In order to clearly differentiate special words from the text flow, the documentation team uses different renderings. The following table shows an example of each special word or group of words with its actual rendering and what this means.
Formatted Example | Meaning | |
---|---|---|
inode | This formatting is used to stress a technical term explained in the Glossary. | |
ls -lta | Indicates commands or arguments to a command. This formatting is applied to commands, options and file names. Also see the section about "Commands Synopsis". | |
ls(1) | Reference to a man page. To get the page in a shell (or command line), simply type man 1 ls. | |
| The documentation team uses this formatting for text snapshots of what you may see on your screen. It includes computer interactions, program listings, etc. | |
localhost | This is literal data that does not generally fit in with any of the previously defined categories. For example, a key word taken from a configuration file. | |
Apache | This is used for application names. The example used is 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 interface labels in general. The underlined letter indicates the keyboard shortcut, if applicable. | |
SCSI-Bus | It denotes a computer part or a computer itself. | |
Le petit chaperon rouge | This formatting identifies foreign language words. | |
Warning! | Of course, this is reserved for special warnings in order to stress the importance of words; read out loud :-) |
The example below shows you the symbols you will find when the writer describes the arguments of a command:
command <non literal argument> [--option={arg1,arg2,arg3}] [optional arg. ...] |
The "<" (lesser than) and ">" (greater than) symbols denote a mandatory argument not to be copied verbatim, but to bo replaced according to 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 ellipsis "..." mean an arbitrary number of items can be included.
The curly brackets "{ }" contain the arguments authorized at this specific place. One of them is to be placed here.
From time to time, you will be directed to press, for example, the keys Ctrl+R, which means you need to press and hold the Ctrl and tap the R key as well. The same applies for the Alt and Shift keys.
Also about menus, going to menu item File->Reload user config (Ctrl+R) means: click on the File text displayed on the menu (generally horizontal on the top of the window). Then in the pull-down menu, 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 possible, we used two generic users in our examples: