Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions used in this book.

MeaningExamples
The names of commands.Use ls -l to list all files.
The names of files.Edit .login.
On screen computer output.
You have mail.
What you type, when contrasted with on-screen computer output.
% su
Password:
Manual page references.Use su(1) to change user names.
User and group namesOnly root can do this.
EmphasisYou must do this.
Command line variables; replace with the real name or variable.To delete a file, type rm filename
Environment variables$HOME is your home directory.