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 BPX1EXC (exec), BPX1LOD (loadhfs), or BPX1SPN (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/hfs for the files.

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