Avoiding tape mount in IEFBR14 step for tape datasets

Let us assume that MY.TAPE.DSN is in tape. The below IEFBR14 step is trying to delete the file. To delete the file, first it mounts the tape volume which has the dataset and then it deletes the dataset.

//JS0050 EXEC PGM=IEFBR14 
//DEL01  DD   DSN=MY.TAPE.DSN, 
//            DISP=(MOD,DELETE,DELETE)


To avoid such unnecessary tape mount, we can use IDCAMS utility to delete the tape datasets as shown below. This also avoids the unnecessary delay in the execution of the job.


//STEP1    EXEC PGM=IDCAMS                      
//SYSPRINT DD  SYSOUT=*                         
//SYSIN    DD  *                                
 DEL MY.TAPE.DSN
/*