A PDS file is a file stored in a PDS directory on a MVS host system.
A PDS file name can be up to 8 characters in length, composed of the letters A-Z, the numerals 0-9, and the special characters dash (-), dollar sign ($), at sign (@), pound sign (#), and the underscore (_).
When a PDS file name is required as input, it can usually be preceded by the PDS directory name followed by a period. When both the directory name and the file name are entered or displayed together, the entire entry is referred to as the file name. In this case, the file name is up to 53 characters in length: 44 for the directory name, 1 for the separating period, and 8 for the file portion of the name.
When just the PDS file name in entered, in most cases BIM-EDIT/XP assumes the file is held in the currently attached PDS directory (See CmdDrAt.).
In MVS parlance, a PDS file file is usually referred to as a Partitioned Data Set (PDS) "member". PDS members are stored in Partitioned Data Sets.