allocate: Allocate a device, i.e., magtape drive mta, mtb, …

Package: system

Usage

allocate device

Parameters

device
The device to be allocated.

Description

Allocate allocates a device for exclusive access by one user, and readies the device for i/o by some other program. A list of the devices available on the local system is maintained in the file dev$tapecap which needs to be configured by the site manager before it can be used. The status of given device may be obtained by calling devstatus.

Examples

1. Print a list of the allocatable devices. The logical device names are given at the left in the output text; ignore the information to the right. Note: The dev$devices file should be configured by the site manager when new tape devices are installed. Beginning with V2.9 it is used for informational purposes only.

cl> type dev$devices
mta ...
mtb ...
mtc ...
iis ...

2. Allocate a tape drive after checking its status.

cl> devstatus mtb
device mtb is not currently allocated
cl>
cl> allocate mtb

See also

deallocate, devstatus