1. Terminology is critical in IT, where similar terms may mean very different things. A GDG has both a version and a generation -- but they are handled very differently. You need to figure out whether you are talking about generations or versions.
2. Your last post
DELETE MATE04.TEST.GDGBASE.* is not deleting any of the GDG versions.
and
DELETE MATE04.TEST.GDGBASE GDG is just deleting the GDG base and uncataloguing the versions.
SO, manually deleting the versions by using line command D from 3.4/DSNAME level and Volume after deleting the GDG base.
indicates that you may not have a GDG since the DELETE commands WILL remove the generations, or you do not understand what is going on, or you are not tellilng us everything.
For further assistance, post the IDCAMS output (using the CODE tag) from these commands:
LISTCAT LEVEL(MATE04.TEST.GDGBASE) ALL
DELETE MATE04.TEST.GDGBASE.*
LISTCAT LEVEL(MATE04.TEST.GDGBASE) ALL
DELETE MATE04.TEST.GDGBASE GDG
LISTCAT LEVEL(MATE04.TEST.GDGBASE) ALL
Post the actual output with message numbers and everything -- if you do not post the actual output of these commands, this topic will be locked.