The READALL privilege lets the process bypass existing restrictions that would otherwise prevent the process from reading an object. However, unlike the BYPASS privilege, which permits writing and deleting, READALL permits only the reading of objects and allows updating of such backup-related file characteristics as the backup date. See the HP OpenVMS System Management Utilities Reference Manual and the HP OpenVMS System Manager's Manual for a discussion of backup operations.

READALL is intended to be an adequate privilege for backing up volumes, so grant this privilege to operators so they can perform system backups.

The READALL privilege lets a process perform the following tasks: