Special Considerations for COPY

The following special considerations may apply when you perform a COPY operation:

The logical and physical data set COPY function supports hierarchical file system (HFS) data sets and zFS data sets. There is no support for copying individual files within an HFS or zFS.
The COPY function is not supported for SAM compressed extended-format data sets being copied to a non-SMS-managed target.
The COPY FULL or COPY TRACK commands might invoke ICKDSF to rebuild the VTOC INDEX data set for a target volume. Therefore, users of these commands require the appropriate authority for ICKDSF.
When you perform a logical or physical COPY operation of a VSAM compressed data set, the target data set allocation must be consistent with the source data set allocation as follows:
- If the source is an extended-format VSAM KSDS, then the target must be an extended-format VSAM KSDS.
- If the source is a compressed VSAM KSDS, then the target must be a compressed VSAM KSDS.
- If the source is an alternate index for an extended-format KSDS, then the target must be an alternate index for an extended-format KSDS.
- The target control interval size must be equal to the source.
If you copy a data set that has an F8/F9 DSCB pair to a volume that does not support F8/F9 DSCBs, the attributes in the F9 DSCB are lost. To retain these extended attributes, the target volumes of the COPY, either SMS or nonSMS, must support F8/F9 DSCBs.

Target data set allocation differs between a physical data set and logical data set copy of non-VSAM data sets. Logical data set copy allocates target data sets according to the amount of used space in the source data set, thereby freeing unused space. Physical data set copy preserves the original size of the source data set. To force unused space to be kept during logical data set copy, the ALLDATA or ALLEXCP keyword must be specified.