what does angle brackets mean in documentation? [duplicate]

Question

little did i know. that square brackets [option] are used to indicate a parameter that is optional. such as function(param1 [, param2]) which indicate that param1 is required and param2 is optional.

but what about angle brackets <something> and -- mean in documentation? such as;

git config [<file-option>] [--type=<type>] --add name value

and what does --type=<type> mean?

thank you for your answers

Answer 1

Angle brackets or italics indicate identifier/parameter/argument values that are provided by users.