parameter

parameter — A value or a symbolic reference to a value.

Synopsis

parameter ::=

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

Additional attributes:

  • class (enumeration)
    • “command”
    • “function”
    • “option”

Description

A parameter identifies something passed from one part of a computer system to another. In this regard parameter is fairly generic, but it may have a more constrained semantic in some contexts (e.g., in a paramdef).

In a document that describes more than one kind of parameter—for example, parameters to functions and commands—the class attribute can be used to distinguish between them, if necessary.

Processing expectations

Formatted inline.

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

any attribute

Any attribute in any other explicit namespace

class

Identifies the class of parameter

Enumerated values:
“command”

A command

“function”

A function

“option”

An option

Parents

These elements contain parameter: bridgehead, caption (db.html.caption), citation, citetitle, classsynopsisinfo, code, computeroutput, contrib, emphasis (db.emphasis), entry, enumitemdescription, firstterm (db.firstterm), funcsynopsisinfo, glosssee, glossseealso, glossterm (db.glossterm), link, literallayout, member, meta (db.meta.content), methodparam, olink, orgdiv, para, paramdef, phrase (db.phrase), primary, primaryie, programlisting, quote (db.quote), refdescriptor, refentrytitle, refname, refpurpose, remark, screen, secondary, secondaryie, see, seealso, seealsoie, seeie, seg, segtitle, simpara, subtitle, synopsis, synopsisinfo, td, term, termdef, tertiary, tertiaryie, th, title, titleabbrev, tocentry, type, userinput.

Children

The following elements occur in parameter: text, abbrev, acronym, alt, anchor, annotation, biblioref, coref, date, emphasis (db._emphasis), firstterm (db._firstterm), footnote, footnoteref, foreignphrase (db._foreignphrase), glossterm (db._glossterm), indexterm (db.indexterm.endofrange), indexterm (db.indexterm.singular), indexterm (db.indexterm.startofrange), inlinemediaobject, link, olink, phrase (db._phrase), quote (db._quote), remark, replaceable, subscript, superscript, trademark, wordasword, xref.

See Also

Related elements: computeroutput, constant, funcdef, funcparams, funcprototype, funcsynopsisinfo, function, literal, markup, option, optional, paramdef, prompt, replaceable, returnvalue, tag, userinput, varargs, varname, void.

Examples

1 |<article xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook'>
  |<title>Example parameter</title>
  | 
  |<para>Using the <parameter class='command'>-l</parameter> parameter on the
5 |Linux <command>ls</command> command prints a long directory listing.
  |</para>
  | 
  |</article>

Using the -l parameter on the Linux ls command prints a long directory listing.