VMS Help CMS, DELETE, ELEMENT, Description  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    The DELETE ELEMENT command deletes an element from a CMS library.
    If the element is set to /REFERENCE_COPY and there is a current
    reference copy directory for the CMS library, CMS deletes the
    corresponding file from the reference copy directory.

    There cannot be any existing reservations for the element.
    The element cannot be a member of a group, nor can one of its
    generations belong to a class, or be under review. If one of
    the element's generations is under review, use the CANCEL
    REVIEW command to remove it from the review list. If an element
    is reserved, you must unreserve or replace it before you can
    delete the element. If the element belongs to any groups or
    has generations in any classes, use the REMOVE ELEMENT or REMOVE
    GENERATION command to remove it.

    Even though an element is deleted, records of transactions that
    created and used the element are retained in the library history.
    You can reuse the deleted element name to create a new element.
    However, there is no distinction between the two elements in the
    library history, except that their transactions are separated by
    entries for DELETE ELEMENT and CREATE ELEMENT commands.