TOPS-20 Commands Reference Manual

ASSIGN

Reserves a specific input-output device for your job.

Format

     @ASSIGN (DEVICE) dev:

where:

dev: is the name of the device you want to assign. The colon after the device name is optional.

Restrictions

Assigning Magnetic Tape Drives

You can use the ASSIGN command to assign tape drives only if they are of the form MTAn:. Tape device names of the form MTn: are logical device names only, and are assigned automatically at the time of MOUNT TAPE commands.

Related Commands

DEASSIGN for releasing a previously assigned device
MOUNT for mounting a structure or magnetic tape set without assigning a specific drive
INFORMATION AVAILABLE DEVICES for finding out which devices can be assigned or have been assigned to your job

Examples

  1. Assign a tape drive to your job.
    @ASSIGN MTA0:
    
  2. Find out which devices are available for timesharing use, then assign one to your job.
    @INFORMATION AVAILABLE DEVICES
    Devices available to this job:
     DSK, PS, SNARK, MISC, LANG, MTA1, LPT, LPT0, LPT1
     CDR, PCDR0, CDP FE1-15, PTY20-61, NUL, PLT, PLT0
     DCN, SRV
    Devices assigned to/opened by this job: TTY41
    @ASSIGN PCDR0: