6.1.5 @samp{text}

Use the @samp command to indicate text that is a literal example or ‘sample’ of a sequence of characters in a file, string, pattern, etc. Enclose the text in braces. The argument appears within single quotation marks in both the Info file and the printed manual; in addition, it is printed in a fixed-width font.

To match @samp{foo} at the end of the line,
use the regexp @samp{foo$}.

produces

To match ‘foo’ at the end of the line, use the regexp ‘foo$’.

Any time you are referring to single characters, you should use @samp unless @kbd or @key is more appropriate. Also, you may use @samp for entire statements in C and for entire shell commands—in this case, @samp often looks better than @code. Basically, @samp is a catchall for whatever is not covered by @code, @kbd, @key, @command, etc.

Only include punctuation marks within braces if they are part of the string you are specifying. Write punctuation marks outside the braces if those punctuation marks are part of the English text that surrounds the string. In the following sentence, for example, the commas and period are outside of the braces:

In English, the vowels are @samp{a}, @samp{e},
@samp{i}, @samp{o}, @samp{u}, and sometimes
@samp{y}.

This produces:

In English, the vowels are ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’, and sometimes ‘y’.