How to Allocate a Device

Before You Begin

Device allocation must be enabled, as described in How to Make a Device Allocatable. If authorization is required, the user must have the authorization.

1. Allocate the device.

   Specify the device by device name.

   % allocate device-name

2. Verify that the device is allocated.

   Run the identical command.

   % allocate device-name allocate. Device already allocated.

Example 5–7 Allocating a Microphone

In this example, the user jdoe allocates a microphone, audio.

% whoami
jdoe
% allocate audio

Example 5–8 Allocating a Printer

In this example, a user allocates a printer. No one else can print to printer-1 until the user deallocates it, or until the printer is forcibly allocated to another user.

% allocate /dev/lp/printer-1

For an example of forcible deallocation, see Forcibly Deallocating a Device.

Example 5–9 Allocating a Tape Drive

In this example, the user jdoe allocates a tape drive, st0.

% whoami
jdoe
% allocate st0

Troubleshooting

If the allocate command cannot allocate the device, an error message is displayed in the console window. For a list of allocation error messages, see the allocate(1) man page.