Using tape pools within the TMS

The following is the recommended method of using tape pools within the TMS.

• When a new tape is required, it is first allocated out of the specified pool using the subroutine FMALLO.
• The job that allocates this volume should then write the data and, if successful, move the volume to another named pool, optionally write-locking it.
• If the job fails, it should return the volume to the pool from which it came.
• When the data is no longer required, the entry can be deleted from the catalogue with the tape volume automatically write-enabled and freed using the shell rm command.

Thus, a FORTRAN program might look like the following.

Example of using TMS tape pools

*
*     Allocate a new 3480 from the pool XX_FREE
*
      CALL FMALLO('3480','38K',' ','SMCF_1','XX_FREE',
     +LBANK,' ',VSN,VID,IRC)
*
*     Now write the data ...
*
...
...      
*
*     OK - write-lock the tape and move to XX_DSTS
*     set TMS tag to generic name
*
10    CONTINUE
      CALL FMPOOL(GENAM,LBANK,KEYS,'XX_DSTS','LS',IRC)
      RETURN
*
*     Error - free tape
*     delete TMS tag 
*
20    CONTINUE
      CALL FMPOOL(GENAM,LBANK,KEYS,'XX_FREE','D',IRC)
      RETURN
      END