IBM MVS Interview Question:

What is basic difference between "DIRECTORY" and "PDS" in IBM MAINFRAME?

Submitted by: Administrator

A PDS or Partitioned Data Set is a dataset containing
multiple members, each of which holds a separate sub-data
set, similar to a directory in other types of file systems.
This type of dataset is often used to hold executable
programs (load modules), source program libraries
(especially Assembler macro definitions). A PDS is most
somewhat analogous to a Zip file on microcomputers, except
the files stored in a PDS are not compressed.

The Partitioned Data Set can only allocate on a single
volume with the maximum size of 65536 tracks.

Besides members, a PDS consists also of their directory.
Each member can be accessed directly using the directory
structure. Once a member is located, the data stored in
that member is handled in the same manner as a PS
(sequential) data set.
Submitted by: Administrator