VMS Help RMS, $READ  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    The Read service retrieves a specified number of bytes from
    a file (beginning on a block boundary) and transfers them to
    memory. A Read service using block I/O can be performed on any
    file organization.

                         RAB64 USERS (ALPHA ONLY)

       On Alpha systems, RAB64 can replace the RAB or RAB prefix
       wherever it is used with the Read service on OpenVMS Alpha
       systems.

    Format

      SYS$READ  rab [,[err] [,suc]]

  Additional Information (explode) :

• Returns
• Arguments
• Condition Values Returned