Poof! The NEWLINK command creates a symbolic link to another file. It also creates a file. Well, sort of. You can LISTF it and finfo('linkname','exists') it, but you cannot PURGE it, only PURGELINK it. However, PURGELINK will purge a plain local file as well as a symbolic link. Consider:

:build a0

:newlink a1,a0

:listf,2

ACCOUNT= CCC GROUP= TEST

FILENAME CODE ------LOGICAL RECORD------ --SPACE--

SIZE TYP EOF LIMIT R/B SECTORS #X MX

A0 128W FB 0 1023 1 0 0 *

A1 1B BAL 2 1024 1 16 1 *

:purge a1

:listf

FILENAME

A1

:purge a1

^

File "A1.TEST.CCC" not found. No purge done. (CIWARN 383)

:purgelink a1

:listf

No MPE-named files found in file set. (CIWARN 431)

:build a0

:listf

FILENAME

A0

:purgelink a0

:listf

No MPE-named files found in file set. (CIWARN 431)

:newlink a1,a0

:listf

FILENAME

A1

:if finfo('a1','exists')

*** EXPRESSION TRUE

:endif

:if finfo('a0','exists')

*** EXPRESSION FALSE: COMMANDS IGNORED UNTIL MATCHING ELSEIF/ELSE/ENDIF

:endif

*** RESUME EXECUTION OF COMMANDS