How to Allocate a Device

Device allocation must be enabled, as described in Enabling or Disabled Device Allocation. However, if Trusted Extensions is installed and enabled on the system, then device allocation is already enabled. Device allocation is usually enabled.

Note:

If authorization is required, the user must have the authorization.

Allocate the device.
Specify the device by device name.
```
$ allocate device-name
```

Verify that the device is allocated by repeating the command.

$ allocate device-name

allocate. Device already allocated.

Example 4-5 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 Allocating or Deallocating a Device.

Example 4-6 Allocating a USB Flash Drive

In this example, a user allocates a USB flash drive, rmdisk1.

$ allocate rmdisk1

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.