>But a symbolic link is a directory entry, a self contained entity so to speak.
>Therefore by following the link, rather than merely acknowledging it, ADSM
>is NOT providing a true copy of the data.

Bob - You're completely missing the point about Archive: it is intended to
back up DATA.  No one who knows what a symbolic link is would agree with you
that it is data - it is just a *reference* to data.  A symbolic link
IS NOT DATA.  Without its target data file, a symbolic link is nothing more
than a lost pointer.

It deeply disturbs me that customers are trying to get IBM to corrupt the
purpose of the Archive operation so that it will do what customers can do
now with Selective Backup.  This is a bad thing to try to do.
Please... Lean on them to improve the flexibility of Backup.
What you really want is Backup, not Archive, for what you're trying to do.
I strongly encourage you to pursue that rather than Archive, as it will
be far less frustrating for you.

    Richard