JezK
Edit File: _0040var.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.8, https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <!-- This manual is for GNU Texinfo (version 6.8, 8 June 2021), a documentation system that can produce both online information and a printed manual from a single source using semantic markup. Copyright (C) 1988, 1990-1993, 1995-1999, 2001-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". --> <title>@var (GNU Texinfo 6.8)</title> <meta name="description" content="@var (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="keywords" content="@var (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="texi2any"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"> <link href="index.html" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" rel="index" title="Command and Variable Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="Indicating.html" rel="up" title="Indicating"> <link href="_0040env.html" rel="next" title="@env"> <link href="_0040verb.html" rel="prev" title="@verb"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.copiable-anchor {visibility: hidden; text-decoration: none; line-height: 0em} a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} span:hover a.copiable-anchor {visibility: visible} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> </head> <body lang="en"> <div class="subsection" id="g_t_0040var"> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="_0040env.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@env</code>{<var>environment-variable</var>}</a>, Previous: <a href="_0040verb.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev"><code>@verb</code>{<var>char</var><var>text</var><var>char</var>}</a>, Up: <a href="Indicating.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Indicating Definitions, Commands, etc.</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <span id="g_t_0040var_007bmetasyntactic_002dvariable_007d"></span><h4 class="subsection">6.1.7 <code>@var</code>{<var>metasyntactic-variable</var>}</h4> <span id="var"></span><span id="index-var"></span> <p>Use the <code>@var</code> command to indicate metasyntactic variables. A <em>metasyntactic variable</em> is something that stands for another piece of text. For example, you should use a metasyntactic variable in the documentation of a function to describe the arguments that are passed to that function. </p> <p>Do not use <code>@var</code> for the names of normal variables in computer programs. These are specific names, so <code>@code</code> is correct for them (<code>@code</code>). For example, the Emacs Lisp variable <code>texinfo-tex-command</code> is not a metasyntactic variable; it is properly formatted using <code>@code</code>. </p> <p>Do not use <code>@var</code> for environment variables either; <code>@env</code> is correct for them (see the next section). </p> <p>The effect of <code>@var</code> in the Info file is to change the case of the argument to all uppercase. In the printed manual and HTML output, the argument is output in slanted type. </p> <p>For example, </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">To delete file @var{filename}, type @samp{rm @var{filename}}. </pre></div> <p>produces </p> <blockquote> <p>To delete file <var>filename</var>, type ‘<samp>rm <var>filename</var></samp>’. </p></blockquote> <p>(Note that <code>@var</code> may appear inside <code>@code</code>, <code>@samp</code>, <code>@file</code>, etc.) </p> <p>Write a metasyntactic variable all in lowercase without spaces, and use hyphens to make it more readable. Thus, the Texinfo source for the illustration of how to begin a Texinfo manual looks like this: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">\input texinfo @@settitle @var{name-of-manual} </pre></div> <p>This produces: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">\input texinfo @settitle <var>name-of-manual</var> </pre></div> <p>In some documentation styles, metasyntactic variables are shown with angle brackets, for example: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">…, type rm <filename> </pre></div> <p>However, that is not the style that Texinfo uses. </p> </div> <hr> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="_0040env.html"><code>@env</code>{<var>environment-variable</var>}</a>, Previous: <a href="_0040verb.html"><code>@verb</code>{<var>char</var><var>text</var><var>char</var>}</a>, Up: <a href="Indicating.html">Indicating Definitions, Commands, etc.</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> </body> </html>