Document Conventions
This section lists the common typographical and symbol use conventions for AWS technical publications.
Typographical Conventions
This section describes common typographical use conventions.
Convention | Description/Example |
---|---|
Call-outs |
A call-out is a number in the body text to give you a visual reference. The reference point is for further discussion elsewhere. You can use this resource regularly. |
Code in text |
Inline code samples (including XML) and commands are identified with a special font. You can use the command |
Code blocks |
Blocks of sample code are set apart from the body and marked accordingly. # ls -l /var/www/html/index.html -rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 1872 Jun 21 09:33 /var/www/html/index.html # date Wed Jun 21 09:33:42 EDT 2006 |
Emphasis |
Unusual or important words and phrases are marked with a special font. You must sign up for an account before you can use the service. |
Internal cross references |
References to a section in the same document are marked. |
Logical values, constants, and regular expressions, abstracta |
A special font is used for expressions that are important to identify, but are not code. If the value is |
Product and feature names |
Named AWS products and features are identified on first use. Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). |
Operations |
In-text references to operations. Use the |
Parameters |
In-text references to parameters. The operation accepts the parameter |
Response elements |
In-text references to responses. A container for one |
Technical publication references |
References to other AWS publications. If the reference is hyperlinked, it is also underscored. For detailed conceptual information, see the Amazon Mechanical Turk Developer Guide. |
User entered values |
A special font marks text that the user types. At the password prompt, type |
User interface controls and labels |
Denotes named items on the UI for easy identification. On the File menu, click Properties. |
Variables |
When you see this style, you must change the value of the content when you copy the text of a sample to a command line. % ec2-register See also the following symbol convention. |
Symbol Conventions
This section describes the common use of symbols.
Convention | Symbol | Description/Example |
---|---|---|
Mutually exclusive parameters |
(Parentheses | and | vertical | bars) |
Within a code description, bar separators denote options from which one must be chosen. % data = hdfread (start | stride | edge) |
Optional parameters XML variable text |
[square brackets] |
Within a code description, square brackets denote completely optional commands or parameters. % sed [-n, -quiet] Use square brackets in XML examples to differentiate them from tags. <CustomerId>[ID]</CustomerId> |
Variables |
<arrow brackets> |
Within a code sample, arrow brackets denote a variable that must be replaced with a valid value. % ec2-register <your-s3-bucket>/image.manifest |