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#### 1.3.5.2 A Sample Command Description

Commands are functions that may be called without surrounding their arguments in parentheses. Command descriptions have a format similar to function descriptions. For example, here is the description for Octave’s `diary` command:

: diary
: diary on
: diary off
: diary filename

  Record a list of all commands and the output they produce, mixed together just as they appear on the terminal.

  Valid options are:

  on

    Start recording a session in a file called `diary` in the current working directory.

  off

    Stop recording the session in the diary file.

  filename

    Record the session in the file named filename.

  With no arguments, `diary` toggles the current diary state.

  See also: history, evalc.