osx man page for allocate

allocate(1)                                                                                                                            allocate(1)

NAME
       allocate - device allocation

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

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

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

       The  allocate  utility  manages  the ownership of devices through its allocation 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 allocate operation is exe-
       cuted on all the device special files associated with that device.

       The argument dev-type is the device type to be operated on and 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 process.

       If  the  -F  option  is  specified, the device cleaning program is executed when allocation is performed. This cleaning program 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).

       The following options are supported:

       -g dev-type     Allocates a non-allocated device with a device-type matching dev-type.

       -s              Silent. Suppresses any diagnostic output.

       -F device       Reallocates 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.device.revoke authorization is permitted to use this option.

       -U uname        Uses  the  user  ID uname instead of the user ID of the current process when performing the allocate operation. Only a user
                       with the solaris.device.revoke authorization is permitted to use this option.

       The following exit values are returned:

       non--zero       An error occurred.

       /etc/security/device_allocate

       /etc/security/device_maps

       /etc/security/dev/*

       /etc/security/lib/*

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability                 |SUNWcsu                      |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

       deallocate(1), list_devices(1), bsmconv(1M), dminfo(1M), mkdevalloc(1M), mkdevmaps(1M), device_allocate(4), device_maps(4), attributes(5)

       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.

       /etc/security/dev, mkdevalloc(1M), and mkdevmaps(1M) might not be supported in a future release of the Solaris Operating Environment.

                                                                    28 Mar 2005                                                        allocate(1)