4
<title>Conventions</title>
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This book uses the following typographical conventions to mark
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certain portions of text: new terms, foreign phrases, and other
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important passages are emphasized in <emphasis>italics</>.
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Everything that represents input or output of the computer, in
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particular commands, program code, and screen output, is shown in a
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monospaced font (<literal>example</literal>). Within such
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passages, italics (<replaceable>example</replaceable>) indicate
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placeholders; you must insert an actual value instead of the placeholder.
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On occasion, parts of program code are emphasized in bold face
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(<emphasis role="bold"><literal>example</></>), if they have been
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added or changed since the preceding example.
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The following conventions are used in the synopsis of a command:
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brackets (<literal>[</literal> and <literal>]</literal>) indicate
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optional parts. (In the synopsis of a Tcl command, question marks
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(<literal>?</>) are used instead, as is usual in Tcl.) Braces
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(<literal>{</literal> and <literal>}</literal>) and vertical lines
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(<literal>|</literal>) indicate that you must choose one
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alternative. Dots (<literal>...</>) mean that the preceding element
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Where it enhances the clarity, SQL commands are preceded by the
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prompt <literal>=></>, and shell commands are preceded by the
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prompt <literal>$</>. Normally, prompts are not shown, though.
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An <firstterm>administrator</firstterm> is generally a person who is
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in charge of installing and running the server. A <firstterm>user</firstterm>
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could be anyone who is using, or wants to use, any part of the
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<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> system. These terms should not
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be interpreted too narrowly; this book does not have fixed
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presumptions about system administration procedures.