The COPY card directs ALPHA to copy events using the data cards described above (i.e., FILI, FILO, SEVT, SRUN, IRUN, NEVT, NWRT).
All ALPHA features except data card handling and event input / output are switched off. User routines are never called. Most data cards not referring to event input / output are ignored. Therefore, if the COPY card is used, any ALPHA program (Fortran code or load module) can serve as a simple copy job which digests the standard ALPHA data cards.