I've noticed some strange behaviour with RETRIEVE, which I haven't been
>able to explain yet.
>
>I've made an ARCHIVE with: dsmc archive -archmc=xyz *.txt -v2archive
>-filesonly -subdir=no -descr="XYZ"
>This archive was made from the directory /volume/a.
>
>When I do a dsmc retrieve "*" /temp/ -filesonly -descr="XYZ" when still in
>/volume/a, all files are retrieved.
>When I do the same when switched to /volume/b (different filesystem)
>nothing is retrieved.
...

Observe the syntax of the Retrieve command:

  "sourcefilespec
      Specifies the path and file name that you want to retrieve. Use wildcard
      characters to specify a group of files or all the files in a directory."

In the absence of an explicit path specification your request is relative to
your current location: via the lone asterisk you are requesting all files in
the current directory.  You can observe the same thing at the Unix prompt
by entering the rudimentary command 'echo *'.

To retrieve your files from whatever directory location you happen to be
sitting in at the moment, you need to be explicit as to their origin.

   Richard Sims  http://people.bu.edu/rbs