Maintenance Commands                                 allocate(1M)

NAME
     allocate - device allocation

SYNOPSIS
     allocate [ -s ]  [ -U uname ]  device

     allocate [ -s ]  [ -U uname ]  -g dev  -type

     allocate [ -s ]  [ -U uname ]  -F device

DESCRIPTION
     allocate manages the ownership of devices through its  allo-
     cation  mechanism.  It  ensures  that each device is used by
     only one qualified user at a time.

     The  device argument specifies the device to be manipulated.
     To  preserve  the integrity of the device's owner, the allo-
     cate operation  is executed on all the device special  files
     associated with that device.

     The argument dev-type, is the device type to be operated on.
     The argument dev-type, can only be used with the -g option.

     The default allocate operation, allocates the device special
     files  associated with device to the uid of the current pro-
     cess.

     If the -F option is specified, the device  cleaning  program
     is executed when allocation is performed. This cleaning pro-
     gram is found in /etc/security/lib. The name of this program
     is  found in the  device_allocate(4) entry for the device in
     the  dev-exec field.

     Only authorized users may allocate a  device.  The  required
     authorizations are specified in device_allocate(4).

OPTIONS
     -g dev-type
           Allocate a non-allocated  device  with  a  device-type
           matching dev-type.

     -s    Silent.  Suppresses any diagnostic output.

     -F device
           Reallocate the device allocated to another user.  This
           option  is often used with -U to reallocate a specific
           device to a  specific  user.  Only  a  user  with  the
           solaris.devices.revoke  authorization  is permitted to
           use this option.

     -U uname
           Use the user ID uname instead of the user  ID  of  the

SunOS 5.8            Last change: 20 Oct1999                    1

Maintenance Commands                                 allocate(1M)

           current  process  when  performing the allocate opera-
           tion. Only  a  user  with  the  solaris.devices.revoke
           authorization is permitted to use this option.

DIAGNOSTICS
     allocate returns an non-zero exit status in the event of  an
     error.

FILES
     /etc/security/device_allocate

     /etc/security/device_maps

     /etc/security/dev/*

     /etc/security/lib/*

ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWcsu                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO
     bsmconv(1M),  device_allocate(4),   device_maps(4),   attributes(5)
     

NOTES
     The functionality described in this man  page  is  available
     only  if  the  Basic Security Module (BSM) has been enabled.
     See  bsmconv(1M) for more information.

SunOS 5.8            Last change: 20 Oct1999                    2