BS. I’ve been using linux for over 20 years and I still don’t know what those mean. I can only guess from context. It’s a stupid convention to just use symbols like that and never explain it.
Following the openbsd example from the original comment I replied to, it has absolutely nothing to say about what brackets mean, so this advice would not be helpful for an openbsd system: https://man.openbsd.org/man
On my personal linux system (arch derivative, by the way), it at least mentions brackets meaning optional, but only in the context of arguments:
[-abc] any or all arguments within [ ] are optional.
I think this would trip up some new users. The destination, with or without the username to connect as, may not seem like an “argument” to a new user since it doesn’t have a dash before it like the example does
this advice would not be helpful for an openbsd system
Sorry, I wasn’t aware of that. BSD usually has excellent pan man pages.
Here’s the relevant section in the Linux one:
The following conventions apply to the SYNOPSIS section and can be used as a guide in other sections.
**bold text** type exactly as shown.
*italic text* replace with appropriate argument.
[-abc] any or all arguments within [ ] are optional.
-a|-b options delimited by | cannot be used together.
argument ... argument is repeatable.
[expression] ... entire expression within [ ] is repeatable.
The destination, with or without the username to connect as, may not seem like an “argument” to a new user since it doesn’t have a dash before it like the example does
Then the new user should real the ssh manpage which very clearly specifies that it is.
BS. I’ve been using linux for over 20 years and I still don’t know what those mean. I can only guess from context. It’s a stupid convention to just use symbols like that and never explain it.
Read the man manpage and all will be revealed.
Following the openbsd example from the original comment I replied to, it has absolutely nothing to say about what brackets mean, so this advice would not be helpful for an openbsd system: https://man.openbsd.org/man
On my personal linux system (arch derivative, by the way), it at least mentions brackets meaning optional, but only in the context of arguments:
I think this would trip up some new users. The destination, with or without the username to connect as, may not seem like an “argument” to a new user since it doesn’t have a dash before it like the example does
Sorry, I wasn’t aware of that. BSD usually has excellent
panman pages.Here’s the relevant section in the Linux one:
The following conventions apply to the SYNOPSIS section and can be used as a guide in other sections. **bold text** type exactly as shown. *italic text* replace with appropriate argument. [-abc] any or all arguments within [ ] are optional. -a|-b options delimited by | cannot be used together. argument ... argument is repeatable. [expression] ... entire expression within [ ] is repeatable.Then the new user should real the ssh manpage which very clearly specifies that it is.