<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Conventions</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REV="MADE" HREF="mailto:pgsql-docs@postgresql.org"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PostgreSQL 9.6.17 Documentation" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Preface" HREF="preface.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="A Brief History of PostgreSQL" HREF="history.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Further Information" HREF="resources.html"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="stylesheet.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><META NAME="creation" CONTENT="2020-02-24T19:56:52"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="4" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="index.html" >PostgreSQL 9.6.17 Documentation</A ></TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A TITLE="A Brief History of PostgreSQL" HREF="history.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="preface.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Preface</TD ><TD WIDTH="20%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A TITLE="Further Information" HREF="resources.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="NOTATION" >Conventions</A ></H1 ><P > The following conventions are used in the synopsis of a command: brackets (<TT CLASS="LITERAL" >[</TT > and <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >]</TT >) indicate optional parts. (In the synopsis of a Tcl command, question marks (<TT CLASS="LITERAL" >?</TT >) are used instead, as is usual in Tcl.) Braces (<TT CLASS="LITERAL" >{</TT > and <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >}</TT >) and vertical lines (<TT CLASS="LITERAL" >|</TT >) indicate that you must choose one alternative. Dots (<TT CLASS="LITERAL" >...</TT >) mean that the preceding element can be repeated. </P ><P > Where it enhances the clarity, SQL commands are preceded by the prompt <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >=></TT >, and shell commands are preceded by the prompt <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >$</TT >. Normally, prompts are not shown, though. </P ><P > An <I CLASS="FIRSTTERM" >administrator</I > is generally a person who is in charge of installing and running the server. A <I CLASS="FIRSTTERM" >user</I > could be anyone who is using, or wants to use, any part of the <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > system. These terms should not be interpreted too narrowly; this book does not have fixed presumptions about system administration procedures. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="history.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="resources.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >A Brief History of <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="preface.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Further Information</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >