Re: Bash Reference Manual Type

[Dennis Williamson]

On Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 3:02 PM Martin Schulte <gnu@schrader-schulte.de>
wrote:

> Hi Dennis,
>
> thanks for your answer!
>
> > This isn't regex.
>
> Sure!
>
> > It's a command synopsis using a long standing notation
> > style. You can see it set out in POSIX in
> >
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap12.html#tag_12
> >
> > You'll see this used in many man pages, usage messages and other
> > documentation. It's by no means specific to Bash.
>
> I would be interested in an example!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Martin
>

Examples of man pages and help text:

man man
man grep
grep -h
man find
man ssh
ssh --help
man lsof
lsof -h

An example of the synopsis section of the lsof man page Revision-4.91 on my
Mac:

SYNOPSIS
       lsof  [ -?abChlnNOPRtUvVX ] [ -A A ] [ -c c ] [ +c c ] [ +|-d d ] [
+|-D D ] [ +|-e s ] [ +|-E ] [ +|-f [cfgGn] ] [ -F [f] ] [ -g [s] ] [
       -i [i] ] [ -k k ] [ -K k ] [ +|-L [l] ] [ +|-m m ] [ +|-M ] [ -o [o]
] [ -p s ] [ +|-r [t[m<fmt>]] ] [ -s [p:s] ] [ -S [t] ] [ -T [t] ] [
       -u s ] [ +|-w ] [ -x [fl] ] [ +|-X ] [ -z [z] ] [ -Z [Z] ] [ -- ]
[names]

Part of the output of lsof -h:

usage: [-?abhlnNoOPRtUvVX] [+|-c c] [+|-d s] [+D D] [+|-f[cgG]]
 [-F [f]] [-g [s]] [-i [i]] [+|-L [l]] [+|-M] [-o [o]] [-p s]
 [+|-r [t]] [-s [p:s]] [-S [t]] [-T [t]] [-u s] [+|-w] [-x [fl]] [--]
[names]

(Side notes: the missing spaces are just as it was output, some options
aren't shown in the help output, -e for example)

I apologize if the formatting of the preceding is unreadable. They are
direct copy/pastes.

>