“...” or /usr/local/pgsql/ at the front of a file name is used to represent the path to the Postgres superuser's home directory.
In a command synopsis, brackets (“[” and “]”) indicate an optional phrase or keyword. Anything in braces (“{” and “}”) and containing vertical bars (“|”) indicates that you must choose one.
In examples, parentheses (“(” and “)”) are used to group boolean expressions. “|” is the boolean operator OR.
Examples will show commands executed from various accounts and programs. Commands executed from the root account will be preceeded with “>”. Commands executed from the Postgres superuser account will be preceeded with “%”, while commands executed from an unprivileged user's account will be preceeded with “$”. SQL commands will be preceeded with “=>” or will have no leading prompt, depending on the context.
Note: At the time of writing (Postgres v6.5) the notation for flagging commands is not universally consistant throughout the documentation set. Please report problems to the Documentation Mailing List.