In order to clearly differentiate some special words from the text flow, different renderings are used. The following table shows you an example of each special word or group of words with its actual rendering and what this means.
Formatted example | Meaning | |
---|---|---|
i-node | This formatting is used to stress a technical term explained in the Glossary. | |
ls -lta | Indicates commands or arguments to those commands. This formatting is applied to commands, options and filenames. See also the section about "Commands synopsis" | |
| Used for text snapshots of what you may see on your screen. It includes computer interactions, program listings, etc. | |
localhost | This is some literal data that generally do not fit to any of the previously defined category. For example a key word taken from a configuration file. | |
Apache | This is used for application names. The example used in not a command name but in particular contexts the application and command name may be the same but formatted in different ways. | |
Files | This is used for menu entries or graphical interfaces labels in general. The underlined letter indicates the keyboard shortcut if applicable. | |
SCSI-Bus | denotes a computer part or a computer itself. | |
Le petit chaperon rouge | Indicates that these words are in a different language than the one the book is written in. | |
Attention! | Of course, this is reserved for special warnings to stress the weight of words (read loud ;-) |
The example below shows you the signs you will find in this manual when we describe the arguments of a command:
command <non literal argument> [--option={arg1,arg2,arg3}] [optional arg. ...] |
The "<" (less than) and ">" (greater than) signs denote an argument not to be copied verbatim, but to fill depending on your needs. For example, <filename> refers to the actual name of a file. If this name is foo.txt, you should type foo.txt, and not <foo.txt> or <filename>.
The square brackets "[ ]" denote optional arguments, which you may or may not include in the command.
The continuation points "..." mean that an arbitrary number of items can be included there.
The curly brackets "{ }" contain the arguments authorized at this place. One of them is to be placed here.
You will be directed from time to time to press the keys Ctrl+R. That means that you need to press and hold the Ctrl key while you press the R key as well. The same applies for the Alt key.
About menus also, going to menu item File->Reload user config (Ctrl+R) means: click on the File text on the menu (generally horizontal on the top of the window) then on the vertical menu that appears, click on the Reload user config item. Additionally, you are informed that you can use the key combination Ctrl+R as described above, to achieve the same result.
Whenever it has been possible, we used two generic users in our examples: