Specifying a retention period

The user can specify a retention period for a file; during this period, DMS prevents the file from being overwritten, extended or erased. The file can thus be used only as an input file during the retention period. A retention period can be specified or subsequently modified by means of the RETPD or EXDATE operand of the macros FILE and CATAL, or the EXPIRATION-DATE operand of the commands ADD-FILE-LINK and MODIFY-FILE-ATTRIBUTES.