-<para>All &A; tapes must be pre-labeled before they are used.
-&A; verifies the label in
-<emphasis remap='B'>amdump</emphasis>
-and
-<emphasis remap='B'>amflush</emphasis>
-before writing to make sure the proper tape is loaded.</para>
-
-<para><emphasis remap='B'>Amlabel</emphasis>
-writes an &A; label on the tape in the device specified by the
-<emphasis remap='I'>amanda.conf</emphasis>
-file in /usr/local/etc/amanda/<emphasis remap='I'>config</emphasis>.
-<emphasis remap='I'>Label</emphasis>
-may be any string that does not contain whitespace and that matches the
-<emphasis remap='I'>amanda.conf</emphasis>
-<emphasis remap='B'>labelstr</emphasis>
-regular expression option.
-It is up to the system administrator to define a naming convention.</para>
-
-<para><emphasis remap='B'>Amlabel</emphasis>
-appends the new tape to the
-<emphasis remap='I'>tapelist</emphasis>
-file so it will be used by &A; before it reuses any other tapes.
-When you
-<command>amlabel</command>
-multiple tapes, they will be used in the order you
-<command>amlabel</command>
-them.</para>
-
-<para><emphasis remap='B'>Amlabel</emphasis>
-will not write the label if the tape contains an active
-&A; tape or if the label specified is on an active tape.
-The
-<option>-f</option>
-(force) flag bypasses these verifications.</para>
-
-<para>An optional
-<emphasis remap='I'>slot</emphasis>
-may be specified after the tape label.
-If a tape changer is in use,
-<command>amlabel</command>
-will label the tape in the specified slot instead of the currently loaded tape.</para>
-
-<para>See the
-<citerefentry><refentrytitle>amanda</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
-man page for more details about &A;.</para>
+
+<para>This command applies a label to an Amanda volume, erasing the volume in
+the process.</para>
+
+<para>Amanda uses labels to identify volumes: <manref name="amdump" vol="8" />
+and <manref name="amflush" vol="8" /> verify the label before writing to make
+sure the proper volume is loaded, and the recovery programs use the label to
+ensure they are reading the data they expect.</para>
+
+<para>If no <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>slot</replaceable></arg> and no <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>barcode</replaceable></arg> is given,
+then <command>amlabel</command> labels the tape in the current slot of the
+default changer. If a slot is given, it labels the volume in that slot. If a barcode is given, it labels the volume with that barcode.
+<emphasis remap='I'>Label</emphasis> may be any string that does not contain
+whitespace and that matches the <emphasis remap='B'>labelstr</emphasis> (see
+<manref name="amanda.conf" vol="5" />).</para>
+
+<para>If <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>label</replaceable></arg> is not given, an autolabel is
+generated, see <emphasis remap='B'>autolabel</emphasis> in <manref name="amanda.conf" vol="5"/>.</para>
+
+<para>If <arg><option>--assign</option></arg> is given, the barcode and meta-label are assigned to the label without labeling the volume. The label must already be in the tapelist file.</para>
+<para>This command also appends the new volume to the &tapelist; file, so that
+they will be used in the order they are labeled (depending on the taperscan in
+use — see <manref name="amanda-taperscan" vol="7" />).</para>
+
+<para>As a precaution, <command>amlabel</command> will not write a label if the
+volume already contains an active label or if the label specified is on an
+active tape. The <arg choice="opt">-f</arg> (force) flag bypasses these
+verifications.</para>