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(texinfo)var

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`@var'{METASYNTACTIC-VARIABLE}
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  Use the `@var' command to indicate metasyntactic variables.  A
"metasyntactic variable" is something that stands for another piece of
text.  For example, you should use a metasyntactic variable in the
documentation of a function to describe the arguments that are passed
to that function.

  Do not use `@var' for the names of particular variables in
programming languages.  These are specific names from a program, so
`@code' is correct for them (Note: code).  For example, the Emacs
Lisp variable `texinfo-tex-command' is not a metasyntactic variable; it
is properly formatted using `@code'.

  Do not use `@var' for environment variables either; `@env' is correct
for them (see the next section).

  The effect of `@var' in the Info file is to change the case of the
argument to all upper case.  In the printed manual and HTML output, the
argument is printed in slanted type.

  For example,

     To delete file @var{filename},
     type @samp{rm @var{filename}}.

produces

     To delete file FILENAME, type `rm FILENAME'.

(Note that `@var' may appear inside `@code', `@samp', `@file', etc.)

  Write a metasyntactic variable all in lower case without spaces, and
use hyphens to make it more readable.  Thus, the Texinfo source for the
illustration of how to begin a Texinfo manual looks like this:

     \input texinfo
     @@setfilename @var{info-file-name}
     @@settitle @var{name-of-manual}

This produces:

     \input texinfo
     @setfilename INFO-FILE-NAME
     @settitle NAME-OF-MANUAL

  In some documentation styles, metasyntactic variables are shown with
angle brackets, for example:

     ..., type rm <filename>

However, that is not the style that Texinfo uses.  (You can, of course,
modify the sources to `texinfo.tex' and the Info formatting commands to
output the `<...>' format if you wish.)