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