Provides your process with exclusive access to a device until you deallocate the device or terminate your process. Optionally associates a logical name with the device.

Requires read (R), write (W), or control access.

Format

ALLOCATE device-name[:][,...] [logical-name[:]]

Parameters

device-name[:][,...]

Specifies the name of a physical device or a logical name that translates to the name of a physical device. The device name can be generic: if no controller or unit number is specified, any device that satisfies the specified part of the name is allocated. If more than one device is specified, the first available device is allocated.

logical-name[:]

Specifies a string of 1 to 255 alphanumeric characters. Enclose the string in single quotation marks (` ') if it contains blanks. Trailing colons (:) are not used. The name becomes a process logical name with the device name as the equivalence name. The logical name remains defined until it is explicitly deleted or your process terminates.

Qualifiers

/GENERIC

/NOGENERIC (default)

Indicates that the first parameter is a device type rather than a device name. Example device types are: RX50, RD52, TK50, RC25, RCF25, and RL02. The first free, nonallocated device of the specified name and type is allocated.

The /[NO]GENERIC qualifier is placed before the device-name parameter in the ALLOCATE command line. For example, you can allocate an RK07 device by entering the following command at the DCL prompt ($):

$ ALLOCATE/GENERIC RK07 DISK

The following table shows some device types that you can specify with the /GENERIC qualifier. To see what devices are available, see your SPD for the OpenVMS version they are currently using.

Devices by Classification
Disk Devices
EF51	EF52	EF53	EF54	EF58
ESE20	ESE25	ESE52	ESE56	ESE58
EZ31	EZ31L	EZ32	EZ32L	EZ33
EZ33L	EZ34	EZ35	EZ51	EZ52
EZ53	EZ54	EZ56R	EZ58	HSZ10
HSZ15	HSZ20	HSZ40	ML11	RA60
RA70	RA71	RA72	RA73	RA80
RA81	RA82	RA90	RA92	RAH72
RB02	RB80	RC25	RCF25	RD26
RD31	RD32	RD33	RD51	RD52
RD53	RD54	RF30	RF31	RF31F
RF32	RF35	RF36	RF37	RF70
RF71	RF72	RF73	RF74	RF75
RFF31	RFH31	RFH32	RFH35	RFH72
RFH73	RK06	RK07	RL01	RL02
RM03	RM05	RM80	RP04	RP05
RP06	RP07	RP07HT	RX01	RX02
RX04	RX18	RX23	RX23S	RX26
RX33	RX33S	RX35	RX50	RZ01
RZ13	RZ14	RZ15	RZ16	RZ17
RZ18	RZ22	RZ23	RZ23L	RZ24
RZ24L	RZ25	RZ25L	RZ26	RZ26B
RZ26L	RZ26M	RZ27	RZ27B	RZ27L
RZ28	RZ28B	RZ28L	RZ29	RZ29B
RZ31	RZ34L	RZ35	RZ35L	RZ36
RZ36L	RZ37	RZ38	RZ55	RZ55L
RZ56	RZ56L	RZ57	RZ57I	RZ57L
RZ58	RZ59	RZ72	RZ73	RZ73B
RZ74	RZ74B	RZ75	RZ75B	RZF01
Compact Disk Devices
RRD40	RRD40S	RRD42	RRD43	RRD44
RRD50	RV20	RV60	RV80	RW504
RW510	RW514	RW516	RWZ01	RWZ21
RWZ31	RWZ51	RWZ52	RWZ53	RWZ54
Tape Devices
TA78	TA79	TA81	TA85	TA86
TA87	TA90	TA90E	TA91	TAD85
TAPE9	TD34	TD44	TE16	TF30
TF70	TF85	TF86	TK50	TK50S
TK60	TK70	TK70L	TKZ09	TKZ60
TL810	TL820	TLZ04	TLZ06	TLZ07
TLZ6	TLZ7	TM32	TS11	TSZ05
TSZ07	TSZ08	TU45	TU56	TU58
TU77	TU78	TU80	TU81	TZ30
TZ30S	TZ85	TZ857	TZ86	TZ865
TZ867	TZ87	TZ875	TZ877	TZ88
TZ885	TZ887	TZ89	TZ895	TZ897
TZK10	TZK11	TZX0

/LOG (default)

/NOLOG

Displays a message indicating the name of the device allocated. If the operation specifies a logical name that is currently assigned to another device, then the superseded value is displayed.

Examples

$ ALLOCATE  DMB2:
%DCL-I-ALLOC, _DMB2: allocated
      

The ALLOCATE command in this example requests the allocation of a specific RK06/RK07 disk drive, that is, unit 2 on controller B. The system response indicates that the device was allocated successfully.

$ ALLOCATE  MT,MF:   TAPE:
%DCL-I-ALLOC, _MTB2: allocated
.
.
.
$ SHOW LOGICAL TAPE:
TAPE: = _MTB2:    (process)
$ DEALLOCATE TAPE:
$ DEASSIGN TAPE:
      

The ALLOCATE command in this example requests the allocation of a tape device whose name begins with MT or MF and assigns it the logical name TAPE. The ALLOCATE command locates an available tape device whose name begins with MT, and responds with the name of the device allocated. (If no tape device beginning with MT had been found, the ALLOCATE command would have searched for a device beginning with MF.) Subsequent references to the device TAPE in user programs or command strings are translated to the device name MTB2.

When the tape device is no longer needed, the DEALLOCATE command deallocates it and the DEASSIGN command deletes the logical name. Note that the logical name TAPE was specified with a colon on the ALLOCATE command, but that the logical name table entry does not have a colon.

$ ALLOCATE/GENERIC RL02 WORK
%DCL-I-ALLOC, _DLA1: allocated
%DCL-I-SUPERSEDE, previous value of WORK has been superseded
      

The ALLOCATE command in this example requests the allocation of any RL02 disk device and assigns the logical name WORK to the device. The completion message identifies the allocated device and indicates that the assignment of the logical name WORK supersedes a previous assignment of that name.

$ ALLOCATE $TAPE1
%DCL-I-ALLOC, _MUA0: allocated
      

The ALLOCATE command in this example allocates the tape device MUA0, which is associated with the logical name $TAPE1.

$ ALLOCATE /GENERIC RX50 ACCOUNTS
      

The ALLOCATE command in this example allocates the first free diskette drive and makes its name equivalent to the process logical name ACCOUNTS.