VMS Help System Services, $INIT VOL  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    Formats a disk or magnetic tape volume and writes a label on the
    volume. At the end of initialization, the disk is empty except
    for the system files containing the structure information. All
    former contents of the volume are lost.

    Format

      SYS$INIT_VOL  devnam, volnam [,itmlst]

    C Prototype

      int sys$init_vol  (void *devnam, void *volnam, void *itmlst);

1 - Arguments

 devnam

    OpenVMS usage:char_string
    type:         character string
    access:       read only
    mechanism:    by descriptor
    Name of the device on which the volume is physically mounted. The
    descriptor must point to the device name, a character string of 1
    to 64 characters. The device name can be a physical device name
    or a logical name; if it is a logical name, it must translate to
    a physical name.

    The device does not have to be currently allocated; however,
    allocating the device before initializing it is recommended.

 volnam

    OpenVMS usage:char_string
    type:         character string
    access:       read only
    mechanism:    by descriptor
    Identification to be encoded on the volume. The descriptor
    must point to the volume name, a character string of 1 to 12
    characters. For a disk volume name, you can specify a maximum
    of 12 ANSI characters; for a magnetic tape volume name, you can
    specify a maximum of 6 ANSI "a" characters.

    Any valid ANSI "a" characters can be used; these include numbers,
    uppercase letters, and any one of the following nonalphanumeric
    characters:

    ! " % ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = >

    Compaq strongly recommends that a disk volume name consist of
    only alphanumeric characters, dollar signs ($),  underscores (_),
    and hyphens (-).

 itmlst

    OpenVMS usage:item_list_3
    type:         longword (unsigned)
    access:       read only
    mechanism:    by reference
    Item list specifying options that can be used when initializing
    the volume. The itmlst argument is the address of a list of item
    descriptors, each of which describes one option. The list of item
    descriptors is terminated by a longword of 0.

    Refer to the OpenVMS System Services Reference Manual to view the
    item code diagram and descriptor fields table.