C/A     R/O    765  19C   19CSP6
S       R/O   1321  190   CMS6.0
Y/S     R/O    337  19E   19ESP6

Note: For a detailed column-by-column description, see Getting Started - Accessing Your Top Directory for SFS, or see Accessing Minidisksfor minidisks.

The disk accessed as mode A, your A-disk, is your default disk. If you use a CMS command and do not specify a mode, your A disk will be assumed. It is in R/W (read/write) mode. For minidisks, you can only store files on disks you have accessed in R/W mode. For SFS, you need to have write authority to the directory to create a new file, and write authority to the file to update an existing file. Generally the owner of the directory has such authority, the exception being when the file pool is under the control of an external security manager (ESM), which is a program which either augments or completely replaces the authorization checking done by the file pool server. You can check with your system administrator to see if you have an ESM active on your system.

You can tell, from this display, whether your A disk is space in an SFS file pool or a minidisk. If, in row A, in the Vdev column, you see a DIR or DIRC, rather than a virtual device number, you are an SFS user. You may also be a minidisk user, but your main disk space is within an SFS file pool.

For more information on SFS linking and accessing, see Getting Started - Accessing Your Top Directory and Accessing Another User's Directory. For minidisks, see Linking and Sharing Minidisks.

Note: As alternatives to using the QUERY ACCESSED command:

List your accessed directories and minidisks in a full screen format, using the DIRLIST command with the MDISK and ACCESSED options. For more information, see Listing the Structure of a Directory with DIRLIST, or see the DIRLIST command in z/VM: CMS Commands and Utilities Reference.
Access minidisks and directories with the VMLINK command, which finds free access modes (see Linking and Accessing with VMLINK, and z/VM: CMS Commands and Utilities Reference).