5. Conventions used in this book

5.1. Typing conventions

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 exampleMeaning
i-nodeThis formatting is used to stress a technical term explained in the Glossary.
ls -ltaIndicates commands or arguments to those commands. This formatting is applied to commands, options and filenames. See also the section about "Commands synopsis"
$ ls *.pid
imwheel.pid               
$
Used for text snapshots of what you may see on your screen. It includes computer interactions, program listings, etc.
localhostThis 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.
ApacheThis 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.
FilesThis is used for menu entries or graphical interfaces labels in general. The underlined letter indicates the keyboard shortcut if applicable.
SCSI-Busdenotes a computer part or a computer itself.
Le petit chaperon rougeIndicates 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 ;-)

5.2. General conventions

5.2.1. Commands synopsis

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. ...] 
These conventions are standard and you may find them at other places such as the man pages.

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.

5.2.2. Special notations

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.

5.2.3. System generic users

Whenever it has been possible, we used two generic users in our examples:

Queen Amidala

This user is created at the installation time
Darth Vader

This user is created afterwards by system administrator


Tux on Star from MandrakeSoft Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.
Unless otherwise stated, all the content of these pages and all images are Copyright MandrakeSoft S.A. and MandrakeSoft Inc. 2000.
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/