Angle brackets in command-line arguments?

[Fredrik Lundh]

Keith Hughitt wrote:

> I am using someone else's script which expects input in the form of:
> 
>      ./script.py <arg1> arg2

<arg> is a common notation for "replace with argument value", so it 
could be that they're just expecting you to type:

     ./script.py arg1 arg2

Alternatively, they meant

     ./script.py <arg1 >arg2

in which case arg1 and arg2 are filenames.  This is most commonly used 
with tools that process textfiles in some way.  In the latter case, you 
can try the script simply by running:

      ./script.py

and then typing the input to the terminal (use control-D on Unix or 
control-Z on Windows to terminate).

Do the instructions use more meaningful names than "arg1" and "arg2"?

</F>