Unix in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Conventions

This book follows certain typographic conventions, outlined below:

Constant width

is used for directory names, filenames, commands, program names, functions, and options. All terms shown in constant width are typed literally. It is also used to show the contents of files or the output from commands.

Constant width italic

is used in syntax and command summaries to show generic text; these should be replaced with user-supplied values.

Constant width bold

is used in examples to show text that should be typed literally by the user.

Italic

is used to show generic arguments and options; these should be replaced with user-supplied values. Italic is also used to indicate URLs, macro package names, library names, comments in examples, and the first mention of terms.

%, $, #

are used in some examples as the C shell prompt (%) and as the Bash, Bourne or Korn shell prompts ($). # is the prompt for the root user.

?, >

are used in some examples as the C shell secondary prompt (?) and as the Bash, Bourne or Korn shell secondary prompts (>).

□, →

are used in some examples to represent the space and tab characters respectively. This is particularly necessary for the examples in the chapters on text editing.

program (N )

indicates the “manpage” for program in section N of the online manual. For example, echo (1) means the entry for the echo command.

[ ]

surround optional elements in a description of syntax. (The brackets themselves should never be typed.) Note that many commands show the argument ...