Document Conventions

We have tried to be consistent with the way we write the documentation. To this end, we have adopted some conventions with the styles used for different kinds of information. We have also assumed that readers are using a GNU/Linux system based on Debian.

Style

Names of executables, files and directories are typically written in a monospaced font. This is also the case for usernames. Here are some examples:

  • apt is a tool for package management.
  • README.md is a file.
  • /boot/dtbs is a path to the dtbs directory.
  • purism is the default user on the development board.

Command lines are written in a monospaced font and may include a shell prompt to give context to the output of commands issued by the user, and also to indicate which user is issuing commands. In this example the root user runs the apt tool on the development board:

root@pureos:~# apt update

In some cases, the user who is issuing a command is not given because it will depend on the configuration of your system. For example, when you install some packages on your workstation you will usually issue a command like this:

$ sudo apt install virt-manager

In this case, we include the shell prompt. However, in some situations we may omit the shell prompt when it is obvious that we are issuing shell commands:

sudo apt install virt-manager

Where a name of a program is used instead of the executable name, we use a normal font. For example, we would run GNOME Builder from the command line using the gnome-builder executable.

Distributions and Versions

Where we show command lines containing shell commands, the shell being used is almost always bash. Tools used on the command line are those that are available in GNU/Linux distributions based on Debian, such as Ubuntu and PureOS, unless we explicitly state otherwise.

In particular, any Debian packages that we mention are available in Debian Buster. The packages available in other versions of Debian or in other Debian-based distributions may also be usable, and we try to indicate where a minimum version of a package is required.