Nomenclature


[Page xxix]

There are references throughout this book to Linux utilities, shell commands (that is, commands that are part of a command shell itself), and system calls (Linux library functions). It's quite easy to confuse these three things, so I adopted a consistent way to differentiate them:

  • Linux utilities are always written in boldface, like this: "the mkdir utility makes a directory."

  • Shell commands are always written in italics, like this: "the history command lists your previous commands."

  • System calls are always followed by parentheses, like this: "the fork () system call duplicates a process."

Formal descriptions of utilities, shell commands, and system calls are supplied in a box, using a modified-for-Linux Backus-Naur notation. The conventions of this notation are fairly simple and are described fully in the Appendix. As an example, here's a description of the Linux man utility:

Utility: man [ chapter ] word

man -k keyword

The first usage of man displays the manual entry associated with word. A value for chapter is optional. If no chapter number is specified, the first entry found is displayed. The second usage of man displays a list of all the manual entries that contain keyword.


Formal descriptions of all utilities, shell commands, system calls, and library functions used in the book are cross-referenced in the appendix. Regular references are included in the index.

Sample Linux command sessions are presented in a Courier font. Keyboard input from the user is always displayed in italics, and annotations are always preceded by ellipses (. . .). Here's an example:

$ ls                   ... generate a directory listing. myfile.txt    yourfile.txt $ whoami ables $ _                    ... a new prompt is displayed. 





Linux for Programmers and Users
Linux for Programmers and Users
ISBN: 0131857487
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 339

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