Notational conventions

In command examples, text shown in bold monospace identifies user input that must be typed exactly as shown.

In paragraph text, monospace identifies command names, system calls, and directive/pragma names.

In command examples, monospace identifies command output, including error messages.

In command syntax diagrams, text shown in monospace must be typed exactly as shown.

In paragraph text, italic identifies new and important terms and titles of documents.

In command syntax diagrams, italic identifies variables that must be supplied by the user.

In command syntax diagrams, text surrounded by curly brackets indicates a choice. The choices available are shown inside the curly brackets and separated by the pipe (|) sign.

The following command example indicates that you can enter either a or b:

command {a | b}

In command syntax diagrams and directive/pragma specifications, square brackets indicate optional data.

The following command example indicates that the variable output_file is optional:

command input_file [output_file]

In command syntax, horizontal ellipses show repetition of the preceding item(s).

The following command example indicates you can optionally specify more than one input_file on the command line:

command input_file [input_file ...]