Linear data set

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A linear data set (LDS) is a type of data set organization used by IBM's VSAM computer data storage system.^[1]: 5

The LDS has a control interval size of 4096 bytes to 32768 bytes^[2] in increments of 4096.^[1]: 31 A LDS does not have embedded control information, because it does not contain control information, the LDS cannot be accessed as if it contained individual records.^[3]

Addressing within an LDS is by Relative Byte Address (RBA), which allows it to be used by systems such as IBM Db2 or the Operating system.^{[clarification needed]} The benefit of this is that systems such as the OS can access multiple disk spindles and view it as a single storage implementation. The limitations of this, though, is that this does not make this particularly useful to higher level abstraction levels.^{[original research?]} Data In Virtual^[4] (DIV) and Window services^[5] provide an alternative method to direct use of VSAM to access an LDS with a CI size of 4096.