Can the VMS DELETE statement "pend"?

This is an Oracle and a VMS related issue, so I'm posting to both groups.

I have a DCL script which removes the file DBPROD.DMP from a disk and begins an Oracle export which generates the file again. I have to delete the file first because it occupies 90% of the disk. I run this script every morning.

This weekend I was doing a database reorganisation, which involved the export, recreation of the database, and then a full import from the file DBPROD.DMP. The import took much longer than anticipated, so the next day's export began before it finished.

I suspected the attempted deletion of the file DBPROD.DMP would have failed because it was still locked by the import. I also suspected the export would generate a new version of the file and would eventually abort due to insufficient space on the device.

The actual outcome was as follows:

The import continued and completed successfully. The export started but aborted due to insufficient space on the device.

And the interesting thing:

There was only one DBPROD.DMP left on the device and it was the one generated by the export which aborted. The file used by the import was gone, yet the import succeeded.

Incidentally the import completed three hours after the export started. The export aborted after one hour. I have no idea how this happened; I never thought a VMS DELETE statement would pend. Is that possible?

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Chris Little, Programmer/DBA                    University Computing Systems
                                                University of Scranton
  LITTLEC1_at_JAGUAR.UOFS.EDU                      Scranton, PA 18510