With the recent Window virus that zeros out files blah blah balh
I tested the behavior of TSM expiration (on an AIX 4.3.3, TSM 4.2.2.0
server)
What did I double check ? ? ?
With "retain extra", does that mean
        A) X days from the time a file goes inactive
or
        B) X days from the creation date of an inactive file

In other words,
if I have an active version that is basically 100 days old
and if my retain extra value is 35
and if I get a new ~active version~ today
thus making the first ~inactive version~ actually 100 days old in TSM
but it has only been 0 days in an inactive status
DOES EXPIRATION wipe the file today or 36 days from now? ? ?

Answer in my environment is "B)"
TSM doesn't cut off an inactive verion until it has been inactive for X
numbers of days.

So for all those folks out there with my "retention" example spread sheet
from 1998 that helps explain how tsm processes file expiration & the such...
you might add a note internally such as I did.
*****
Note: inactive versions expire # days after they went inactive, not if the
inactive version's create date is older than # days.
*****
When I was initially testing things back then, I performed daily alterations
thus making the full understanding a little unclear because the age of the
file was within 1 day of when it went inactive.

In re-reading the manual on "retainextra" of define copy, it still isn't
totally clear SOOOoooo nothing like actually testing and seeing what happens
:-)

Just thought folks might like to know (for sure)...

Dwight E. Cook
Software Application Engineer III
Science Applications International Corporation
509 S. Boston Ave.  Suite 220
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103-4606
Office (918) 732-7109