Conventions Used in this Book

I don't use a lot of complex notations in the book. Here are a few simple conventions I've used to make the examples clear and the text easy to follow:

$ and #	The HP-UX command prompt. Every command issued in the book is preceded by a command prompt. Either one of these two will be used or a system name are usually used as prompts.
italics	Italics are used for variable values and when referring to functional areas and menu picks in the System Administration Manager (SAM).
bold and " "	Bold text is the information you would type, such as the command you issue after a prompt or the information you type when running a script. Sometimes information you would type is also referred to in the text explaining it, and the typed information may appear in quotes.
<----	When selections have to be made, this convention indicates the one chosen for the purposes of the example.
[ ]	Brackets indicate optional items and command descriptions.
{ }	Curly braces indicate a list from which you must choose.
	A vertical bar separates items in a list of choices.
<Enter>	Indicates the "Enter" key has been pressed on the keyboard. Sometimes <Return> is used to indicate the return key has been pressed.

One additional convention is that used for command formats. I don't use command formats more than I have to because I could never do as thorough a job of describing commands as the HP-UX manual pages. The manual pages go into detail on all HP-UX commands. Here is the format I use when I cover commands:

         form  1      command  [option(s)]  [arg(s)]
         form  2      command  [option(s)]  [arg(s)]
         form  n      command  [option(s)]  [arg(s)]

I try not to get carried away with detail when covering a command, but there are sometimes many components that must be covered in order to understand a command. Here is a brief description of the components listed above:

form # - There are sometimes many forms of a command. If there is more than one form of a command that requires explanation, then I will show more than one form.

command - The name of the executable.

option(s) - Several options may appear across a command line.

cmd_arg(s) - Command arguments such as path name.