Using Asterisks and Equal Signs

For some CMS commands, if you specify the file mode of a file as an asterisk, it indicates that you either do not know or do not care what file mode the file is on and you want CMS to locate it for you. For example, if you enter:
listfile myfile test *
the LISTFILE command responds by listing all files named MYFILE TEST on your accessed file modes. When you specify an asterisk for the file mode of the COPYFILE, ERASE, or RENAME commands, CMS locates all copies of the specified file.
For example:
rename temp sort * good sort =
renames all files named TEMP SORT to GOOD SORT on all of your accessed file modes having a read/write status. An equal sign (=) is valid in output file IDs for the RENAME and COPYFILE commands.
For some commands, when you specify an asterisk for the file mode of a file, CMS stops searching as soon as it finds the first copy of the file. For example:
type myfile assemble *

If there are files named MYFILE ASSEMBLE on file mode A and file mode C, then only the copy on file mode A is displayed. The commands that perform this type of search are:

For the COMPARE, COPYFILE, RENAME, and SORT commands, you must always specify a file mode letter, even if it is specified as an asterisk.

The CREATE ALIAS and RELOCATE commands require an output file mode or a directory identifier. For more information on these commands, see Using the Shared File System.