You can specify a starting date and time on the Copy Optical (CPYOPT) command.
The starting date and time of a Complete Backup Range for an optical backup volume or directory is the earliest time that is specified on a CPYOPT command when all eligible files on the volume or directory were successfully copied.
This system uses time to select the files from the primary volume to copy to the optical backup volume. The system copies any files that are created or changed on or after this time. First, the system must successfully copy all eligible files for a directory or volume. Then the system sets the starting date and time for the corresponding optical backup volume or directory to the specified time. The definition indicates that this value is the earliest time that is specified on a CPYOPT command. Consider the following example.
Starting Date and Time — Scenario: A user issues the CPYOPT command for directory /DIR1 by specifying 1 May 1999 as the starting date. If all eligible files successfully copy, then the system sets the complete starting date for the backup directory /DIR1 to 1 May 1999.
Now assume that the user issues the CPYOPT command again for /DIR1. This time the system sets the starting date to 1 April 1999. This request copies any files that have changed since the last CPYOPT command. Additionally, it copies any files that were created between 1 April 1999 and 1 May 1999 that were not selected on the previous request. If all eligible files again copy successfully, then the starting date for backup directory /DIR1 changes to 1 April 1999. Future copies specifying earlier starting dates would produce similar results.
Use *BEGIN and *AVAIL for the starting date and time on the CPYOPT command. This will copy all the files from a primary directory or volume, regardless of the create or change time for the file.