Typographical conventions

Bold

Used to mark new concepts, WARNINGS, and keywords in a language.

italics

Used for emphasis in text, and occasionally for quotes or introductions at the beginning of a section.

slanted

Used to mark meta-variables in the text, especially in representations of the command line. For example,

ls -l foo

where foo would ``stand for'' a filename, such as /bin/cp.

Typewriter

Used to represent screen interaction, as in

$ ls -l /bin/cp
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root    wheel    12104 Sep 25 15:53 /bin/cp

Also used for code examples, whether it is C code, a shell script, or something else, and to display general files, such as configuration files. When necessary for clarity's sake, these examples or figures will be enclosed in thin boxes.

Key

Represents a key to press. You will often see it in this form:

Press Return to continue.