Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 22:47:47 +0200
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
Sender: halo1 AT zahav DOT net DOT il
To: JT Williams <jeffw AT darwin DOT sfbr DOT org>
Message-Id: <2110-Wed17Jan2001224746+0200-eliz@is.elta.co.il>
X-Mailer: Emacs 20.6 (via feedmail 8.3.emacs20_6 I) and Blat ver 1.8.6
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <20010117132705.B19070@kendall.sfbr.org> (message from JT
	Williams on Wed, 17 Jan 2001 13:27:05 -0600)
Subject: Re: command-line switch/argument syntax standards
References:  <20010117132705 DOT B19070 AT kendall DOT sfbr DOT org>
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Errors-To: nobody AT delorie DOT com
X-Mailing-List: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com
Precedence: bulk

> Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 13:27:05 -0600
> From: JT Williams <jeffw AT darwin DOT sfbr DOT org>
> 
> I'm looking for a document that describes the `standards' (if
> any) for specifying command-line options and arguments in
> program documentation, e.g.,
> 
> 	foo [ -bar ] [ --quiet ] <filename>
> 
> has [ ] for optional arguments, < > to indicate something the
> user must enter, and so on.

I assume you mean Texinfo docs.

Parameters such as <filename> above should use @var.  The rest should
be in @code.  As far as [ ] are concerned, I don't think there are any
standards, but you may wish to look at documentation of several
packages for examples.