IBM Mainframe Forum

What exactly is a MAN dataset? Also, if this question is too basic, is there a good place to refer for meanings of these terms? Google searches didn't really help.

I assume you are referring to a SYS1.MANx data set since the Unix System Services man command is not related to data sets -- and those are the only two uses of "MAN" that I can think of in the mainframe environment. The SYS1.MANx data sets (the precise names are site dependent) are used to store SMF records as they accumulate. When one of them is full, SMF switches to the next one and (in a properly managed system) a job is submitted that dumps the accumulated records to a daily file and make the data set available for SMF to use again.