You can check to see whether a data set exists on the mainframe by using the locate command. A zero return code indicates that the data set exists, and a non-zero return code indicates that it does not exist. You may optionally specify a control file containing one or more commands and allow MFDAS to run them as a batch. To do this, place the commands in a control file of any name, without the preceding MFDAS parameter, then run MFDAS with the parameter @filename, where filename is the name of the control file. The format of the locate command is:
MFDAS LOCATE datasetname