Document Conventions


Typographic Conventions

Mono-spaced with non-white background



The above includes a filename, a shell command and a keycap, all present in mono-spaced type and all distinguishable thanks to context.

Key combinations can be distinguished from keycaps by the hyphen connecting each part of a key combinations. For example:

Press Enter to execute the command.

Press Ctrl-Alt-F2 to switch to the first virtual terminal. Press Ctrl-Alt-F1 to return to your X-Windows session.


If source code is discussed, class names, methods, functions, variable names and returned values mentioned within a paragraph will be presented as above, in mono-spaced type. For example:


Proportional Bold

This denotes words or phrases encountered on a system, including application names; dialog box text; labelled buttons; check-box and radio button labels; menu titles and sub-menu titles. For example:




To connect to a remote machine using ssh, type ssh ** at a shell prompt. If the remote machine is and your username on that machine is john, type ssh

The mount -o remount *file-system* command remounts the named file system. For example, to remount the /home file system, the command is mount -o remount /home.

To see the version of a currently installed package, use the rpm -q *package* command. It will return a result as follows: package-version-release.



Publican is a DocBook publishing system.

Pull-quote Conventions


Output sent to a terminal is presented thus:

books        Desktop   documentation  drafts  mss    photos   stuff  svn
books_tests  Desktop1  downloads      images  notes  scripts  svgs

Source-code listings are also presented this way but may add syntax highlighting.

Notes and Warnings



Notes are tips, shortcuts, or alternative approaches to the task at hand. Ignoring a note should have no negative consequences, but you might miss out on a trick that makes your life easier.


Important boxes detail things that are easily missed: configuration changes that only apply to the current session, or services that need restarting before an update will apply. Ignoring a box labelled 'Important' will not cause data loss but may cause irritation and frustration.

