Deleting members

The DELETE-ELEMENT statement (see "DELETE-ELEMENT") deletes members in the assigned library.

A distinction is made between logical and physical deletion:

• Logical deletion
  The entries in the directory are deleted and storage space for the member concerned is released.

• Physical deletion
  In addition to logical deletion, the storage space of the corresponding member is overwritten with binary zeros.

A member of a library is physically deleted if the operand DESTROY-DATA=*YES has been set, if the member contains a code indicating physical deletion or if the class 2 option DESTLEV calls for physical deletion.

Delta members are not deleted physically until the last delta member of a delta tree, i.e. the complete delta tree, has been deleted.