The Courier type face is used to denote one of the following:

• Text as displayed on a monitor
• Command syntax examples.

bold

Bold text denotes command keywords (words that must be entered exactly as shown).

italics

Italics can mean any of the following:

• filenames
• book titles
• command argument names and values
• new terms not commonly understood

< >

Words enclosed in angle brackets should be replaced by user-specific data. In the following example, the words userid and password should be replaced by actual user ID and password values:

Login: <userid>

Password: <password>

[ ]

Square brackets are used to denote command line arguments that are optional.

{ }

Curly braces enclose a range of choices for a required argument.

When used within square brackets, curly braces indicate that if you choose to set the optional argument indicated by the square brackets, then you must choose one of the choices enclosed in the curly brackets.

In the example below, the curly brackets indicate that either in or out is always required for the ip access-group command:

ip access-group <name> {in | out}

In the following example, the version argument is optional for the snmp-serverhost command, but if it is set it must be either 1 or 2c:

snmp-serverhost <host-id> [traps | inform] [version {1 | 2c}]

 |

A vertical bar separates multiple choices among arguments.

In the following example, the vertical bar indicates that the first argument of the clear prefix command can be either a prefix in standard, dotted-decimal format (1.2.3.4/n) or the keyword all:

clear prefix {<prefix> | all} [routes-only]

The second argument--the keyword routes-only--is enclosed in square brackets because it is optional.