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Naming Conventions—z/OS

Use the following format to name a z/OS file (data set):

[level1.level2.level3...level7].level8[(membername)]

The following table describes the parts of a z/OS file name:

level

Specifies the level of a file name. Required.

A file name can consist of multiple levels separated by a period. Each level has the following characteristics:

• It can be up to eight uppercase characters long.
• It starts with either an alphabetic character or a national character
  ($, #, @, +, -, :, _).

There is a limit of eight levels with a total of 44 characters, including the separating periods.

In most z/OS environments, a data set name is further restricted by security rules created by the installation. Contact the appropriate personnel within your organization for details. Typically, the high-level name (first-level name) must match your z/OS user ID or some other predefined index.

membername

Specifies the particular member in a z/OS partitioned data set (PDS). A PDS is a library containing members that are each separate sequential files. The member name is appended to the end of the file name in parentheses.

Required for z/OS partitioned data sets only.

Range: One to eight alphanumeric or national characters.

Note: Most sites catalog all files through the system master catalog. In short, this means that the system can locate the file you specify by name only. With the rare occurrence of an un-cataloged file, you need to specify the volume and unit information for the device that holds the file.

Example:

The following are examples of valid z/OS data set names:

	SYS1.VTAMLST
	C54684.UTILITY.CNTL(JOBCARD)
	PROD.PAYROLL.SEPT90.TIMECARD.DATA
	TESTDATA
	A.$DDD.LOAD