@top
@chapter
@unnumbered and @appendix
@majorheading, @chapheading
@section
@unnumberedsec, @appendixsec, @heading
@subsection Command
@subsection-like Commands
@raisesections and @lowersections
@code{sample-code}
@kbd{keyboard-characters}
@key{key-name}
@samp{text}
@verb{<char>text<char>}
@var{metasyntactic-variable}
@env{environment-variable}
@file{file-name}
@command{command-name}
@option{option-name}
@dfn{term}
@cite{reference}
@abbr{abbreviation[, meaning]}
@acronym{acronym[, meaning]}
@indicateurl{uniform-resource-locator}
@email{email-address[, displayed-text]}
@quotation: Block quotations
@example: Example Text
@verbatim: Literal Text
@verbatiminclude file: Include a File Verbatim
@lisp: Marking a Lisp Example
@small... Block Commands
@display and @smalldisplay
@format and @smallformat
@exdent: Undoing a Line's Indentation
@flushleft and @flushright
@noindent: Omitting Indentation
@indent: Forcing Indentation
@cartouche: Rounded Rectangles Around Examples
@euro{} (€): Euro Currency Symbol
@pounds{} (£): Pounds Sterling
@textdegree{} (°): Degrees Symbol
@minus{} (−): Inserting a Minus Sign
@geq{} (≥) and @leq{} (≤): Inserting relations
@math: Inserting Mathematical Expressions
@result{} (⇒): Indicating Evaluation
@expansion{} (==>): Indicating an Expansion
@print{} (-|): Indicating Printed Output
@error{} (error-->): Indicating an Error Message
@equiv{} (==): Indicating Equivalence
@point{} (-!-): Indicating Point in a Buffer
@* and @/: Generate and Allow Line Breaks
@- and @hyphenation: Helping TeX Hyphenate
@allowcodebreaks: Control Line Breaks in @code
@w{text}: Prevent Line Breaks
@tie{}: Inserting an Unbreakable Space
@sp n: Insert Blank Lines
@page: Start a New Page
@group: Prevent Page Breaks
@need mils: Prevent Page Breaks
tex and texindex
texi2dvi
lpr -d
@pagesizes [width][, height]: Custom Page Sizes
This manual is for GNU Texinfo (version 4.12, 9 April 2008), a documentation system that can produce both online information and a printed manual from a single source.
The first part of this master menu lists the major nodes in this Info document, including the @-command and concept indices. The rest of the menu lists all the lower level nodes in the document.
--- The Detailed Node Listing ---
Overview of Texinfo
Using Texinfo Mode
Updating Nodes and Menus
Beginning a Texinfo File
Texinfo File Header
Document Permissions
Title and Copyright Pages
The `Top' Node and Master Menu
Global Document Commands
Ending a Texinfo File
Chapter Structuring
Nodes
The @node Command
Menus
Cross References
@xref
Marking Words and Phrases
Indicating Definitions, Commands, etc.
Emphasizing Text
Quotations and Examples
Lists and Tables
Making a Two-column Table
@multitable: Multi-column Tables
Special Displays
Floats
Inserting Images
Footnotes
Indices
Combining Indices
Special Insertions
Inserting @ and {} and ,
Inserting Space
Inserting Ellipsis and Bullets
Inserting TeX and Legal Symbols: ©, ®
Glyphs for Examples
Glyphs Summary
Forcing and Preventing Breaks
Definition Commands
The Definition Commands
Object-Oriented Programming
Conditionally Visible Text
@set, @clear, and @value
Internationalization
Defining New Texinfo Commands
Formatting and Printing Hardcopy
Creating and Installing Info Files
Creating an Info File
Installing an Info File
Generating HTML
HTML Cross-references
@-Command List
Sample Texinfo Files
GNU Free Documentation License
Include Files
Page Headings
Formatting Mistakes
Finding Badly Referenced Nodes
Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and when it is bad, it is better than nothing. —Dick Brandon
The programs currently being distributed that relate to Texinfo include
makeinfo, info, texindex, and texinfo.tex.
These programs are free; this means that everyone is free to use
them and free to redistribute them on a free basis. The Texinfo-related
programs are not in the public domain; they are copyrighted and there
are restrictions on their distribution, but these restrictions are
designed to permit everything that a good cooperating citizen would want
to do. What is not allowed is to try to prevent others from further
sharing any version of these programs that they might get from you.
Specifically, we want to make sure that you have the right to give away copies of the programs that relate to Texinfo, that you receive source code or else can get it if you want it, that you can change these programs or use pieces of them in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things.
To make sure that everyone has such rights, we have to forbid you to deprive anyone else of these rights. For example, if you distribute copies of the Texinfo related programs, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must tell them their rights.
Also, for our own protection, we must make certain that everyone finds out that there is no warranty for the programs that relate to Texinfo. If these programs are modified by someone else and passed on, we want their recipients to know that what they have is not what we distributed, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on our reputation.
The precise conditions of the licenses for the programs currently being distributed that relate to Texinfo are found in the General Public Licenses that accompany them. This manual specifically is covered by the GNU Free Documentation License (see GNU Free Documentation License).
Texinfo1 is a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce both online information and printed output. This means that instead of writing two different documents, one for the online information and the other for a printed work, you need write only one document. Therefore, when the work is revised, you need revise only that one document.
We welcome bug reports and suggestions for any aspect of the Texinfo system, programs, documentation, installation, anything. Please email them to bug-texinfo@gnu.org. You can get the latest version of Texinfo from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/ and its mirrors worldwide.
For bug reports, please include enough information for the maintainers to reproduce the problem. Generally speaking, that means:
When in doubt whether something is needed or not, include it. It's better to include too much than to leave out something important.
Patches are most welcome; if possible, please make them with ‘diff -c’ (see Overview) and include ChangeLog entries (see Change Log), and follow the existing coding style.
Using Texinfo, you can create a printed document (via the TeX typesetting system) the normal features of a book, including chapters, sections, cross references, and indices. From the same Texinfo source file, you can create an Info file with special features to make documentation browsing easy. You can also create from that same source file an HTML output file suitable for use with a web browser, or an XML file. See the next section (see Output Formats) for details and the exact commands to generate output from the source.
TeX works with virtually all printers; Info works with virtually all computer terminals; the HTML output works with virtually all web browsers. Thus Texinfo can be used by almost any computer user.
A Texinfo source file is a plain ASCII file containing text interspersed with @-commands (words preceded by an ‘@’) that tell the typesetting and formatting programs what to do. You can edit a Texinfo file with any text editor, but it is especially convenient to use GNU Emacs since that editor has a special mode, called Texinfo mode, that provides various Texinfo-related features. (See Texinfo Mode.)
You can use Texinfo to create both online help and printed manuals; moreover, Texinfo is freely redistributable. For these reasons, Texinfo is the official documentation format of the GNU project. More information is available at the GNU documentation web page.
Here is a brief overview of the output formats currently supported by Texinfo.
Be aware that the Texinfo language is very different from and much
stricter than TeX's usual languages, plain TeX and LaTeX.
For more information on TeX in general, please see the book
TeX for the Impatient, available from
http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/teximpatient.
From time to time, proposals are made to generate traditional Unix man pages from Texinfo source. However, because man pages have a very strict conventional format, generating a good man page requires a completely different source than the typical Texinfo applications of writing a good user tutorial and/or a good reference manual. This makes generating man pages incompatible with the Texinfo design goal of not having to document the same information in different ways for different output formats. You might as well just write the man page directly.
Man pages still have their place, and if you wish to support them, you may find the program help2man to be useful; it generates a traditional man page from the ‘--help’ output of a program. In fact, this is currently used to generate man pages for the programs in the Texinfo distribution. It is GNU software written by Brendan O'Dea, available from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/help2man/.
If you are a programmer and would like to contribute to the GNU project
by implementing additional output formats for Texinfo, that would be
excellent. But please do not write a separate translator texi2foo for
your favorite format foo! That is the hard way to do the job, and makes
extra work in subsequent maintenance, since the Texinfo language is
continually being enhanced and updated. Instead, the best approach is
modify makeinfo to generate the new format.
An Info file is a Texinfo file formatted so that the Info documentation
reading program can operate on it. (makeinfo
and texinfo-format-buffer are two commands that convert a Texinfo file
into an Info file.)
Info files are divided into pieces called nodes, each of which contains the discussion of one topic. Each node has a name, and contains both text for the user to read and pointers to other nodes, which are identified by their names. The Info program displays one node at a time, and provides commands with which the user can move to other related nodes.
See Top, for more information about using Info.
Each node of an Info file may have any number of child nodes that describe subtopics of the node's topic. The names of child nodes are listed in a menu within the parent node; this allows you to use certain Info commands to move to one of the child nodes. Generally, an Info file is organized like a book. If a node is at the logical level of a chapter, its child nodes are at the level of sections; likewise, the child nodes of sections are at the level of subsections.
All the children of any one parent are linked together in a bidirectional chain of `Next' and `Previous' pointers. The `Next' pointer provides a link to the next section, and the `Previous' pointer provides a link to the previous section. This means that all the nodes that are at the level of sections within a chapter are linked together. Normally the order in this chain is the same as the order of the children in the parent's menu. Each child node records the parent node name as its `Up' pointer. The last child has no `Next' pointer, and the first child has the parent both as its `Previous' and as its `Up' pointer.2
The book-like structuring of an Info file into nodes that correspond to chapters, sections, and the like is a matter of convention, not a requirement. The `Up', `Previous', and `Next' pointers of a node can point to any other nodes, and a menu can contain any other nodes. Thus, the node structure can be any directed graph. But it is usually more comprehensible to follow a structure that corresponds to the structure of chapters and sections in a printed book or report.
In addition to menus and to `Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers, Info provides pointers of another kind, called references, that can be sprinkled throughout the text. This is usually the best way to represent links that do not fit a hierarchical structure.
Usually, you will design a document so that its nodes match the structure of chapters and sections in the printed output. But occasionally there are times when this is not right for the material being discussed. Therefore, Texinfo uses separate commands to specify the node structure for the Info file and the section structure for the printed output.
Generally, you enter an Info file through a node that by convention is named `Top'. This node normally contains just a brief summary of the file's purpose, and a large menu through which the rest of the file is reached. From this node, you can either traverse the file systematically by going from node to node, or you can go to a specific node listed in the main menu, or you can search the index menus and then go directly to the node that has the information you want. Alternatively, with the standalone Info program, you can specify specific menu items on the command line (see Top).
If you want to read through an Info file in sequence, as if it were a printed manual, you can hit <SPC> repeatedly, or you get the whole file with the advanced Info command g *. (see Advanced Info commands.)
The dir file in the info directory serves as the departure point for the whole Info system. From it, you can reach the `Top' nodes of each of the documents in a complete Info system.
If you wish to refer to an Info file in a URI, you can use the (unofficial) syntax exemplified in the following. This works with Emacs/W3, for example:
info:///usr/info/emacs#Dissociated%20Press
info:emacs#Dissociated%20Press
info://localhost/usr/info/emacs#Dissociated%20Press
The info program itself does not follow URIs of any kind.
A Texinfo file can be formatted and typeset as a printed book or manual. To do this, you need TeX, a powerful, sophisticated typesetting program written by Donald Knuth.3
A Texinfo-based book is similar to any other typeset, printed work: it can have a title page, copyright page, table of contents, and preface, as well as chapters, numbered or unnumbered sections and subsections, page headers, cross references, footnotes, and indices.
You can use Texinfo to write a book without ever having the intention of converting it into online information. You can use Texinfo for writing a printed novel, and even to write a printed memo, although this latter application is not recommended since electronic mail is so much easier.
TeX is a general purpose typesetting program. Texinfo provides a file texinfo.tex that contains information (definitions or macros) that TeX uses when it typesets a Texinfo file. (texinfo.tex tells TeX how to convert the Texinfo @-commands to TeX commands, which TeX can then process to create the typeset document.) texinfo.tex contains the specifications for printing a document. You can get the latest version of texinfo.tex from the Texinfo home page, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/.
In the United States, documents are most often printed on 8.5 inch by 11
inch pages (216mm by 280mm); this is the default size. But
you can also print for 7 inch by 9.25 inch pages (178mm by
235mm, the @smallbook size; or on A4 or A5 size paper
(@afourpaper, @afivepaper). (See Printing “Small” Books. Also, see Printing on A4 Paper.)
By changing the parameters in texinfo.tex, you can change the size of the printed document. In addition, you can change the style in which the printed document is formatted; for example, you can change the sizes and fonts used, the amount of indentation for each paragraph, the degree to which words are hyphenated, and the like. By changing the specifications, you can make a book look dignified, old and serious, or light-hearted, young and cheery.
TeX is freely distributable. It is written in a superset of Pascal called WEB and can be compiled either in Pascal or (by using a conversion program that comes with the TeX distribution) in C. (See TeX Mode, for information about TeX.)
TeX is very powerful and has a great many features. Because a Texinfo file must be able to present information both on a character-only terminal in Info form and in a typeset book, the formatting commands that Texinfo supports are necessarily limited.
To get a copy of TeX, see How to Obtain TeX.
In a Texinfo file, the commands that tell TeX how to typeset the
printed manual and tell makeinfo and
texinfo-format-buffer how to create an Info file are preceded
by ‘@’; they are called @-commands. For example,
@node is the command to indicate a node and @chapter
is the command to indicate the start of a chapter.
Note: Almost all @ command names are entirely lower case.
The Texinfo @-commands are a strictly limited set of constructs. The strict limits make it possible for Texinfo files to be understood both by TeX and by the code that converts them into Info files. You can display Info files on any terminal that displays alphabetic and numeric characters. Similarly, you can print the output generated by TeX on a wide variety of printers.
Depending on what they do or what arguments4 they take, you need to write @-commands on lines of their own or as part of sentences:
@quotation at the beginning of a line as
the only text on the line. (@quotation begins an indented
environment.)
@chapter at the beginning of a line
followed by the command's arguments, in this case the chapter title, on
the rest of the line. (@chapter creates chapter titles.)
@dots{} wherever you wish but usually
within a sentence. (@dots{} creates an ellipsis ...)
@code{sample-code} wherever you
wish (but usually within a sentence) with its argument,
sample-code in this example, between the braces. (@code
marks text as being code.)
@example on a line of its own; write the
body-text on following lines; and write the matching @end
command, @end example in this case, on a line of its own
after the body-text. (@example ... @end example
indents and typesets body-text as an example.) It's usually ok to
indent environment commands like this, but in complicated and
hard-to-define circumstances the extra spaces cause extra space to
appear in the output, so beware.
As a general rule, a command requires braces if it mingles among other
text; but it does not need braces if it starts a line of its own. The
non-alphabetic commands, such as @:, are exceptions to the rule;
they do not need braces.
As you gain experience with Texinfo, you will rapidly learn how to write the different commands: the different ways to write commands actually make it easier to write and read Texinfo files than if all commands followed exactly the same syntax. See @-Command Syntax, for all the details.
This section describes the general conventions used in all Texinfo documents.
@noindent to inhibit
paragraph indentation if required (see @noindent).
@code and @example.
makeinfo does nothing special with tabs, and thus a tab
character in your input file will usually appear differently in the
output.
To avoid this problem, Texinfo mode in GNU Emacs inserts
multiple spaces when you press the <TAB> key. Also, you can run
untabify in Emacs to convert tabs in a region to multiple
spaces, or use the unexpand command from the shell.
You can write comments in a Texinfo file that will not appear in
either the Info file or the printed manual by using the
@comment command (which may be abbreviated to @c).
Such comments are for the person who revises the Texinfo file. All the
text on a line that follows either @comment or @c is a
comment; the rest of the line does not appear in either the Info file
or the printed manual.
Often, you can write the @comment or @c in the middle of
a line, and only the text that follows after the @comment or
@c command does not appear; but some commands, such as
@settitle and @setfilename, work on a whole line. You
cannot use @comment or @c in a line beginning with such
a command.
You can write long stretches of text that will not appear in either
the Info file or the printed manual by using the @ignore and
@end ignore commands. Write each of these commands on a line
of its own, starting each command at the beginning of the line. Text
between these two commands does not appear in the processed output.
You can use @ignore and @end ignore for writing
comments.
Text enclosed by @ignore or by failing @ifset or
@ifclear conditions is ignored in the sense that it will not
contribute to the formatted output. However, TeX and makeinfo must
still parse the ignored text, in order to understand when to stop
ignoring text from the source file; that means that you may still get
error messages if you have invalid Texinfo commands within ignored text.
By convention, the name of a Texinfo file ends with (in order of preference) one of the extensions .texinfo, .texi, .txi, or .tex. The longer extensions are preferred since they describe more clearly to a human reader the nature of the file. The shorter extensions are for operating systems that cannot handle long file names.
In order to be made into a printed manual and an Info file, a Texinfo file must begin with lines like this:
\input texinfo
@setfilename info-file-name
@settitle name-of-manual
The contents of the file follow this beginning, and then you must end a Texinfo file with a line like this:
@bye
@setfilename line provides a name for the Info file and
tells TeX to open auxiliary files. All text before
@setfilename is ignored!
@settitle line specifies a title for the page headers (or
footers) of the printed manual, and the default document description for
the ‘<head>’ in HTML format. Strictly speaking, @settitle
is optional—if you don't mind your document being titled `Untitled'.
@bye line at the end of the file on a line of its own tells
the formatters that the file is ended and to stop formatting.
Typically, you will not use quite such a spare format, but will include mode setting and start-of-header and end-of-header lines at the beginning of a Texinfo file, like this:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename info-file-name
@settitle name-of-manual
@c %**end of header
In the first line, ‘-*-texinfo-*-’ causes Emacs to switch into Texinfo mode when you edit the file.
The @c lines which surround the @setfilename and
@settitle lines are optional, but you need them in order to
run TeX or Info on just part of the file. (See Start of Header.)
Furthermore, you will usually provide a Texinfo file with a title page, indices, and the like, all of which are explained in this manual. But the minimum, which can be useful for short documents, is just the three lines at the beginning and the one line at the end.
Generally, a Texinfo file contains more than the minimal beginning and end described in the previous section—it usually contains the six parts listed below. These are described fully in the following sections.
@copying command.
@titlepage and @end titlepage commands. The title and
copyright page appear only in the printed manual.
@bye command on a line of its own.
Here is a very short but complete Texinfo file, in the six conventional parts enumerated in the previous section, so you can see how Texinfo source appears in practice. The first three parts of the file, from ‘\input texinfo’ through to ‘@end titlepage’, look more intimidating than they are: most of the material is standard boilerplate; when writing a manual, you simply change the names as appropriate.
See Beginning a File, for full documentation on the commands listed here. See GNU Sample Texts, for the full texts to be used in GNU manuals.
In the following, the sample text is indented; comments on it are not. The complete file, without interspersed comments, is shown in Short Sample Texinfo File.
The header does not appear in either the Info file or the printed output. It sets various parameters, including the name of the Info file and the title used in the header.
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename sample.info
@settitle Sample Manual 1.0
@c %**end of header
A real manual includes more text here, according to the license under which it is distributed. See GNU Sample Texts.
@copying
This is a short example of a complete Texinfo file, version 1.0.
Copyright @copyright{} 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@end copying
The titlepage segment does not appear in the online output, only in the
printed manual. We use the @insertcopying command to
include the permission text from the previous section, instead of
writing it out again; it is output on the back of the title page. The
@contents command generates a table of contents.
@titlepage
@title Sample Title
@c The following two commands start the copyright page.
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
@end titlepage
@c Output the table of contents at the beginning.
@contents
The `Top' node contains the master menu for the Info file. Since the printed manual uses a table of contents rather than a menu, it excludes the `Top' node. We repeat the short description from the beginning of the ‘@copying’ text, but there's no need to repeat the copyright information, so we don't use ‘@insertcopying’ here. The ‘@top’ command itself helps makeinfo determine the relationships between nodes.
@ifnottex
@node Top
@top Short Sample
This is a short sample Texinfo file.
@end ifnottex
@menu
* First Chapter:: The first chapter is the
only chapter in this sample.
* Index:: Complete index.
@end menu
The body segment contains all the text of the document, but not the indices or table of contents. This example illustrates a node and a chapter containing an enumerated list.
@node First Chapter
@chapter First Chapter
@cindex chapter, first
This is the first chapter.
@cindex index entry, another
Here is a numbered list.
@enumerate
@item
This is the first item.
@item
This is the second item.
@end enumerate
The end segment contains commands for generating an index in a node and
unnumbered chapter of its own, and the @bye command that marks
the end of the document.
@node Index
@unnumbered Index
@printindex cp
@bye
Here is what the contents of the first chapter of the sample look like:
This is the first chapter.Here is a numbered list.
- This is the first item.
- This is the second item.
Richard M. Stallman invented the Texinfo format, wrote the initial processors, and created Edition 1.0 of this manual. Robert J. Chassell greatly revised and extended the manual, starting with Edition 1.1. Brian Fox was responsible for the standalone Texinfo distribution until version 3.8, and wrote the standalone makeinfo and info programs. Karl Berry has continued maintenance since Texinfo 3.8 (manual edition 2.22).
Our thanks go out to all who helped improve this work, particularly the indefatigable Eli Zaretskii and Andreas Schwab, who have provided patches beyond counting. François Pinard and David D. Zuhn, tirelessly recorded and reported mistakes and obscurities. Zack Weinberg did the impossible by implementing the macro syntax in texinfo.tex. Special thanks go to Melissa Weisshaus for her frequent reviews of nearly similar editions. Dozens of others have contributed patches and suggestions, they are gratefully acknowledged in the ChangeLog file. Our mistakes are our own.
A bit of history: in the 1970's at CMU, Brian Reid developed a program
and format named Scribe to mark up documents for printing. It used the
@ character to introduce commands, as Texinfo does. Much more
consequentially, it strove to describe document contents rather than
formatting, an idea wholeheartedly adopted by Texinfo.
Meanwhile, people at MIT developed another, not too dissimilar format called Bolio. This then was converted to using TeX as its typesetting language: BoTeX. The earliest BoTeX version seems to have been 0.02 on October 31, 1984.
BoTeX could only be used as a markup language for documents to be printed, not for online documents. Richard Stallman (RMS) worked on both Bolio and BoTeX. He also developed a nifty on-line help format called Info, and then combined BoTeX and Info to create Texinfo, a mark up language for text that is intended to be read both online and as printed hard copy.
You may edit a Texinfo file with any text editor you choose. A Texinfo file is no different from any other ASCII file. However, GNU Emacs comes with a special mode, called Texinfo mode, that provides Emacs commands and tools to help ease your work.
This chapter describes features of GNU Emacs' Texinfo mode but not any features of the Texinfo formatting language. So if you are reading this manual straight through from the beginning, you may want to skim through this chapter briefly and come back to it after reading succeeding chapters which describe the Texinfo formatting language in detail.
Texinfo mode provides special features for working with Texinfo files. You can:
@node lines.
Perhaps the two most helpful features are those for inserting frequently used @-commands and for creating node pointers and menus.
In most cases, the usual Text mode commands work the same in Texinfo
mode as they do in Text mode. Texinfo mode adds new editing commands
and tools to GNU Emacs' general purpose editing features. The major
difference concerns filling. In Texinfo mode, the paragraph
separation variable and syntax table are redefined so that Texinfo
commands that should be on lines of their own are not inadvertently
included in paragraphs. Thus, the M-q (fill-paragraph)
command will refill a paragraph but not mix an indexing command on a
line adjacent to it into the paragraph.
In addition, Texinfo mode sets the page-delimiter variable to
the value of texinfo-chapter-level-regexp; by default, this is
a regular expression matching the commands for chapters and their
equivalents, such as appendices. With this value for the page
delimiter, you can jump from chapter title to chapter title with the
C-x ] (forward-page) and C-x [
(backward-page) commands and narrow to a chapter with the
C-x n p (narrow-to-page) command. (See Pages, for details about the page commands.)
You may name a Texinfo file however you wish, but the convention is to
end a Texinfo file name with one of the extensions
.texinfo, .texi, .txi, or .tex. A longer
extension is preferred, since it is explicit, but a shorter extension
may be necessary for operating systems that limit the length of file
names. GNU Emacs automatically enters Texinfo mode when you visit a
file with a .texinfo, .texi or .txi
extension. Also, Emacs switches to Texinfo mode
when you visit a
file that has ‘-*-texinfo-*-’ in its first line. If ever you are
in another mode and wish to switch to Texinfo mode, type M-x
texinfo-mode.
Like all other Emacs features, you can customize or enhance Texinfo mode as you wish. In particular, the keybindings are very easy to change. The keybindings described here are the default or standard ones.
Texinfo mode provides commands to insert various frequently used @-commands into the buffer. You can use these commands to save keystrokes.
The insert commands are invoked by typing C-c twice and then the first letter of the @-command:
@code{} and put the
cursor between the braces.
@dfn{} and put the
cursor between the braces.
@end and attempt to insert the correct following word,
such as ‘example’ or ‘table’. (This command does not handle
nested lists correctly, but inserts the word appropriate to the
immediately preceding list.)
@item and put the
cursor at the beginning of the next line.
@kbd{} and put the
cursor between the braces.
@node and a comment line
listing the sequence for the `Next',
`Previous', and `Up' nodes.
Leave point after the @node.
@noindent and put the
cursor at the beginning of the next line.
@samp{} and put the
cursor between the braces.
@table followed by a <SPC>
and leave the cursor after the <SPC>.
@var{} and put the
cursor between the braces.
@example and put the
cursor at the beginning of the next line.
{} and put the cursor between the braces.
To put a command such as @code{...} around an
existing word, position the cursor in front of the word and type
C-u 1 C-c C-c c. This makes it easy to edit existing plain text.
The value of the prefix argument tells Emacs how many words following
point to include between braces—‘1’ for one word, ‘2’ for
two words, and so on. Use a negative argument to enclose the previous
word or words. If you do not specify a prefix argument, Emacs inserts
the @-command string and positions the cursor between the braces. This
feature works only for those @-commands that operate on a word or words
within one line, such as @kbd and @var.
This set of insert commands was created after analyzing the frequency with which different @-commands are used in the GNU Emacs Manual and the GDB Manual. If you wish to add your own insert commands, you can bind a keyboard macro to a key, use abbreviations, or extend the code in texinfo.el.
C-c C-c C-d (texinfo-start-menu-description) is an insert
command that works differently from the other insert commands. It
inserts a node's section or chapter title in the space for the
description in a menu entry line. (A menu entry has three parts, the
entry name, the node name, and the description. Only the node name is
required, but a description helps explain what the node is about.
See The Parts of a Menu.)
To use texinfo-start-menu-description, position point in a menu
entry line and type C-c C-c C-d. The command looks for and copies
the title that goes with the node name, and inserts the title as a
description; it positions point at beginning of the inserted text so you
can edit it. The function does not insert the title if the menu entry
line already contains a description.
This command is only an aid to writing descriptions; it does not do the whole job. You must edit the inserted text since a title tends to use the same words as a node name but a useful description uses different words.
You can show the section structure of a Texinfo file by using the
C-c C-s command (texinfo-show-structure). This command
shows the section structure of a Texinfo file by listing the lines
that begin with the @-commands for @chapter,
@section, and the like. It constructs what amounts
to a table of contents. These lines are displayed in another buffer
called the ‘*Occur*’ buffer. In that buffer, you can position
the cursor over one of the lines and use the C-c C-c command
(occur-mode-goto-occurrence), to jump to the corresponding spot
in the Texinfo file.
@chapter, @section, and such lines of a
Texinfo file.
If you call texinfo-show-structure with a prefix argument by
typing C-u C-c C-s, it will list not only those lines with the
@-commands for @chapter, @section, and the like, but
also the @node lines. You can use texinfo-show-structure
with a prefix argument to check whether the `Next', `Previous', and `Up'
pointers of an @node line are correct.
Often, when you are working on a manual, you will be interested only
in the structure of the current chapter. In this case, you can mark
off the region of the buffer that you are interested in by using the
C-x n n (narrow-to-region) command and
texinfo-show-structure will work on only that region. To see
the whole buffer again, use C-x n w (widen).
(See Narrowing, for more
information about the narrowing commands.)
In addition to providing the texinfo-show-structure command,
Texinfo mode sets the value of the page delimiter variable to match
the chapter-level @-commands. This enables you to use the C-x
] (forward-page) and C-x [ (backward-page)
commands to move forward and backward by chapter, and to use the
C-x n p (narrow-to-page) command to narrow to a chapter.
See Pages, for more information
about the page commands.
Texinfo mode provides commands for automatically creating or updating
menus and node pointers. The commands are called “update” commands
because their most frequent use is for updating a Texinfo file after you
have worked on it; but you can use them to insert the `Next',
`Previous', and `Up' pointers into an @node line that has none
and to create menus in a file that has none.
If you do not use the updating commands, you need to write menus and node pointers by hand, which is a tedious task.
You can use the updating commands to:
You can also use the commands to update all the nodes and menus in a region or in a whole Texinfo file.
The updating commands work only with conventional Texinfo files, which
are structured hierarchically like books. In such files, a structuring
command line must follow closely after each @node line, except
for the `Top' @node line. (A structuring command line is
a line beginning with @chapter, @section, or other
similar command.)
You can write the structuring command line on the line that follows
immediately after an @node line or else on the line that
follows after a single @comment line or a single
@ifinfo line. You cannot interpose more than one line between
the @node line and the structuring command line; and you may
interpose only an @comment line or an @ifinfo line.
Commands which work on a whole buffer require that the `Top' node be
followed by a node with an @chapter or equivalent-level command.
The menu updating commands will not create a main or master menu for a
Texinfo file that has only @chapter-level nodes! The menu
updating commands only create menus within nodes for lower level
nodes. To create a menu of chapters, you must provide a `Top'
node.
The menu updating commands remove menu entries that refer to other Info files since they do not refer to nodes within the current buffer. This is a deficiency. Rather than use menu entries, you can use cross references to refer to other Info files. None of the updating commands affect cross references.
Texinfo mode has five updating commands that are used most often: two
are for updating the node pointers or menu of a single node (or a
region); two are for updating every node pointer and menu in a file;
and one, the texinfo-master-menu command, is for creating a
master menu for a complete file, and optionally, for updating every
node and menu in the whole Texinfo file.
The texinfo-master-menu command is the primary command:
With an argument (prefix argument, C-u, if interactive), first create or update all the nodes and all the regular menus in the buffer before constructing the master menu. (See The Top Node and Master Menu, for more about a master menu.)
For texinfo-master-menu to work, the Texinfo file must have a
`Top' node and at least one subsequent node.
After extensively editing a Texinfo file, you can type the following:
C-u M-x texinfo-master-menu
or
C-u C-c C-u m
This updates all the nodes and menus completely and all at once.
The other major updating commands do smaller jobs and are designed for the person who updates nodes and menus as he or she writes a Texinfo file.
The commands are:
@node line preceding point). If the
@node line has pre-existing `Next', `Previous', or `Up'
pointers in it, the old pointers are removed and new ones inserted.
With an argument (prefix argument, C-u, if interactive), this command
updates all @node lines in the region (which is the text
between point and mark).
Whenever texinfo-make-menu updates an existing menu, the
descriptions from that menu are incorporated into the new menu. This
is done by copying descriptions from the existing menu to the entries
in the new menu that have the same node names. If the node names are
different, the descriptions are not copied to the new menu.
If a master menu exists, the texinfo-all-menus-update command
updates it; but the command does not create a new master menu if none
already exists. (Use the texinfo-master-menu command for
that.)
When working on a document that does not merit a master menu, you can type the following:
C-u C-c C-u C-a
or
C-u M-x texinfo-all-menus-update
This updates all the nodes and menus.
The texinfo-column-for-description variable specifies the
column to which menu descriptions are indented. By default, the value
is 32 although it can be useful to reduce it to as low as 24. You
can set the variable via customization (see Changing an Option) or with the M-x set-variable
command (see Examining and Setting Variables).
Also, the texinfo-indent-menu-description command may be used to
indent existing menu descriptions to a specified column. Finally, if
you wish, you can use the texinfo-insert-node-lines command to
insert missing @node lines into a file. (See Other Updating Commands, for more information.)
To use the updating commands, you must organize the Texinfo file hierarchically with chapters, sections, subsections, and the like. When you construct the hierarchy of the manual, do not `jump down' more than one level at a time: you can follow the `Top' node with a chapter, but not with a section; you can follow a chapter with a section, but not with a subsection. However, you may `jump up' any number of levels at one time—for example, from a subsection to a chapter.
Each @node line, with the exception of the line for the `Top'
node, must be followed by a line with a structuring command such as
@chapter, @section, or
@unnumberedsubsec.
Each @node line/structuring-command line combination
must look either like this:
@node Comments, Minimum, Conventions, Overview
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
@section Comments
or like this (without the @comment line):
@node Comments, Minimum, Conventions, Overview
@section Comments
or like this (without the explicit node pointers):
@node Comments
@section Comments
In this example, `Comments' is the name of both the node and the
section. The next node is called `Minimum' and the previous node is
called `Conventions'. The `Comments' section is within the `Overview'
node, which is specified by the `Up' pointer. (Instead of an
@comment line, you may also write an @ifinfo line.)
If a file has a `Top' node, it must be called ‘top’ or ‘Top’ and be the first node in the file.
The menu updating commands create a menu of sections within a chapter, a menu of subsections within a section, and so on. This means that you must have a `Top' node if you want a menu of chapters.
Incidentally, the makeinfo command will create an Info file for a
hierarchically organized Texinfo file that lacks `Next', `Previous' and
`Up' pointers. Thus, if you can be sure that your Texinfo file will be
formatted with makeinfo, you have no need for the update node
commands. (See Creating an Info File, for more information about
makeinfo.) However, both makeinfo and the
texinfo-format-... commands require that you insert menus in
the file.
In addition to the five major updating commands, Texinfo mode possesses several less frequently used updating commands:
@node lines before the @chapter,
@section, and other sectioning commands wherever they are
missing throughout a region in a Texinfo file.
With an argument (C-u as prefix argument, if interactive), the
texinfo-insert-node-lines command not only inserts
@node lines but also inserts the chapter or section titles as
the names of the corresponding nodes. In addition, it inserts the
titles as node names in pre-existing @node lines that lack
names. Since node names should be more concise than section or
chapter titles, you must manually edit node names so inserted.
For example, the following marks a whole buffer as a region and inserts
@node lines and titles throughout:
C-x h C-u M-x texinfo-insert-node-lines
This command inserts titles as node names in @node lines; the
texinfo-start-menu-description command (see Inserting Frequently Used Commands) inserts titles as descriptions in
menu entries, a different action. However, in both cases, you need to
edit the inserted text.
texinfo-multiple-files-update command is
described in the appendix on @include files.
See texinfo-multiple-files-update.
texinfo-indent-menu-description command indents
every description in every menu in the region. However, this command
does not indent the second and subsequent lines of a multi-line
description.
texinfo-sequential-node-update command
sequentially updates all the nodes in the region.
Texinfo mode provides several commands for formatting part or all of a Texinfo file for Info. Often, when you are writing a document, you want to format only part of a file—that is, a region.
You can use either the texinfo-format-region or the
makeinfo-region command to format a region:
You can use either the texinfo-format-buffer or the
makeinfo-buffer command to format a whole buffer:
For example, after writing a Texinfo file, you can type the following:
C-u C-c C-u m
or
C-u M-x texinfo-master-menu
This updates all the nodes and menus. Then type the following to create an Info file:
C-c C-m C-b
or
M-x makeinfo-buffer
For TeX or the Info formatting commands to work, the file must
include a line that has @setfilename in its header.
See Creating an Info File, for details about Info formatting.
Typesetting and printing a Texinfo file is a multi-step process in which
you first create a file for printing (called a DVI file), and then
print the file. Optionally, you may also create indices. To do this,
you must run the texindex command after first running the
tex typesetting command; and then you must run the tex
command again. Or else run the texi2dvi command which
automatically creates indices as needed (see Format with texi2dvi).
Often, when you are writing a document, you want to typeset and print
only part of a file to see what it will look like. You can use the
texinfo-tex-region and related commands for this purpose. Use
the texinfo-tex-buffer command to format all of a
buffer.
texi2dvi on the buffer. In addition to running TeX on the
buffer, this command automatically creates or updates indices as
needed.
texindex to sort the indices of a Texinfo file formatted with
texinfo-tex-region. The texinfo-tex-region command does
not run texindex automatically; it only runs the tex
typesetting command. You must run the texinfo-tex-region command
a second time after sorting the raw index files with the texindex
command. (Usually, you do not format an index when you format a region,
only when you format a buffer. Now that the texi2dvi command
exists, there is little or no need for this command.)
texinfo-tex-buffer or texinfo-tex-region.
For texinfo-tex-region or texinfo-tex-buffer to work, the
file must start with a ‘\input texinfo’ line and must
include an @settitle line. The file must end with @bye
on a line by itself. (When you use texinfo-tex-region, you must
surround the @settitle line with start-of-header and
end-of-header lines.)
See Hardcopy, for a description of the other TeX related
commands, such as tex-show-print-queue.
In Texinfo mode, each set of commands has default keybindings that begin with the same keys. All the commands that are custom-created for Texinfo mode begin with C-c. The keys are somewhat mnemonic.
The insert commands are invoked by typing C-c twice and then the first letter of the @-command to be inserted. (It might make more sense mnemonically to use C-c C-i, for `custom insert', but C-c C-c is quick to type.)
C-c C-c c Insert ‘@code’. C-c C-c d Insert ‘@dfn’. C-c C-c e Insert ‘@end’. C-c C-c i Insert ‘@item’. C-c C-c n Insert ‘@node’. C-c C-c s Insert ‘@samp’. C-c C-c v Insert ‘@var’. C-c { Insert braces. C-c ] C-c } Move out of enclosing braces. C-c C-c C-d Insert a node's section title in the space for the description in a menu entry line.
The texinfo-show-structure command is often used within a
narrowed region.
C-c C-s List all the headings.
The texinfo-master-menu command creates a master menu; and can
be used to update every node and menu in a file as well.
C-c C-u m
M-x texinfo-master-menu
Create or update a master menu.
C-u C-c C-u m With C-u as a prefix argument, first
create or update all nodes and regular
menus, and then create a master menu.
The update pointer commands are invoked by typing C-c C-u and
then either C-n for texinfo-update-node or C-e for
texinfo-every-node-update.
C-c C-u C-n Update a node. C-c C-u C-e Update every node in the buffer.
Invoke the update menu commands by typing C-c C-u
and then either C-m for texinfo-make-menu or
C-a for texinfo-all-menus-update. To update
both nodes and menus at the same time, precede C-c C-u
C-a with C-u.
C-c C-u C-m Make or update a menu. C-c C-u C-a Make or update all menus in a buffer. C-u C-c C-u C-a With C-u as a prefix argument, first create or update all nodes and then create or update all menus.
The Info formatting commands that are written in Emacs Lisp are invoked by typing C-c C-e and then either C-r for a region or C-b for the whole buffer.
The Info formatting commands that are written in C and based on the
makeinfo program are invoked by typing C-c C-m and then
either C-r for a region or C-b for the whole buffer.
Use the texinfo-format... commands:
C-c C-e C-r Format the region. C-c C-e C-b Format the buffer.
Use makeinfo:
C-c C-m C-r Format the region. C-c C-m C-b Format the buffer. C-c C-m C-l Recenter themakeinfooutput buffer. C-c C-m C-k Kill themakeinfoformatting job.
The TeX typesetting and printing commands are invoked by typing
C-c C-t and then another control command: C-r for
texinfo-tex-region, C-b for texinfo-tex-buffer,
and so on.
C-c C-t C-r Run TeX on the region. C-c C-t C-b Runtexi2dvion the buffer. C-c C-t C-i Runtexindex. C-c C-t C-p Print the DVI file. C-c C-t C-q Show the print queue. C-c C-t C-d Delete a job from the print queue. C-c C-t C-k Kill the current TeX formatting job. C-c C-t C-x Quit a currently stopped TeX formatting job. C-c C-t C-l Recenter the output buffer.
The remaining updating commands do not have standard keybindings because they are rarely used.
M-x texinfo-insert-node-lines
Insert missing @node lines in region.
With C-u as a prefix argument,
use section titles as node names.
M-x texinfo-multiple-files-update
Update a multi-file document.
With C-u 2 as a prefix argument,
create or update all nodes and menus
in all included files first.
M-x texinfo-indent-menu-description
Indent descriptions.
M-x texinfo-sequential-node-update
Insert node pointers in strict sequence.
Certain pieces of information must be provided at the beginning of a Texinfo file, such as the name for the output file(s), the title of the document, and the Top node. A table of contents is also generally produced here.
This chapter expands on the minimal complete Texinfo source file previously given (see Six Parts). It describes the numerous commands for handling the traditional frontmatter items in Texinfo.
Straight text outside of any command before the Top node should be avoided. Such text is treated differently in the different output formats: visible in TeX and HTML, by default not shown in Info readers, and so on.
The following sample shows what is needed. The elements given here are explained in more detail in the following sections. Other commands are often included at the beginning of Texinfo files, but the ones here are the most critical.
See GNU Sample Texts, for the full texts to be used in GNU manuals.
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename infoname.info
@settitle name-of-manual version
@c %**end of header
@copying
This manual is for program, version version.
Copyright @copyright{} years copyright-owner.
@quotation
Permission is granted to ...
@end quotation
@end copying
@titlepage
@title name-of-manual-when-printed
@subtitle subtitle-if-any
@subtitle second-subtitle
@author author
@c The following two commands
@c start the copyright page.
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
Published by ...
@end titlepage
@c So the toc is printed at the start.
@contents
@ifnottex
@node Top
@top title
This manual is for program, version version.
@end ifnottex
@menu
* First Chapter:: Getting started ...
* Second Chapter:: ...
...
* Copying:: Your rights and freedoms.
@end menu
@node First Chapter
@chapter First Chapter
@cindex first chapter
@cindex chapter, first
...
Texinfo files start with at least three lines that provide Info and
TeX with necessary information. These are the \input texinfo
line, the @settitle line, and the @setfilename line.
Also, if you want to format just part of the Texinfo file, you must
write the @settitle and @setfilename lines between
start-of-header and end-of-header lines. The start- and end-of-header
lines are optional, but they do no harm, so you might as well always
include them.
Any command that affects document formatting as a whole makes sense to
include in the header. @synindex (see synindex), for
instance, is another command often included in the header. See GNU Sample Texts, for complete sample texts.
Thus, the beginning of a Texinfo file generally looks like this:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename sample.info
@settitle Sample Manual 1.0
@c %**end of header
Every Texinfo file that is to be the top-level input to TeX must begin with a line that looks like this:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
This line serves two functions:
A start-of-header line is a Texinfo comment that looks like this:
@c %**start of header
Write the start-of-header line on the second line of a Texinfo file.
Follow the start-of-header line with @setfilename and
@settitle lines and, optionally, with other commands that
globally affect the document formatting, such as @synindex or
@footnotestyle; and then by an end-of-header line (see End of Header).
The start- and end-of-header lines allow you to format only part of a Texinfo file for Info or printing. See texinfo-format commands.
The odd string of characters, ‘%**’, is to ensure that no other
comment is accidentally taken for a start-of-header line. You can
change it if you wish by setting the tex-start-of-header and/or
tex-end-of-header Emacs variables. See Texinfo Mode Printing.
@setfilename: Set the output file name
In order to serve as the primary input file for either makeinfo
or TeX, a Texinfo file must contain a line that looks like this:
@setfilename info-file-name
Write the @setfilename command at the beginning of a line and
follow it on the same line by the Info file name. Do not write anything
else on the line; anything on the line after the command is considered
part of the file name, including what would otherwise be a
comment.
The Info formatting commands ignore everything written before the
@setfilename line, which is why the very first line of
the file (the \input line) does not show up in the output.
The @setfilename line specifies the name of the output file to
be generated. This name must be different from the name of the Texinfo
file. There are two conventions for choosing the name: you can either
remove the extension (such as ‘.texi’) entirely from the input file
name, or, preferably, replace it with the ‘.info’ extension.
Although an explicit ‘.info’ extension is preferable, some
operating systems cannot handle long file names. You can run into a
problem even when the file name you specify is itself short enough.
This occurs because the Info formatters split a long Info file into
short indirect subfiles, and name them by appending ‘-1’,
‘-2’, ..., ‘-10’, ‘-11’, and so on, to the original
file name. (See Tag and Split Files.) The subfile name
texinfo.info-10, for example, is too long for old systems with a
14-character limit on filenames; so the Info file name for this document
is texinfo rather than texinfo.info. When makeinfo
is running on operating systems such as MS-DOS which impose severe
limits on file names, it may remove some characters from the original
file name to leave enough space for the subfile suffix, thus producing
files named texin-10, gcc.i12, etc.
When producing HTML output, makeinfo will replace any extension
with ‘html’, or add ‘.html’ if the given name has no
extension.
The @setfilename line produces no output when you typeset a
manual with TeX, but it is nevertheless essential: it opens the
index, cross-reference, and other auxiliary files used by Texinfo, and
also reads texinfo.cnf if that file is present on your system
(see Preparing for TeX).
@settitle: Set the document titleIn order to be made into a printed manual, a Texinfo file must contain a line that looks like this:
@settitle title
Write the @settitle command at the beginning of a line and
follow it on the same line by the title. This tells TeX the title to
use in a header or footer. Do not write anything else on the line;
anything on the line after the command is considered part of the title,
including what would otherwise be a comment.
The @settitle command should precede everything that generates
actual output. The best place for it is right after the
@setfilename command (see the previous section).
In the HTML file produced by makeinfo, title serves as the document ‘<title>’. It also becomes the default document description in the ‘<head>’ part (see documentdescription).
The title in the @settitle command does not affect the title as
it appears on the title page. Thus, the two do not need not match
exactly. A practice we recommend is to include the version or edition
number of the manual in the @settitle title; on the title page,
the version number generally appears as a @subtitle so it would
be omitted from the @title. See titlepage.
Conventionally, when TeX formats a Texinfo file for double-sided
output, the title is printed in the left-hand (even-numbered) page
headings and the current chapter title is printed in the right-hand
(odd-numbered) page headings. (TeX learns the title of each chapter
from each @chapter command.) By default, no page footer is
printed.
Even if you are printing in a single-sided style, TeX looks for an
@settitle command line, in case you include the manual title
in the heading.
TeX prints page headings only for that text that comes after the
@end titlepage command in the Texinfo file, or that comes
after an @headings command that turns on headings.
(See The @headings Command, for more
information.)
You may, if you wish, create your own, customized headings and footings. See Headings, for a detailed discussion of this.
Follow the header lines with an end-of-header line, which is a Texinfo comment that looks like this:
@c %**end of header
See Start of Header.
The copyright notice and copying permissions for a document need to
appear in several places in the various Texinfo output formats.
Therefore, Texinfo provides a command (@copying) to declare
this text once, and another command (@insertcopying) to
insert the text at appropriate points.
@copying: Declare Copying Permissions
The @copying command should be given very early in the document;
the recommended location is right after the header material
(see Texinfo File Header). It conventionally consists of a sentence
or two about what the program is, identification of the documentation
itself, the legal copyright line, and the copying permissions. Here is
a skeletal example:
@copying
This manual is for program (version version, updated
date), which ...
Copyright @copyright{} years copyright-owner.
@quotation
Permission is granted to ...
@end quotation
@end copying
The @quotation has no legal significance; it's there to improve
readability in some contexts.
See GNU Sample Texts, for the full text to be used in GNU manuals. See GNU Free Documentation License, for the license itself under which GNU and other free manuals are distributed. You need to include the license as an appendix to your document.
The text of @copying is output as a comment at the beginning of
Info, HTML, and XML output files. It is not output implicitly in
plain text or TeX; it's up to you to use @insertcopying to
emit the copying information. See the next section for details.
The @copyright{} command generates a ‘c’ inside a circle
in output formats that support this (print and HTML). In the other
formats (Info and plain text), it generates ‘(C)’. The copyright
notice itself has the following legally defined sequence:
Copyright © years copyright-owner.
The word `Copyright' must always be written in English, even if the document is otherwise written in another language. This is due to international law.
The list of years should include all years in which a version was completed (even if it was released in a subsequent year). Ranges are not allowed; each year must be written out individually and in full, separated by commas.
The copyright owner (or owners) is whoever holds legal copyright on the work. In the case of works assigned to the FSF, the owner is `Free Software Foundation, Inc.'.
The copyright `line' may actually be split across multiple lines, both
in the source document and in the output. This often happens for
documents with a long history, having many different years of
publication. If you do use several lines, do not indent any of them
(or anything else in the @copying block) in the source file.
See Copyright Notices, for additional information.
@insertcopying: Include Permissions Text
The @insertcopying command is simply written on a line by
itself, like this:
@insertcopying
This inserts the text previously defined by @copying. To meet
legal requirements, it must be used on the copyright page in the printed
manual (see Copyright).
The @copying command itself causes the permissions text to
appear in an Info file before the first node. The text is also
copied into the beginning of each split Info output file, as is legally
necessary. This location implies a human reading the manual using Info
does not see this text (except when using the advanced Info
command g *), but this does not matter for legal purposes,
because the text is present.
Similarly, the @copying text is automatically included at the
beginning of each HTML output file, as an HTML comment. Again, this
text is not visible (unless the reader views the HTML source).
The permissions text defined by @copying also appears
automatically at the beginning of the XML output file.
In hard copy output, the manual's name and author are usually printed on a title page. Copyright information is usually printed on the back of the title page.
The title and copyright pages appear in the printed manual, but not in the Info file. Because of this, it is possible to use several slightly obscure TeX typesetting commands that cannot be used in an Info file. In addition, this part of the beginning of a Texinfo file contains the text of the copying permissions that appears in the printed manual.
You may wish to include titlepage-like information for plain text
output. Simply place any such leading material between
@ifplaintext and @end ifplaintext; makeinfo
includes this when writing plain text (‘--no-headers’), along with
an @insertcopying.
@titlepage
Start the material for the title page and following copyright page
with @titlepage on a line by itself and end it with
@end titlepage on a line by itself.
The @end titlepage command starts a new page and turns on page
numbering. (See Page Headings, for details about how to
generate page headings.) All the material that you want to appear on
unnumbered pages should be put between the @titlepage and
@end titlepage commands. You can force the table of contents to
appear there with the @setcontentsaftertitlepage command
(see Contents).
By using the @page command you can force a page break within the
region delineated by the @titlepage and @end titlepage
commands and thereby create more than one unnumbered page. This is how
the copyright page is produced. (The @titlepage command might
perhaps have been better named the @titleandadditionalpages
command, but that would have been rather long!)
When you write a manual about a computer program, you should write the version of the program to which the manual applies on the title page. If the manual changes more frequently than the program or is independent of it, you should also include an edition number5 for the manual. This helps readers keep track of which manual is for which version of the program. (The `Top' node should also contain this information; see The Top Node.)
Texinfo provides two main methods for creating a title page. One method
uses the @titlefont, @sp, and @center commands
to generate a title page in which the words on the page are
centered.
The second method uses the @title, @subtitle, and
@author commands to create a title page with black rules under
the title and author lines and the subtitle text set flush to the
right hand side of the page. With this method, you do not specify any
of the actual formatting of the title page. You specify the text
you want, and Texinfo does the formatting.
You may use either method, or you may combine them; see the examples in the sections below.
For extremely simple documents, and for the bastard title page in
traditional book frontmatter, Texinfo also provides a command
@shorttitlepage which takes the rest of the line as the title.
The argument is typeset on a page by itself and followed by a blank
page.
@titlefont, @center, and @sp
You can use the @titlefont, @sp, and @center
commands to create a title page for a printed document. (This is the
first of the two methods for creating a title page in Texinfo.)
Use the @titlefont command to select a large font suitable for
the title itself. You can use @titlefont more than once if you
have an especially long title.
For HTML output, each @titlefont command produces an
<h1> heading, but the HTML document <title> is not
affected. For that, you must put an @settitle command before
the @titlefont command (see settitle).
For example:
@titlefont{Texinfo}
Use the @center command at the beginning of a line to center
the remaining text on that line. Thus,
@center @titlefont{Texinfo}
centers the title, which in this example is “Texinfo” printed in the title font.
Use the @sp command to insert vertical space. For example:
@sp 2
This inserts two blank lines on the printed page. (See @sp, for more information about the @sp
command.)
A template for this method looks like this:
@titlepage
@sp 10
@center @titlefont{name-of-manual-when-printed}
@sp 2
@center subtitle-if-any
@sp 2
@center author
...
@end titlepage
The spacing of the example fits an 8.5 by 11 inch manual.
You can in fact use these commands anywhere, not just on a title page, but since they are not logical markup commands, we don't recommend them.
@title, @subtitle, and @author
You can use the @title, @subtitle, and @author
commands to create a title page in which the vertical and horizontal
spacing is done for you automatically. This contrasts with the method
described in the previous section, in which the @sp command is
needed to adjust vertical spacing.
Write the @title, @subtitle, or @author
commands at the beginning of a line followed by the title, subtitle,
or author. These commands are only effective in TeX output; it's
an error to use them anywhere except within @titlepage.
The @title command produces a line in which the title is set
flush to the left-hand side of the page in a larger than normal font.
The title is underlined with a black rule. Only a single line is
allowed; the @* command may not be used to break the title into
two lines. To handle very long titles, you may find it profitable to
use both @title and @titlefont; see the final example in
this section.
The @subtitle command sets subtitles in a normal-sized font
flush to the right-hand side of the page.
The @author command sets the names of the author or authors in
a middle-sized font flush to the left-hand side of the page on a line
near the bottom of the title page. The names are underlined with a
black rule that is thinner than the rule that underlines the title.
(The black rule only occurs if the @author command line is
followed by an @page command line.)
There are two ways to use the @author command: you can write
the name or names on the remaining part of the line that starts with
an @author command:
@author by Jane Smith and John Doe
or you can write the names one above each other by using two (or more)
@author commands:
@author Jane Smith
@author John Doe
(Only the bottom name is underlined with a black rule.)
A template for this method looks like this:
@titlepage
@title name-of-manual-when-printed
@subtitle subtitle-if-any
@subtitle second-subtitle
@author author
@page
...
@end titlepage
You may also combine the @titlefont method described in the
previous section and @title method described in this one. This
may be useful if you have a very long title. Here is a real-life example:
@titlepage
@titlefont{GNU Software}
@sp 1
@title for MS-Windows and MS-DOS
@subtitle Edition @value{e} for Release @value{cde}
@author by Daniel Hagerty, Melissa Weisshaus
@author and Eli Zaretskii
(The use of @value here is explained in value Example.
By international treaty, the copyright notice for a book must be either
on the title page or on the back of the title page. When the copyright
notice is on the back of the title page, that page is customarily not
numbered. Therefore, in Texinfo, the information on the copyright page
should be within @titlepage and @end titlepage
commands.
Use the @page command to cause a page break. To push the
copyright notice and the other text on the copyright page towards the
bottom of the page, use the following incantation after @page:
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
This is a TeX command that is not supported by the Info formatting
commands. The @vskip command inserts whitespace. The ‘0pt
plus 1filll’ means to put in zero points of mandatory whitespace, and as
much optional whitespace as needed to push the following text to the
bottom of the page. Note the use of three ‘l’s in the word
‘filll’; this is correct.
To insert the copyright text itself, write @insertcopying
next (see Document Permissions):
@insertcopying
Follow the copying text by the publisher, ISBN numbers, cover art credits, and other such information.
Here is an example putting all this together:
@titlepage
...
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
Published by ...
Cover art by ...
@end titlepage
Like all @end commands (see Quotations and Examples), the @end titlepage command
must be written at the beginning of a line by itself, with only one
space between the @end and the titlepage. It not only
marks the end of the title and copyright pages, but also causes TeX
to start generating page headings and page numbers.
To repeat what is said elsewhere, Texinfo has two standard page heading formats, one for documents which are printed on one side of each sheet of paper (single-sided printing), and the other for documents which are printed on both sides of each sheet (double-sided printing). You can specify these formats in different ways:
@setchapternewpage command
before the title page commands, and then have the @end
titlepage command start generating page headings in the manner desired.
(See setchapternewpage.)
@headings command to prevent page
headings from being generated or to start them for either single or
double-sided printing. (Write an @headings command immediately
after the @end titlepage command. See The @headings Command, for more information.)
Most documents are formatted with the standard single-sided or
double-sided format, using @setchapternewpage odd for
double-sided printing and no @setchapternewpage command for
single-sided printing.
@headings Command
The @headings command is rarely used. It specifies what kind of
page headings and footings to print on each page. Usually, this is
controlled by the @setchapternewpage command. You need the
@headings command only if the @setchapternewpage command
does not do what you want, or if you want to turn off predefined page
headings prior to defining your own. Write an @headings command
immediately after the @end titlepage command.
You can use @headings as follows:
@headings off@headings single@headings double@headings singleafter@headings doubleaftersingle or double headings, respectively, after the
current page is output.
@headings onsingle if ‘@setchapternewpage
on’, double otherwise.
For example, suppose you write @setchapternewpage off before the
@titlepage command to tell TeX to start a new chapter on the
same page as the end of the last chapter. This command also causes
TeX to typeset page headers for single-sided printing. To cause
TeX to typeset for double sided printing, write @headings
double after the @end titlepage command.
You can stop TeX from generating any page headings at all by
writing @headings off on a line of its own immediately after the
line containing the @end titlepage command, like this:
@end titlepage
@headings off
The @headings off command overrides the @end titlepage
command, which would otherwise cause TeX to print page headings.
You can also specify your own style of page heading and footing. See Page Headings, for more information.
The @chapter, @section, and other structuring commands
(see Structuring) supply the information to make up a
table of contents, but they do not cause an actual table to appear in
the manual. To do this, you must use the @contents and/or
@summarycontents command(s).
@contents@majorheading,
@chapheading, and the other @...heading commands
do not appear in the table of contents (see Structuring Command Types).
@shortcontents@summarycontents@summarycontents is a synonym for @shortcontents.)
Generates a short or summary table of contents that lists only the chapters, appendices, and unnumbered chapters. Sections, subsections and subsubsections are omitted. Only a long manual needs a short table of contents in addition to the full table of contents.
Both contents commands should be written on a line by themselves, and
are best placed near the beginning of the file, after the @end
titlepage (see titlepage). The contents commands automatically
generate a chapter-like heading at the top of the first table of
contents page, so don't include any sectioning command such as
@unnumbered before them.
Since an Info file uses menus instead of tables of contents, the Info
formatting commands ignore the contents commands. But the contents are
included in plain text output (generated by makeinfo
--no-headers), unless makeinfo is writing its output to standard
output.
When makeinfo writes a short table of contents while producing
HTML output, the links in the short table of contents point to
corresponding entries in the full table of contents rather than the text
of the document. The links in the full table of contents point to the
main text of the document.
In the past, the contents commands were sometimes placed at the end of
the file, after any indices and just before the @bye, but we
no longer recommend this.
However, since many existing Texinfo documents still do have the
@contents at the end of the manual, if you are a user printing
a manual, you may wish to force the contents to be printed after the
title page. You can do this by specifying
@setcontentsaftertitlepage and/or
@setshortcontentsaftertitlepage. The first prints only the
main contents after the @end titlepage; the second prints both
the short contents and the main contents. In either case, any
subsequent @contents or @shortcontents is ignored
(unless, erroneously, no @end titlepage is ever encountered).
You need to include the @set...contentsaftertitlepage
commands early in the document (just after @setfilename, for
example). We recommend using texi2dvi (see Format with texi2dvi) to specify this without altering the source file at all. For
example:
texi2dvi --texinfo=@setcontentsaftertitlepage foo.texi
The `Top' node is the node in which a reader enters an Info manual. As such, it should begin with a brief description of the manual (including the version number), and end with a master menu for the whole manual. Of course you should include any other general information you feel a reader would find helpful.
It is conventional and desirable to write an @top sectioning
command line containing the title of the document immediately after
the @node Top line (see The @top Sectioning Command).
The contents of the `Top' node should appear only in the online output;
none of it should appear in printed output, so enclose it between
@ifnottex and @end ifnottex commands. (TeX does not
print either an @node line or a menu; they appear only in Info;
strictly speaking, you are not required to enclose these parts between
@ifnottex and @end ifnottex, but it is simplest to do
so. See Conditionally Visible Text.)
Here is an example of a Top node.
@ifnottex
@node Top
@top Sample Title
@insertcopying
@end ifnottex
Additional general information.
@menu
* First Chapter::
* Second Chapter::
...
* Index::
@end menu
A master menu is a detailed main menu listing all the nodes in a file.
A master menu is enclosed in @menu and @end menu
commands and does not appear in the printed document.
Generally, a master menu is divided into parts.
@detailmenu before the
first one, and @end detailmenu after the last; otherwise,
makeinfo will get confused.
Each section in the menu can be introduced by a descriptive line. So long as the line does not begin with an asterisk, it will not be treated as a menu entry. (See Writing a Menu, for more information.)
For example, the master menu for this manual looks like the following (but has many more entries):
@menu
* Copying Conditions:: Your rights.
* Overview:: Texinfo in brief.
...
* Command and Variable Index::
* General Index::
@detailmenu
--- The Detailed Node Listing ---
Overview of Texinfo
* Reporting Bugs:: ...
...
Beginning a Texinfo File
* Sample Beginning:: ...
...
@end detailmenu
@end menu
Besides the basic commands mentioned in the previous sections, here are additional commands which affect the document as a whole. They are generally all given before the Top node, if they are given at all.
@documentdescription: Summary Text
When producing HTML output for a document, makeinfo writes a
‘<meta>’ element in the ‘<head>’ to give some idea of the
content of the document. By default, this description is the title
of the document, taken from the @settitle command
(see settitle). To change this, use the @documentdescription
environment, as in:
@documentdescription
descriptive text.
@end documentdescription
This will produce the following output in the ‘<head>’ of the HTML:
<meta name=description content="descriptive text.">
@documentdescription must be specified before the first node of
the document.
@setchapternewpage:In an officially bound book, text is usually printed on both sides of the paper, chapters start on right-hand pages, and right-hand pages have odd numbers. But in short reports, text often is printed only on one side of the paper. Also in short reports, chapters sometimes do not start on new pages, but are printed on the same page as the end of the preceding chapter, after a small amount of vertical whitespace.
You can use the @setchapternewpage command with various
arguments to specify how TeX should start chapters and whether it
should format headers for printing on one or both sides of the paper
(single-sided or double-sided printing).
Write the @setchapternewpage command at the beginning of a
line followed by its argument.
For example, you would write the following to cause each chapter to start on a fresh odd-numbered page:
@setchapternewpage odd
You can specify one of three alternatives with the
@setchapternewpage command:
@setchapternewpage off@setchapternewpage on@setchapternewpage oddTexinfo does not have an @setchapternewpage even command,
because there is no printing tradition of starting chapters or books on
an even-numbered page.
If you don't like the default headers that @setchapternewpage
sets, you can explicit control them with the @headings command.
See The @headings Command.
At the beginning of a manual or book, pages are not numbered—for example, the title and copyright pages of a book are not numbered. By convention, table of contents and frontmatter pages are numbered with roman numerals and not in sequence with the rest of the document.
Since an Info file does not have pages, the @setchapternewpage
command has no effect on it.
We recommend not including any @setchapternewpage command in
your manual sources at all, since the desired output is not intrinsic to
the document. For a particular hard copy run, if you don't want the
default option (no blank pages, same headers on all pages) use the
--texinfo option to texi2dvi to specify the output
you want.
@paragraphindent: Paragraph Indenting
The Texinfo processors may insert whitespace at the beginning of the
first line of each paragraph, thereby indenting that paragraph. You can
use the @paragraphindent command to specify this indentation.
Write an @paragraphindent command at the beginning of a line
followed by either ‘asis’ or a number:
@paragraphindent indent
The indentation is according to the value of indent:
asisnoneThe default value of indent is 3. @paragraphindent is
ignored for HTML output.
It is best to write the @paragraphindent command before the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file, so the region
formatting commands indent paragraphs as specified. See Start of Header.
A peculiarity of the texinfo-format-buffer and
texinfo-format-region commands is that they do not indent (nor
fill) paragraphs that contain @w or @* commands.
@firstparagraphindent: Indenting After Headings
As you can see in the present manual, the first paragraph in any
section is not indented by default. Typographically, indentation is a
paragraph separator, which means that it is unnecessary when a new
section begins. This indentation is controlled with the
@firstparagraphindent command:
@firstparagraphindent word
The first paragraph after a heading is indented according to the value of word:
none@paragraphindent asis is in effect.
insert@paragraphindent command
(see paragraphindent).
For HTML and XML output, the @firstparagraphindent setting is
ignored.
It is best to write the @paragraphindent command before the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file, so the region
formatting commands indent paragraphs as specified. See Start of Header.
@exampleindent: Environment Indenting
The Texinfo processors indent each line of @example and similar
environments. You can use the @exampleindent command to specify
this indentation. Write an @exampleindent command at the
beginning of a line followed by either ‘asis’ or a number:
@exampleindent indent
@exampleindent is ignored for HTML output. Otherwise, the
indentation is according to the value of indent:
asisThe default value of indent is 5 spaces in Info, and 0.4in in TeX, which is somewhat less. (The reduction is to help TeX fit more characters onto physical lines.)
It is best to write the @exampleindent command before the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file, so the region
formatting commands indent paragraphs as specified. See Start of Header.
If the Texinfo file has a section containing the “General Public License” and the distribution information and a warranty disclaimer for the software that is documented, we recommend placing this right after the `Top' node. The General Public License is very important to Project GNU software. It ensures that you and others will continue to have a right to use and share the software.
The copying and distribution information and the disclaimer are followed by an introduction or else by the first chapter of the manual.
Although an introduction is not a required part of a Texinfo file, it is very helpful. Ideally, it should state clearly and concisely what the file is about and who would be interested in reading it. In general, an introduction would follow the licensing and distribution information, although sometimes people put it earlier in the document.
The end of a Texinfo file should include commands to create indices,
and the @bye command to mark the last line to be processed.
For example:
@node Index
@unnumbered Index
@printindex cp
@bye
To print an index means to include it as part of a manual or Info file.
This does not happen automatically just because you use @cindex
or other index-entry generating commands in the Texinfo file; those just
cause the raw data for the index to be accumulated. To generate an
index, you must include the @printindex command at the place in
the document where you want the index to appear. Also, as part of the
process of creating a printed manual, you must run a program called
texindex (see Hardcopy) to sort the raw data to produce a
sorted index file. The sorted index file is what is actually used to
print the index.
Texinfo offers six separate types of predefined index, which suffice
in most cases. See Indices, for information on this, as well
defining your own new indices, combining indices, and, most
importantly advice on writing the actual index entries. This section
focuses on printing indices, which is done with the
@printindex command.
@printindex takes one argument, a two-letter index
abbreviation. It reads the corresponding sorted index file (for
printed output), and formats it appropriately into an index.
The @printindex command does not generate a chapter heading
for the index, since different manuals have different needs.
Consequently, you should precede the @printindex command with
a suitable section or chapter command (usually @appendix or
@unnumbered) to supply the chapter heading and put the index
into the table of contents. Precede the chapter heading with an
@node line as usual.
For example:
@node Variable Index
@unnumbered Variable Index
@printindex vr
@node Concept Index
@unnumbered Concept Index
@printindex cp
If you have more than one index, we recommend placing the concept index last.
@printindex produces a traditional
two-column index, with dot leaders between the index terms and page
numbers.
@printindex produces a special menu containing
the line number of the entry, relative to the start of the node. Info
readers can use this to go to the exact line of an entry, not just the
containing node. (Older Info readers will just go to the node.)
Here's an example:
* First index entry: Top. (line 7)
The actual number of spaces is variable, to right-justify the line number; it's been reduced here to make the line fit in the printed manual.
@printindex produces the same menu, but
the line numbers are relative to the start of the file, since that's
more convenient for that format.
@printindex produces links
to the index entries.
It's not possible to generate an index when writing to standard output; makeinfo generates a warning in this case.
@bye File Ending
An @bye command terminates Texinfo processing. None of the
formatters read anything following @bye. The @bye
command should be on a line by itself.
If you wish, you may follow the @bye line with notes. These
notes will not be formatted and will not appear in either Info or a
printed manual; it is as if text after @bye were within
@ignore ... @end ignore. Also, you may follow the
@bye line with a local variables list for Emacs.
See Using Local Variables and the Compile Command,
for more information.
The chapter structuring commands divide a document into a hierarchy of chapters, sections, subsections, and subsubsections. These commands generate large headings; they also provide information for the table of contents of a printed manual (see Generating a Table of Contents).
The chapter structuring commands do not create an Info node structure,
so normally you should put an @node command immediately before
each chapter structuring command (see Nodes). The only time you
are likely to use the chapter structuring commands without using the
node structuring commands is if you are writing a document that
contains no cross references and will never be transformed into Info
format.
It is unlikely that you will ever write a Texinfo file that is intended only as an Info file and not as a printable document. If you do, you might still use chapter structuring commands to create a heading at the top of each node—but you don't need to.
A Texinfo file is usually structured like a book with chapters, sections, subsections, and the like. This structure can be visualized as a tree (or rather as an upside-down tree) with the root at the top and the levels corresponding to chapters, sections, subsection, and subsubsections.
Here is a diagram that shows a Texinfo file with three chapters, each of which has two sections.
Top
|
-------------------------------------
| | |
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
| | |
-------- -------- --------
| | | | | |
Section Section Section Section Section Section
1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2
In a Texinfo file that has this structure, the beginning of Chapter 2 looks like this:
@node Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 1, top
@chapter Chapter 2
The chapter structuring commands are described in the sections that
follow; the @node and @menu commands are described in
following chapters. (See Nodes, and see Menus.)
The chapter structuring commands fall into four groups or series, each of which contains structuring commands corresponding to the hierarchical levels of chapters, sections, subsections, and subsubsections.
The four groups are the @chapter series, the
@unnumbered series, the @appendix series, and the
@heading series.
Each command produces titles that have a different appearance on the printed page or Info file; only some of the commands produce titles that are listed in the table of contents of a printed book or manual.
@chapter and @appendix series of commands produce
numbered or lettered entries both in the body of a printed work and in
its table of contents.
@unnumbered series of commands produce unnumbered entries
both in the body of a printed work and in its table of contents. The
@top command, which has a special use, is a member of this
series (see @top). An @unnumbered
section should be associated with a node and be a normal part of the
document structure.
@heading series of commands produce simple unnumbered
headings that do not appear in a table of contents, are not associated
with nodes, and cannot be cross-referenced. The heading commands
never start a new page.
@majorheading command is similar to @chapheading,
except that it generates a larger vertical whitespace before the
heading.
@setchapternewpage command says to do so, the
@chapter, @unnumbered, and @appendix commands
start new pages in the printed manual; the @heading commands
do not.
Here are the four groups of chapter structuring commands:
| No new page
| |||
| Numbered | Unnumbered | Lettered/numbered | Unnumbered
|
| In contents | In contents | In contents | Not in contents
|
@top | @majorheading
| ||
@chapter | @unnumbered | @appendix | @chapheading
|
@section | @unnumberedsec | @appendixsec | @heading
|
@subsection | @unnumberedsubsec | @appendixsubsec | @subheading
|
@subsubsection | @unnumberedsubsubsec | @appendixsubsubsec | @subsubheading
|
@topThe @top command is a special sectioning command that you use
only after an ‘@node Top’ line at the beginning of a Texinfo file.
The @top command tells the makeinfo formatter which node
is the `Top' node, so it can use it as the root of the node tree if your
manual uses implicit node pointers. It has the same typesetting effect as
@unnumbered (see @unnumbered and @appendix). For detailed information, see The @top Command.
The @top node and its menu (if any) is conventionally wrapped in
an @ifnottex conditional so that it will appear only in Info and
HTML output, not TeX.
@chapter
@chapter identifies a chapter in the document. Write the
command at the beginning of a line and follow it on the same line by
the title of the chapter.
For example, this chapter in this manual is entitled “Chapter
Structuring”; the @chapter line looks like this:
@chapter Chapter Structuring
In TeX, the @chapter command creates a chapter in the
document, specifying the chapter title. The chapter is numbered
automatically.
In Info, the @chapter command causes the title to appear on a
line by itself, with a line of asterisks inserted underneath. Thus,
in Info, the above example produces the following output:
Chapter Structuring
*******************
Texinfo also provides a command @centerchap, which is analogous
to @unnumbered, but centers its argument in the printed output.
This kind of stylistic choice is not usually offered by Texinfo.
@unnumbered and @appendix
Use the @unnumbered command to create a chapter that appears
in a printed manual without chapter numbers of any kind. Use the
@appendix command to create an appendix in a printed manual
that is labelled by letter (`A', `B', ...) instead of by number.
Write an @appendix or @unnumbered command at the
beginning of a line and follow it on the same line by the title, as
you would if you were creating a chapter.
@majorheading, @chapheading
The @majorheading and @chapheading commands put
chapter-like headings in the body of a document.
However, neither command causes TeX to produce a numbered heading or an entry in the table of contents; and neither command causes TeX to start a new page in a printed manual.
In TeX, an @majorheading command generates a larger vertical
whitespace before the heading than an @chapheading command but
is otherwise the same.
In Info,
the @majorheading and
@chapheading commands are equivalent to
@chapter: the title is printed on a line by itself with a line
of asterisks underneath. (See @chapter.)
@section
A @section command identifies a section within a chapter unit,
whether created with @chapter, @unnumbered, or
@appendix, following the numbering scheme of the chapter-level
command. Thus, within a @chapter chapter numbered `1', the
section is numbered like `1.2'; within an @appendix
“chapter” labeled `A', the section is numbered like `A.2'; within an
@unnumbered chapter, the section gets no number.
For example, this section is headed with an @section command
and looks like this in the Texinfo file:
@section @code{@@section}
To create a section, write the @section command at the
beginning of a line and follow it on the same line by the section
title. The output is underlined with ‘=’ in Info.
Thus,
@section This is a section
might produce the following in Info:
5.7 This is a section
=====================
@unnumberedsec, @appendixsec, @heading
The @unnumberedsec, @appendixsec, and @heading
commands are, respectively, the unnumbered, appendix-like, and
heading-like equivalents of the @section command, as described
in the previous section.
@unnumberedsec@unnumberedsec command may be used within an
unnumbered chapter or within a regular chapter or appendix to
provide an unnumbered section.
@appendixsec@appendixsection@appendixsection is a longer spelling of the
@appendixsec command; the two are synonymous.
Conventionally, the @appendixsec or @appendixsection
command is used only within appendices.
@heading@heading command anywhere you wish for a
section-style heading that will not appear in the table of contents.
@unnumberedsec and @appendixsec do not need to be used
in ordinary circumstances, because @section may also be used
within @unnumbered and @appendix chapters; again, see
the previous section.
@subsection Command
Subsections are to sections as sections are to chapters.
(See @section.) In Info, subsection titles are
underlined with ‘-’. For example,
@subsection This is a subsection
produces
1.2.3 This is a subsection
--------------------------
In a printed manual, subsections are listed in the table of contents and are numbered three levels deep.
@subsection-like Commands
The @unnumberedsubsec, @appendixsubsec, and
@subheading commands are, respectively, the unnumbered,
appendix-like, and heading-like equivalents of the @subsection
command. (See @subsection.)
In Info, the @subsection-like commands generate a title
underlined with hyphens. In a printed manual, an @subheading
command produces a heading like that of a subsection except that it is
not numbered and does not appear in the table of contents. Similarly,
an @unnumberedsubsec command produces an unnumbered heading like
that of a subsection and an @appendixsubsec command produces a
subsection-like heading labelled with a letter and numbers; both of
these commands produce headings that appear in the table of
contents.
@unnumberedsubsec and @appendixsubsec do not need to
be used in ordinary circumstances, because @subsection may
also be used within sections of @unnumbered and
@appendix chapters (see section).
The fourth and lowest level sectioning commands in Texinfo are the `subsub' commands. They are:
@subsubsection@subsection.) In a printed manual,
subsubsection titles appear in the table of contents and are numbered
four levels deep.
@unnumberedsubsubsec@appendixsubsubsec@subsubheading@subsubheading command may be used anywhere that you need
a small heading that will not appear in the table of contents. In
Info, subsubheadings look exactly like ordinary subsubsection
headings.
@unnumberedsubsubsec and @appendixsubsubsec do not
need to be used in ordinary circumstances, because
@subsubsection may also be used within subsections of
@unnumbered and @appendix chapters
(see section).
In Info, `subsub' titles are underlined with periods. For example,
@subsubsection This is a subsubsection
produces
1.2.3.4 This is a subsubsection
...............................
@raisesections and @lowersections
The @raisesections and @lowersections commands
implicitly raise and lower the hierarchical level of following
chapters, sections and the other sectioning commands.
That is, the @raisesections command changes sections to
chapters, subsections to sections, and so on. Conversely, the
@lowersections command changes chapters to sections, sections
to subsections, and so on. Thus, an @lowersections command
cancels an @raisesections command, and vice versa.
You can use @lowersections to include text written as an outer
or standalone Texinfo file in another Texinfo file as an inner,
included file. Typical usage looks like this:
@lowersections
@include somefile.texi
@raisesections
(Without the @raisesections, all the subsequent
sections in the document would be lowered.)
If the included file being lowered has a @top node, you'll
need to conditionalize its inclusion with a flag (see set value).
Another difficulty can arise with documents that use the (recommended)
feature of makeinfo for implicitly determining node
pointers. Since makeinfo must assume a hierarchically
organized document to determine the pointers, you cannot just
arbitrarily sprinkle @raisesections and @lowersections
commands in the document. The final result has to have menus that
take the raising and lowering into account. Therefore, as a practical
matter, you generally only want to raise or lower large chunks,
usually in external files as shown above.
Repeated use of the commands continue to raise or lower the hierarchical level a step at a time. An attempt to raise above `chapter' reproduces chapter commands; an attempt to lower below `subsubsection' reproduces subsubsection commands. Also, lowered subsubsections and raised chapters will not work with makeinfo's feature of implicitly determining node pointers, since the menu structure won't be correct.
Write each @raisesections and @lowersections command
on a line of its own.
Nodes are the primary segments of a Texinfo file. They do not in and of themselves impose a hierarchical or any other kind of structure on a file. Nodes contain node pointers that name other nodes, and can contain menus which are lists of nodes. In Info, the movement commands can carry you to a pointed-to node or to a node listed in a menu.
Node pointers and menus provide structure for Info files just as chapters, sections, subsections, and the like, provide structure for printed books.
Because node names are used in cross-references, it is not desirable to casually change them. Such name changes invalidate references from other manuals, from mail archives, and so on.
The node and menu commands and the chapter structuring commands are technically independent of each other:
You can use node pointers and menus to structure an Info file any way you want; and you can write a Texinfo file so that its Info output has a different structure than its printed output. However, virtually all Texinfo files are written such that the structure for the Info output corresponds to the structure for the printed output. It is neither convenient nor understandable to the reader to do otherwise.
Generally, printed output is structured in a tree-like hierarchy in which the chapters are the major limbs from which the sections branch out. Similarly, node pointers and menus are organized to create a matching structure in the Info output.
Here is a copy of the diagram shown earlier that illustrates a Texinfo file with three chapters, each of which contains two sections.
The “root” is at the top of the diagram and the “leaves” are at the bottom. This is how such a diagram is drawn conventionally; it illustrates an upside-down tree. For this reason, the root node is called the `Top' node, and `Up' node pointers carry you closer to the root.
Top
|
-------------------------------------
| | |
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
| | |
-------- -------- --------
| | | | | |
Section Section Section Section Section Section
1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2
The fully-written command to start Chapter 2 would be this:
@node Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 1, Top
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
This @node line says that the name of this node is “Chapter
2”, the name of the `Next' node is “Chapter 3”, the name of the
`Previous' node is “Chapter 1”, and the name of the `Up' node is
“Top”. You can omit writing out these node names if your document is
hierarchically organized (see makeinfo Pointer Creation), but the
pointer relationships still obtain.
Note: Please Note: `Next' refers to the next node at the same hierarchical level in the manual, not necessarily to the next node within the Texinfo file. In the Texinfo file, the subsequent node may be at a lower level—a section-level node most often follows a chapter-level node, for example. `Next' and `Previous' refer to nodes at the same hierarchical level. (The `Top' node contains the exception to this rule. Since the `Top' node is the only node at that level, `Next' refers to the first following node, which is almost always a chapter or chapter-level node.)
To go to Sections 2.1 and 2.2 using Info, you need a menu inside Chapter 2. (See Menus.) You would write the menu just before the beginning of Section 2.1, like this:
@menu
* Sect. 2.1:: Description of this section.
* Sect. 2.2::
@end menu
Write the node for Sect. 2.1 like this:
@node Sect. 2.1, Sect. 2.2, Chapter 2, Chapter 2
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
In Info format, the `Next' and `Previous' pointers of a node usually lead to other nodes at the same level—from chapter to chapter or from section to section (sometimes, as shown, the `Previous' pointer points up); an `Up' pointer usually leads to a node at the level above (closer to the `Top' node); and a `Menu' leads to nodes at a level below (closer to `leaves'). (A cross reference can point to a node at any level; see Cross References.)
Usually, an @node command and a chapter structuring command are
used in sequence, along with indexing commands. (You may follow the
@node line with a comment line that reminds you which pointer is
which.)
Here is the beginning of the chapter in this manual called “Ending a
Texinfo File”. This shows an @node line followed by a comment
line, an @chapter line, and then by indexing lines.
@node Ending a File, Structuring, Beginning a File, Top
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
@chapter Ending a Texinfo File
@cindex Ending a Texinfo file
@cindex Texinfo file ending
@cindex File ending
@node Command
A node is a segment of text that begins at an @node
command and continues until the next @node command. The
definition of node is different from that for chapter or section. A
chapter may contain sections and a section may contain subsections;
but a node cannot contain subnodes; the text of a node continues only
until the next @node command in the file. A node usually
contains only one chapter structuring command, the one that follows
the @node line. On the other hand, in printed output nodes
are used only for cross references, so a chapter or section may
contain any number of nodes. Indeed, a chapter usually contains
several nodes, one for each section, subsection, and
subsubsection.
To specify a node, write an @node command at the beginning of
a line, and follow it with up to four arguments, separated by commas,
on the rest of the same line. The first argument is required; it is
the name of this node (for details of node names, see Node Line Requirements). The subsequent arguments are the names of the `Next',
`Previous', and `Up' pointers, in that order, and may be omitted if
your Texinfo document is hierarchically organized (see makeinfo Pointer Creation).
Whether the node pointers are specified implicitly or explicitly, the
HTML output from makeinfo for each node includes links to
the `Next', `Previous', and `Up' nodes. The HTML also uses the
accesskey attribute with the values ‘n’, ‘p’, and
‘u’ respectively. This allows people using web browsers to
follow the nagivation using (typically) M-letter, e.g.,
M-n for the `Next' node, from anywhere within the node.
You may insert spaces before each name on the @node line if
you wish; the spaces are ignored. You must write the name of the node
and (if present) the names of the `Next', `Previous', and `Up'
pointers all on the same line. Otherwise, the formatters fail.
(see info, for more information about nodes in Info.)
Usually, you write one of the chapter-structuring command lines
immediately after an @node line—for example, an
@section or @subsection line. (See Structuring Command Types.)
TeX uses @node lines to identify the names to use for cross
references. For this reason, you must write @node lines in a
Texinfo file that you intend to format for printing, even if you do not
intend to format it for Info. (Cross references, such as the one at the
end of this sentence, are made with @xref and related commands;
see Cross References.)
The name of a node identifies the node (for details of node names, see Node Line Requirements). The pointers enable you to reach other nodes and consist simply of the names of those nodes.
Normally, a node's `Up' pointer contains the name of the node whose menu mentions that node. The node's `Next' pointer contains the name of the node that follows the present node in that menu and its `Previous' pointer contains the name of the node that precedes it in that menu. When a node's `Previous' node is the same as its `Up' node, both node pointers name the same node.
Usually, the first node of a Texinfo file is the `Top' node, and its `Up' and `Previous' pointers point to the dir file, which contains the main menu for all of Info.
The `Top' node itself contains the main or master menu for the manual. Also, it is helpful to include a brief description of the manual in the `Top' node. See First Node, for information on how to write the first node of a Texinfo file.
Even when you explicitly specify all pointers, that does not mean you can write the nodes in the Texinfo source file in an arbitrary order! Because TeX processes the file sequentially, irrespective of node pointers, you must write the nodes in the order you wish them to appear in the output.
@node Line
The easiest way to write an @node line is to write @node
at the beginning of a line and then the name of the node, like
this:
@node node-name
If you are using GNU Emacs, you can use the update node commands
provided by Texinfo mode to insert the names of the pointers; or you
can leave the pointers out of the Texinfo file and let makeinfo
insert node pointers into the Info file it creates. (See Texinfo Mode, and makeinfo Pointer Creation.)
Alternatively, you can insert the `Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers yourself. If you do this, you may find it helpful to use the Texinfo mode keyboard command C-c C-c n. This command inserts ‘@node’ and a comment line listing the names of the pointers in their proper order. The comment line helps you keep track of which arguments are for which pointers. This comment line is especially useful if you are not familiar with Texinfo.
The template for a fully-written-out node line with `Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers looks like this:
@node node-name, next, previous, up
The node-name argument must be present, but the others are
optional. If you wish to specify some but not others, just insert
commas as needed, as in: ‘@node mynode,,,uppernode’. However,
we recommend leaving off all the pointers and letting makeinfo
determine them, as described above.
If you wish, you can ignore @node lines altogether in your first
draft and then use the texinfo-insert-node-lines command to
create @node lines for you. However, we do not recommend this
practice. It is better to name the node itself at the same time that
you write a segment so you can easily make cross references. A large
number of cross references are an especially important feature of a good
Info file.
After you have inserted an @node line, you should immediately
write an @-command for the chapter or section and insert its name.
Next (and this is important!), put in several index entries. Usually,
you will find at least two and often as many as four or five ways of
referring to the node in the index. Use them all. This will make it
much easier for people to find the node.
@node Line TipsHere are three suggestions:
In the Info file, the file name, node name, and pointer names are all inserted on one line, which may run into the right edge of the window. (This does not cause a problem with Info, but is ugly.)
@node Line RequirementsHere are several requirements for @node lines:
Duplicates confuse the Info movement commands. This means, for example, that if you end every chapter with a summary, you must name each summary node differently. You cannot just call each one “Summary”. You may, however, duplicate the titles of chapters, sections, and the like. Thus you can end each chapter in a book with a section called “Summary”, so long as the node names for those sections are all different.
The node to which a pointer points may come before or after the node containing the pointer.
@ and
{, and accent commands such as ‘@'’. (For a few cases
when this is useful, Texinfo has limited support for using
@-commands in node names; see Pointer Validation.) Perhaps
this limitation will be removed some day.
For example, the following is a section title in this manual:
@code{@@unnumberedsec}, @code{@@appendixsec}, @code{@@heading}
But the corresponding node name lacks the commas and the @'s:
unnumberedsec appendixsec heading
Spaces before and after names on the ‘@node’ line are ignored, but spaces “inside” a name are significant. For example:
@node foo bar,
@node foo bar ,
@node foo bar ,
all define the same node, ‘foo bar’. References to the node should all use that name, without the leading or trailing spaces, but with the internal spaces.
The first node of a Texinfo file is the Top node, except in an included file (see Include Files). The Top node should contain a short summary, copying permissions, and a master menu. See The Top Node, for more information on the Top node contents and examples.
Here is a description of the node pointers to be used in the Top node:
Usually, all Info files are installed in the same Info directory tree; in this case, use ‘(dir)’ as the parent of the Top node; this is short for ‘(dir)top’, and specifies the Top node in the dir file, which contains the main menu for the Info system as a whole.
See Installing an Info File, for more information about installing an Info file in the info directory.
It is usually best to leave the pointers off entirely and let the tools implicitly define them, with this simple result:
@node Top
@top Sectioning Command
A special sectioning command, @top should be used with the
@node Top line. The @top sectioning command tells
makeinfo that it marks the `Top' node in the file. It provides
the information that makeinfo needs to insert node pointers
automatically. Write the @top command at the beginning of the
line immediately following the @node Top line. Write the title
on the remaining part of the same line as the @top command.
In Info, the @top sectioning command causes the title to appear
on a line by itself, with a line of asterisks inserted underneath, as
other sectioning commands do.
In TeX and texinfo-format-buffer, the @top
sectioning command is merely a synonym for @unnumbered.
Neither of these formatters require an @top command, and do
nothing special with it. You can use @chapter or
@unnumbered after the @node Top line when you use
these formatters. Also, you can use @chapter or
@unnumbered when you use the Texinfo updating commands to
create or update pointers and menus.
Thus, in practice, a Top node starts like this:
@node Top
@top Your Manual Title
makeinfo
The makeinfo program has a feature for automatically
determining node pointers for a hierarchically organized document. We
highly recommend using it.
When you take advantage of this feature, you do not need to write the
`Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers after the name of a node.
However, you must write a sectioning command, such as @chapter
or @section, on the line immediately following each truncated
@node line (except that comment lines may intervene).
In addition, you must follow the `Top' @node line with a line
beginning with @top to mark the `Top' node in the
file. See @top.
Finally, you must write the name of each node (except for the `Top' node) in a menu that is one or more hierarchical levels above the node's hierarchical level.
If you use a detailed menu in your master menu (see Master Menu Parts), mark it with the @detailmenu @dots{} @end
detailmenu environment, or makeinfo will get confused,
typically about the last and/or first node in the document.
This implicit node pointer creation feature in makeinfo
relieves you from the need to update menus and pointers manually or
with Texinfo mode commands. (See Updating Nodes and Menus.)
In most cases, you will want to take advantage of this feature and not redundantly specify node pointers. However, Texinfo documents are not required to be organized hierarchically or in fact to contain sectioning commands at all (for example, if you never intend the document to be printed). The special procedure for handling the short text before a menu (see Menus) also disables this feature, for that group of nodes. In those cases, you will need to explicitly specify all pointers.
@anchor: Defining Arbitrary Cross-reference Targets
An anchor is a position in your document, labeled so that
cross-references can refer to it, just as they can to nodes. You create
an anchor with the @anchor command, and give the label as a
normal brace-delimited argument. For example:
This marks the @anchor{x-spot}spot.
...
@xref{x-spot,,the spot}.
produces:
This marks the spot.
...
See [the spot], page 1.
As you can see, the @anchor command itself produces no output.
This example defines an anchor `x-spot' just before the word `spot'.
You can refer to it later with an @xref or other cross-reference
command, as shown. See Cross References, for details on the
cross-reference commands.
It is best to put @anchor commands just before the position you
wish to refer to; that way, the reader's eye is led on to the correct
text when they jump to the anchor. You can put the @anchor
command on a line by itself if that helps readability of the source.
Whitespace (including newlines) is ignored after @anchor.
Anchor names and node names may not conflict. Anchors and nodes are
given similar treatment in some ways; for example, the goto-node
command in standalone Info takes either an anchor name or a node name as
an argument. (See goto-node.)
Also like node names, anchor names cannot include some characters (see Node Line Requirements).
Menus contain pointers to subordinate nodes. In online output, you use menus to go to such nodes. Menus have no effect in printed manuals and do not appear in them.
A node with a menu should not contain much text. If you find yourself writing a lot of text before a menu, we generally recommend moving most of the text into a new subnode—all but a paragraph or two. Otherwise, a reader with a terminal that displays only a few lines may miss the menu and its associated text. As a practical matter, it is best to locate a menu within 20 or so lines of the beginning of the node.
A menu must be located at the end of a node, without any regular text
or additional commands between the @end menu and the beginning
of the next node. (As a consequence, there may be at most one menu in
a node.)
This is actually a useful restriction, since a reader who uses the menu could easily miss any such text. Technically, it is necessary because in Info format, there is no marker for the end of a menu, so Info-reading programs would have no way to know when the menu ends and normal text resumes.
Technically, menus can carry you to any node, regardless of the structure of the document; even to nodes in a different Info file. However, we do not recommend ever making use of this, because the makeinfo implicit pointer creation feature (see makeinfo Pointer Creation) and GNU Emacs Texinfo mode updating commands work only to create menus of subordinate nodes in a hierarchically structured document. Instead, use cross references to refer to arbitrary nodes.
In the past, we recommended using a ‘@heading’ command within an
@ifinfo conditional instead of the normal sectioning commands
after a very short node with a menu. This had the advantage of making
the printed output look better, because there was no very short text
between two headings on the page. But this also does not work with
makeinfo's implicit pointer creation, and it also makes the
XML output incorrect, since it does not reflect the true document
structure. So, regrettably, we can no longer recommend this.
A menu consists of an @menu command on a line by itself
followed by menu entry lines or menu comment lines and then by an
@end menu command on a line by itself.
A menu looks like this:
@menu
Larger Units of Text
* Files:: All about handling files.
* Multiples: Buffers. Multiple buffers; editing
several files at once.
@end menu
In a menu, every line that begins with an ‘* ’ is a menu entry. (Note the space after the asterisk.) A line that does not start with an ‘* ’ may also appear in a menu. Such a line is not a menu entry but is a menu comment line that appears in the Info file. In the example above, the line ‘Larger Units of Text’ is a menu comment line; the two lines starting with ‘* ’ are menu entries. Space characters in a menu are preserved as-is; this allows you to format the menu as you wish.
In the HTML output from makeinfo, the accesskey
attribute is used with the values ‘1’...‘9’ for the
first nine entries. This allows people using web browsers to follow
the first menu entries using (typically) M-digit, e.g.,
M-1 for the first entry.
A menu entry has three parts, only the second of which is required:
The template for a menu entry looks like this:
* menu-entry-name: node-name. description
Follow the menu entry name with a single colon and follow the node name with tab, comma, period, or newline.
In Info, a user selects a node with the m (Info-menu)
command. The menu entry name is what the user types after the m
command.
The third part of a menu entry is a descriptive phrase or sentence. Menu entry names and node names are often short; the description explains to the reader what the node is about. A useful description complements the node name rather than repeats it. The description, which is optional, can spread over two or more lines; if it does, some authors prefer to indent the second line while others prefer to align it with the first (and all others). It's up to you.
When the menu entry name and node name are the same, you can write the name immediately after the asterisk and space at the beginning of the line and follow the name with two colons.
For example, write
* Name:: description
instead of
* Name: Name. description
You should use the node name for the menu entry name whenever possible, since it reduces visual clutter in the menu.
A menu looks like this in Texinfo:
@menu
* menu entry name: Node name. A short description.
* Node name:: This form is preferred.
@end menu
This produces:
* menu:
* menu entry name: Node name. A short description.
* Node name:: This form is preferred.
Here is an example as you might see it in a Texinfo file:
@menu
Larger Units of Text
* Files:: All about handling files.
* Multiples: Buffers. Multiple buffers; editing
several files at once.
@end menu
This produces:
* menu:
Larger Units of Text
* Files:: All about handling files.
* Multiples: Buffers. Multiple buffers; editing
several files at once.
In this example, the menu has two entries. ‘Files’ is both a menu entry name and the name of the node referred to by that name. ‘Multiples’ is the menu entry name; it refers to the node named ‘Buffers’. The line ‘Larger Units of Text’ is a comment; it appears in the menu, but is not an entry.
Since no file name is specified with either ‘Files’ or ‘Buffers’, they must be the names of nodes in the same Info file (see Referring to Other Info Files).
You can create a menu entry that enables a reader in Info to go to a node in another Info file by writing the file name in parentheses just before the node name. In this case, you should use the three-part menu entry format, which saves the reader from having to type the file name.
The format looks like this:
@menu
* first-entry-name:(filename)nodename. description
* second-entry-name:(filename)second-node. description
@end menu
For example, to refer directly to the ‘Outlining’ and ‘Rebinding’ nodes in the Emacs Manual, you would write a menu like this:
@menu
* Outlining: (emacs)Outline Mode. The major mode for
editing outlines.
* Rebinding: (emacs)Rebinding. How to redefine the
meaning of a key.
@end menu
If you do not list the node name, but only name the file, then Info presumes that you are referring to the `Top' node.
The dir file that contains the main menu for Info has menu entries that list only file names. These take you directly to the `Top' nodes of each Info document. (See Installing an Info File.)
For example:
* Info: (info). Documentation browsing system.
* Emacs: (emacs). The extensible, self-documenting
text editor.
(The dir top level directory for the Info system is an Info file, not a Texinfo file, but a menu entry looks the same in both types of file.)
The GNU Emacs Texinfo mode menu updating commands only work with nodes within the current buffer, so you cannot use them to create menus that refer to other files. You must write such menus by hand.
Cross references are used to refer the reader to other parts of the same or different Texinfo files. In Texinfo, nodes and anchors are the places to which cross references can refer.
Often, but not always, a printed document should be designed so that it can be read sequentially. People tire of flipping back and forth to find information that should be presented to them as they need it.
However, in any document, some information will be too detailed for the current context, or incidental to it; use cross references to provide access to such information. Also, an online help system or a reference manual is not like a novel; few read such documents in sequence from beginning to end. Instead, people look up what they need. For this reason, such creations should contain many cross references to help readers find other information that they may not have read.
In a printed manual, a cross reference results in a page reference, unless it is to another manual altogether, in which case the cross reference names that manual.
In Info, a cross reference results in an entry that you can follow using the Info ‘f’ command. (see Following cross-references.)
The various cross reference commands use nodes (or anchors,
see @anchor) to define cross reference locations.
This is evident in Info, in which a cross reference takes you to the
specified location. TeX also uses nodes to define cross reference
locations, but the action is less obvious. When TeX generates a DVI
file, it records each node's page number and uses the page numbers in making
references. Thus, if you are writing a manual that will only be
printed, and will not be used online, you must nonetheless write
@node lines to name the places to which you make cross
references.
There are four different cross reference commands:
@xref@ref@xref for Info; produces just the reference in the printed
manual without a preceding `See'.
@pxref@inforef(The @cite command is used to make references to books and
manuals for which there is no corresponding Info file and, therefore,
no node to which to point. See @cite.)
A cross reference command requires only one argument, which is the name of the node to which it refers. But a cross reference command may contain up to four additional arguments. By using these arguments, you can provide a cross reference name for Info, a topic description or section title for the printed output, the name of a different Info file, and the name of a different printed manual.
Here is a simple cross reference example:
@xref{Node name}.
which produces
*Note Node name::.
and
See Section nnn [Node name], page ppp.
Here is an example of a full five-part cross reference:
@xref{Node name, Cross Reference Name, Particular Topic,
info-file-name, A Printed Manual}, for details.
which produces
*Note Cross Reference Name: (info-file-name)Node name,
for details.
in Info and
See section “Particular Topic” in A Printed Manual, for details.
in a printed book.
The five possible arguments for a cross reference are:
The template for a full five argument cross reference looks like this:
@xref{node-name, cross-reference-name, title-or-topic,
info-file-name, printed-manual-title}.
Cross references with one, two, three, four, and five arguments are
described separately following the description of @xref.
Write a node name in a cross reference in exactly the same way as in
the @node line, including the same capitalization; otherwise, the
formatters may not find the reference.
You can write cross reference commands within a paragraph, but note
how Info and TeX format the output of each of the various commands:
write @xref at the beginning of a sentence; write
@pxref only within parentheses, and so on.
@xref
The @xref command generates a cross reference for the
beginning of a sentence. The Info formatting commands convert it into
an Info cross reference, which the Info ‘f’ command can use to
bring you directly to another node. The TeX typesetting commands
convert it into a page reference, or a reference to another book or
manual.
Most often, an Info cross reference looks like this:
*Note node-name::.
or like this
*Note cross-reference-name: node-name.
In TeX, a cross reference looks like this:
See Section section-number [node-name], page page.
or like this
See Section section-number [title-or-topic], page page.
The @xref command does not generate a period or comma to end
the cross reference in either the Info file or the printed output.
You must write that period or comma yourself; otherwise, Info will not
recognize the end of the reference. (The @pxref command works
differently. See @pxref.)
Caution: A period or comma must follow the closing
brace of an @xref. It is required to terminate the cross
reference. This period or comma will appear in the output, both in
the Info file and in the printed manual.
@xref must refer to an Info node by name. Use @node
to define the node (see Writing a Node).
@xref is followed by several arguments inside braces, separated by
commas. Whitespace before and after these commas is ignored.
A cross reference requires only the name of a node; but it may contain up to four additional arguments. Each of these variations produces a cross reference that looks somewhat different.
Note: Commas separate arguments in a cross reference; avoid including them in the title or other part lest the formatters mistake them for separators.
@xref with One ArgumentThe simplest form of @xref takes one argument, the name of
another node in the same Info file. The Info formatters produce
output that the Info readers can use to jump to the reference; TeX
produces output that specifies the page and section number for you.
For example,
@xref{Tropical Storms}.
produces
*Note Tropical Storms::.
and
See Section 3.1 [Tropical Storms], page 24.
(Note that in the preceding example the closing brace is followed by a period.)
You can write a clause after the cross reference, like this:
@xref{Tropical Storms}, for more info.
which produces
*Note Tropical Storms::, for more info.
and
See Section 3.1 [Tropical Storms], page 24, for more info.
(Note that in the preceding example the closing brace is followed by a comma, and then by the clause, which is followed by a period.)
@xref with Two ArgumentsWith two arguments, the second is used as the name of the Info cross reference, while the first is still the name of the node to which the cross reference points.
The template is like this:
@xref{node-name, cross-reference-name}.
For example,
@xref{Electrical Effects, Lightning}.
produces:
*Note Lightning: Electrical Effects.
and
See Section 5.2 [Electrical Effects], page 57.
(Note that in the preceding example the closing brace is followed by a period; and that the node name is printed, not the cross reference name.)
You can write a clause after the cross reference, like this:
@xref{Electrical Effects, Lightning}, for more info.
which produces
*Note Lightning: Electrical Effects, for more info.
and
See Section 5.2 [Electrical Effects], page 57, for more info.
(Note that in the preceding example the closing brace is followed by a comma, and then by the clause, which is followed by a period.)
@xref with Three ArgumentsA third argument replaces the node name in the TeX output. The third argument should be the name of the section in the printed output, or else state the topic discussed by that section. Often, you will want to use initial upper case letters so it will be easier to read when the reference is printed. Use a third argument when the node name is unsuitable because of syntax or meaning.
Remember to avoid placing a comma within the title or topic section of a cross reference, or within any other section. The formatters divide cross references into arguments according to the commas; a comma within a title or other section will divide it into two arguments. In a reference, you need to write a title such as “Clouds, Mist, and Fog” without the commas.
Also, remember to write a comma or period after the closing brace of an
@xref to terminate the cross reference. In the following
examples, a clause follows a terminating comma.
The template is like this:
@xref{node-name, cross-reference-name, title-or-topic}.
For example,
@xref{Electrical Effects, Lightning, Thunder and Lightning},
for details.
produces
*Note Lightning: Electrical Effects, for details.
and
See Section 5.2 [Thunder and Lightning], page 57, for details.
If a third argument is given and the second one is empty, then the third argument serves both. (Note how two commas, side by side, mark the empty second argument.)
@xref{Electrical Effects, , Thunder and Lightning},
for details.
produces
*Note Thunder and Lightning: Electrical Effects, for details.
and
See Section 5.2 [Thunder and Lightning], page 57, for details.
As a practical matter, it is often best to write cross references with just the first argument if the node name and the section title are the same, and with the first and third arguments if the node name and title are different.
Here are several examples from The GNU Awk User's Guide:
@xref{Sample Program}.
@xref{Glossary}.
@xref{Case-sensitivity, ,Case-sensitivity in Matching}.
@xref{Close Output, , Closing Output Files and Pipes},
for more information.
@xref{Regexp, , Regular Expressions as Patterns}.
@xref with Four and Five ArgumentsIn a cross reference, a fourth argument specifies the name of another Info file, different from the file in which the reference appears, and a fifth argument specifies its title as a printed manual.
Remember that a comma or period must follow the closing brace of an
@xref command to terminate the cross reference. In the
following examples, a clause follows a terminating comma.
The template is:
@xref{node-name, cross-reference-name, title-or-topic,
info-file-name, printed-manual-title}.
For example,
@xref{Electrical Effects, Lightning, Thunder and Lightning,
weather, An Introduction to Meteorology}, for details.
produces
*Note Lightning: (weather)Electrical Effects, for details.
The name of the Info file is enclosed in parentheses and precedes the name of the node.
In a printed manual, the reference looks like this:
See section “Thunder and Lightning” in An Introduction to Meteorology, for details.
The title of the printed manual is typeset in italics; and the reference lacks a page number since TeX cannot know to which page a reference refers when that reference is to another manual.
Often, you will leave out the second argument when you use the long
version of @xref. In this case, the third argument, the topic
description, will be used as the cross reference name in Info.
The template looks like this:
@xref{node-name, , title-or-topic, info-file-name,
printed-manual-title}, for details.
which produces
*Note title-or-topic: (info-file-name)node-name, for details.
and
See section title-or-topic in printed-manual-title, for details.
For example,
@xref{Electrical Effects, , Thunder and Lightning,
weather, An Introduction to Meteorology}, for details.
produces
*Note Thunder and Lightning: (weather)Electrical Effects,
for details.
and
See section “Thunder and Lightning” in An Introduction to Meteorology, for details.
On rare occasions, you may want to refer to another Info file that is within a single printed manual—when multiple Texinfo files are incorporated into the same TeX run but make separate Info files. In this case, you need to specify only the fourth argument, and not the fifth.
In a cross reference, you must always name a node. This means that in
order to refer to a whole manual, you must identify the `Top' node by
writing it as the first argument to the @xref command. (This
is different from the way you write a menu entry; see Referring to Other Info Files.) At the same time, to
provide a meaningful section topic or title in the printed cross
reference (instead of the word `Top'), you must write an appropriate
entry for the third argument to the @xref command.
Thus, to make a cross reference to The GNU Make Manual, write:
@xref{Top, , Overview, make, The GNU Make Manual}.
which produces
*Note Overview: (make)Top.
and
See section “Overview” in The GNU Make Manual.
In this example, ‘Top’ is the name of the first node, and ‘Overview’ is the name of the first section of the manual.
@ref
@ref is nearly the same as @xref except that it does
not generate a `See' in the printed output, just the reference itself.
This makes it useful as the last part of a sentence.
For example,
For more information, @pxref{This}, and @ref{That}.
produces in Info:
For more information, *note This::, and *note That::.
and in printed output:
For more information, see Section 1.1 [This], page 1, and Section 1.2 [That], page 2.
The @ref command sometimes tempts writers to express
themselves in a manner that is suitable for a printed manual but looks
awkward in the Info format. Bear in mind that your audience will be
using both the printed and the Info format. For example:
Sea surges are described in @ref{Hurricanes}.
looks ok in the printed output:
Sea surges are described in Section 6.7 [Hurricanes], page 72.
but is awkward to read in Info, “note” being a verb:
Sea surges are described in *note Hurricanes::.
You should write a period or comma immediately after an @ref
command with two or more arguments. If there is no such following
punctuation, makeinfo will generate a (grammatically
incorrect) period in the Info output; otherwise, the cross-reference
would fail completely, due to the current syntax of Info format.
In general, it is best to use @ref only when you need some
word other than “see” to precede the reference. When “see” (or
“See”) is ok, @xref and @pxref are preferable.
@pxref
The parenthetical reference command, @pxref, is nearly the
same as @xref, but it is best used at the end of a sentence or
before a closing parenthesis. The command differs from @xref
in two ways:
@pxref is designed so that the output looks right and works
right at the end of a sentence or parenthetical phrase, both in
printed output and in an Info file. In a printed manual, a closing
comma or period should not follow a cross reference within
parentheses; such punctuation is wrong. But in an Info file, suitable
closing punctuation must follow the cross reference so Info can
recognize its end. @pxref spares you the need to use
complicated methods to put a terminator into one form of the output
and not the other.
With one argument, a parenthetical cross reference looks like this:
... storms cause flooding (@pxref{Hurricanes}) ...
which produces
... storms cause flooding (*note Hurricanes::) ...
and
... storms cause flooding (see Section 6.7 [Hurricanes], page 72) ...
With two arguments, a parenthetical cross reference has this template:
... (@pxref{node-name, cross-reference-name}) ...
which produces
... (*note cross-reference-name: node-name.) ...
and
... (see Section nnn [node-name], page ppp) ...
@pxref can be used with up to five arguments, just like
@xref (see @xref).
In past versions of Texinfo, it was not allowed to write punctuation
after a @pxref, so it could be used only before a right
parenthesis. This is no longer the case, so now it can be used (for
example) at the end of a sentence, where a lowercase “see” works
best. For instance:
... For more information, @pxref{More}.
which outputs (in Info):
... For more information, *note More::.
This works fine. @pxref should only be followed by a comma,
period, or right parenthesis; in other cases, makeinfo has
to insert a period to make the cross-reference work correctly in Info,
and that period looks wrong.
As a matter of general style, @pxref is best used at the ends
of sentences. Although it technically works in the middle of a
sentence, that location breaks up the flow of reading.
@inforef
@inforef is used for making cross references to Info
documents—even from a printed manual. This might be because you
want to refer to conditional @ifinfo text
(see Conditionals), or because printed output is not available
(perhaps because there is no Texinfo source), among other
possibilities.
The command takes either two or three arguments, in the following order:
Separate the arguments with commas, as with @xref. Also, you
must terminate the reference with a comma or period after the
‘}’, as you do with @xref.
The template is:
@inforef{node-name, cross-reference-name, info-file-name},
For example,
@inforef{Advanced, Advanced Info commands, info},
for more information.
produces (in Info):
*Note Advanced Info commands: (info)Advanced,
for more information.
and (in the printed output):
See Info file info, node ‘Advanced’, for more information.
(This particular example is not realistic, since the Info manual is written in Texinfo, so all formats are available.)
The converse of @inforef is @cite, which is used to
refer to printed works for which no Info form exists. See @cite.
@url, @uref{url[, text][, replacement]}
@uref produces a reference to a uniform resource locator (url).
It takes one mandatory argument, the url, and two optional arguments
which control the text that is displayed. In HTML output, @uref
produces a link you can follow.
@url is a synonym for @uref. Originally, @url
had the meaning of @indicateurl
(see @indicateurl), but in actual practice it
was misused the vast majority of the time. So we've changed the
meaning.
The second argument, if specified, is the text to display (the default is the url itself); in Info and DVI output, but not in HTML output, the url is also output.
The third argument, if specified, is the text to display, but in this case the url is not output in any format. This is useful when the text is already sufficiently referential, as in a man page. If the third argument is given, the second argument is ignored.
If the url is long enough to cause problems with line breaking, you
may find it useful to insert @/ at places where a line break
would be acceptable (after ‘/’ characters, for instance). This
tells TeX to allow (but not force) a line break at those places.
See Line Breaks.
Here is an example of the simple one argument form, where the url is both the target and the text of the link:
The official GNU ftp site is @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu}.
produces:
The official GNU ftp site is ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu.
An example of the two-argument form:
The official @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu, GNU ftp site}
holds programs and texts.
produces:
The official GNU ftp site
holds programs and texts.
that is, the Info output is this:
The official GNU ftp site (ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu)
holds programs and texts.
and the HTML output is this:
The official <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu">GNU ftp site</a>
holds programs and texts.
An example of the three-argument form:
The @uref{/man.cgi/1/ls,,ls} program ...
produces:
The ls program ...
but with HTML:
The <a href="/man.cgi/1/ls">ls</a> program ...
To merely indicate a url without creating a link people can follow, use
@indicateurl (see @indicateurl).
Some people prefer to display url's in the unambiguous format:
<URL:http://host/path>
You can use this form in the input file if you wish. We feel it's not necessary to include the ‘<URL:’ and ‘>’ in the output, since any software that tries to detect url's in text already has to detect them without the ‘<URL:’ to be useful.
In Texinfo, you can mark words and phrases in a variety of ways. The Texinfo formatters use this information to determine how to highlight the text. You can specify, for example, whether a word or phrase is a defining occurrence, a metasyntactic variable, or a symbol used in a program. Also, you can emphasize text, in several different ways.
Texinfo has commands for indicating just what kind of object a piece of
text refers to. For example, metasyntactic variables are marked by
@var, and code by @code. Since the pieces of text are
labelled by commands that tell what kind of object they are, it is easy
to change the way the Texinfo formatters prepare such text. (Texinfo is
an intentional formatting language rather than a typesetting
formatting language.)
For example, in a printed manual,
code is usually illustrated in a typewriter font;
@code tells TeX to typeset this text in this font. But it
would be easy to change the way TeX highlights code to use another
font, and this change would not affect how keystroke examples are
highlighted. If straight typesetting commands were used in the body
of the file and you wanted to make a change, you would need to check
every single occurrence to make sure that you were changing code and
not something else that should not be changed.
The highlighting commands can be used to extract useful information from the file, such as lists of functions or file names. It is possible, for example, to write a program in Emacs Lisp (or a keyboard macro) to insert an index entry after every paragraph that contains words or phrases marked by a specified command. You could do this to construct an index of functions if you had not already made the entries.
The commands serve a variety of purposes:
@code{sample-code}@code.
@kbd{keyboard-characters}@kbd.
@key{key-name}@key.
@samp{text}@samp.
@verb{text}@verb.
@var{metasyntactic-variable}@var.
@env{environment-variable}@env.
@file{file-name}@file.
@command{command-name}@command.
@option{option}@option.
@dfn{term}@dfn.
@cite{reference}@cite.
@abbr{abbreviation}@acronym{acronym}@acronym.
@indicateurl{uniform-resource-locator}@indicateurl. (Use @url
(see @url) for live url's.)
@email{email-address[, displayed-text]}@email.
@code{sample-code}
Use the @code command to indicate text that is a piece of a
program and which consists of entire syntactic tokens. Enclose the
text in braces.
Thus, you should use @code for an expression in a program, for
the name of a variable or function used in a program, or for a
keyword in a programming language.
Use @code for command names in languages that resemble
programming languages, such as Texinfo. For example, @code and
@samp are produced by writing ‘@code{@@code}’ and
‘@code{@@samp}’ in the Texinfo source, respectively.
It is incorrect to alter the case of a word inside an @code
command when it appears at the beginning of a sentence. Most computer
languages are case sensitive. In C, for example, Printf is
different from the identifier printf, and most likely is a
misspelling of it. Even in languages which are not case sensitive, it
is confusing to a human reader to see identifiers spelled in different
ways. Pick one spelling and always use that. If you do not want to
start a sentence with a command name written all in lower case, you
should rearrange the sentence.
In the printed manual, @code causes TeX to typeset the
argument in a typewriter face. In the Info file, it causes the Info
formatting commands to use single quotation marks around the text.
For example,
The function returns @code{nil}.
produces this:
The function returns nil.
Here are some cases for which it is preferable not to use @code:
@command).
@option).
@samp rather than @code. In this case, the rule is to
choose the more pleasing format.
@env).
goto-char Emacs Lisp function, you should use
@samp.
@code when you are explaining what letters
or printable symbols can be used in the names of functions. (Use
@samp.) Also, you should not use @code to mark text
that is considered input to programs unless the input is written in a
language that is like a programming language. For example, you should
not use @code for the keystroke commands of GNU Emacs (use
@kbd instead) although you may use @code for the names
of the Emacs Lisp functions that the keystroke commands invoke.
Since @command, @option, and @env were
introduced relatively recently, it is acceptable to use @code or
@samp for command names, options, and environment variables.
The new commands allow you to express the markup more precisely, but
there is no real harm in using the older commands, and of course the
long-standing manuals do so.
Ordinarily, TeX will consider breaking lines at ‘-’ and
‘_’ characters within @code and related commands. This
can be controlled with @allowcodebreaks
(see @allowcodebreaks).
@kbd{keyboard-characters}
Use the @kbd command for characters of input to be typed by
users. For example, to refer to the characters M-a, write:
@kbd{M-a}
and to refer to the characters M-x shell, write:
@kbd{M-x shell}
By default, the @kbd command produces a different font
(slanted typewriter instead of normal typewriter) in the printed
manual, so users can distinguish the characters that they are supposed
to type from those that the computer outputs.
In Info output, @kbd is usually the same as @code,
producing `quotes' around its argument. However, in typewriter-like
contexts such as the @example environment (see example)
and @code command itself, the quotes are omitted, since Info
format cannot use distinguishing fonts.
Since the usage of @kbd varies from manual to manual, you can
control the font switching with the @kbdinputstyle command.
This command has no effect on Info output. Write this command at the
beginning of a line with a single word as an argument, one of the
following:
@kbd as @code.
@kbd only in @example
and similar environments.
@kbd.
You can embed another @-command inside the braces of an @kbd
command. Here, for example, is the way to describe a command that
would be described more verbosely as “press the ‘r’ key and then
press the <RETURN> key”:
@kbd{r @key{RET}}
This produces: r <RET>. (The present manual accepts the
default for @kbdinputstyle.)
You also use the @kbd command if you are spelling out the letters
you type; for example:
To give the @code{logout} command,
type the characters @kbd{l o g o u t @key{RET}}.
This produces:
To give the logout command,
type the characters l o g o u t <RET>.
(Also, this example shows that you can add spaces for clarity. If you explicitly want to mention a space character as one of the characters of input, write @key{SPC} for it.)
@key{key-name}
Use the @key command for the conventional name for a key on a
keyboard, as in:
@key{RET}
You can use the @key command within the argument of an
@kbd command when the sequence of characters to be typed
includes one or more keys that are described by name.
For example, to produce C-x <ESC> and M-<TAB> you would type:
@kbd{C-x @key{ESC}}
@kbd{M-@key{TAB}}
Here is a list of the recommended names for keys:
- SPC
- Space
- RET
- Return
- LFD
- Linefeed (however, since most keyboards nowadays do not have a Linefeed key, it might be better to call this character C-j)
- TAB
- Tab
- BS
- Backspace
- ESC
- Escape
- DELETE
- Delete
- SHIFT
- Shift
- CTRL
- Control
- META
- Meta
There are subtleties to handling words like `meta' or `ctrl' that are
names of modifier keys. When mentioning a character in which the
modifier key is used, such as Meta-a, use the @kbd command
alone; do not use the @key command; but when you are referring
to the modifier key in isolation, use the @key command. For
example, write ‘@kbd{Meta-a}’ to produce Meta-a and
‘@key{META}’ to produce <META>.
As a convention in GNU manuals, @key should not be used in
index entries.
@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, or @key.
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’.
@verb{<char>text<char>}
Use the @verb command to print a verbatim sequence of
characters.
Like LaTeX's \verb command, the verbatim text can be quoted using
any unique delimiter character. Enclose the verbatim text, including the
delimiters, in braces. Text is printed in a fixed-width font:
How many @verb{|@|}-escapes does one need to print this
@verb{.@a @b @c.} string or @verb{+@'e?`!`{}\+} this?
produces
How many @-escapes does one need to print this
@a @b @c string or these @'e?`{}!`\ this?
This is in contrast to @samp (see the previous section),
@code, and similar commands; in those cases, the argument is
normal Texinfo text, where the three characters @{} are
special. With @verb, nothing is special except the delimiter
character you choose.
It is not reliable to use @verb inside other Texinfo
constructs. In particular, it does not work to use @verb in
anything related to cross-referencing, such as section titles or
figure captions.
@var{metasyntactic-variable}
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 (see 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.)
@env{environment-variable}
Use the @env command to indicate environment variables, as used
by many operating systems, including GNU. Do not use it for
metasyntactic variables; use @var instead (see the previous
section).
@env is equivalent to @code in its effects.
For example:
The @env{PATH} environment variable ...
produces
The PATH environment variable ...
@file{file-name}
Use the @file command to indicate text that is the name of a
file, buffer, or directory, or is the name of a node in Info. You can
also use the command for file name suffixes. Do not use @file
for symbols in a programming language; use @code.
Currently, @file is equivalent to @samp in its effects.
For example,
The @file{.el} files are in
the @file{/usr/local/emacs/lisp} directory.
produces
The .el files are in the /usr/local/emacs/lisp directory.
@command{command-name}
Use the @command command to indicate command names, such as
ls or cc.
@command is equivalent to @code in its effects.
For example:
The command @command{ls} lists directory contents.
produces
The command ls lists directory contents.
You should write the name of a program in the ordinary text font, rather
than using @command, if you regard it as a new English word,
such as `Emacs' or `Bison'.
When writing an entire shell command invocation, as in ‘ls -l’,
you should use either @samp or @code at your discretion.
@option{option-name}
Use the @option command to indicate a command-line option; for
example, -l or --version or
--output=filename.
@option is equivalent to @samp in its effects.
For example:
The option @option{-l} produces a long listing.
produces
The option -l produces a long listing.
In tables, putting options inside @code produces a
more pleasing effect.
@dfn{term}
Use the @dfn command to identify the introductory or defining
use of a technical term. Use the command only in passages whose
purpose is to introduce a term which will be used again or which the
reader ought to know. Mere passing mention of a term for the first
time does not deserve @dfn. The command generates italics in
the printed manual, and double quotation marks in the Info file. For
example:
Getting rid of a file is called @dfn{deleting} it.
produces
Getting rid of a file is called deleting it.
As a general rule, a sentence containing the defining occurrence of a term should be a definition of the term. The sentence does not need to say explicitly that it is a definition, but it should contain the information of a definition—it should make the meaning clear.
@cite{reference}
Use the @cite command for the name of a book that lacks a
companion Info file. The command produces italics in the printed
manual, and quotation marks in the Info file.
If a book is written in Texinfo, it is better to use a cross reference
command since a reader can easily follow such a reference in Info.
See @xref.
@abbr{abbreviation[, meaning]}
You can use the @abbr command for general abbreviations. The
abbreviation is given as the single argument in braces, as in
‘@abbr{Comput.}’. As a matter of style, or for particular
abbreviations, you may prefer to omit periods, as in
‘@abbr{Mr} Stallman’.
@abbr accepts an optional second argument, intended to be used
for the meaning of the abbreviation.
If the abbreviation ends with a lowercase letter and a period, and is
not at the end of a sentence, and has no second argument, remember to
use the @. command (see Not Ending a Sentence) to get the correct spacing. However, you do not have to
use @. within the abbreviation itself; Texinfo automatically
assumes periods within the abbreviation do not end a sentence.
In TeX and in the Info output, the first argument is printed as-is;
if the second argument is present, it is printed in parentheses after
the abbreviation. In HTML and XML, the <abbr> tag is
used; in Docbook, the <abbrev> tag is used. For instance:
@abbr{Comput. J., Computer Journal}
produces:
Comput. J. (Computer Journal)
For abbreviations consisting of all capital letters, you may prefer to
use the @acronym command instead. See the next section for
more on the usage of these two commands.
@acronym{acronym[, meaning]}
Use the @acronym command for abbreviations written in all
capital letters, such as `NASA'. The abbreviation is given as
the single argument in braces, as in ‘@acronym{NASA}’. As
a matter of style, or for particular acronyms, you may prefer to
use periods, as in ‘@acronym{N.A.S.A.}’.
@acronym accepts an optional second argument, intended to be
used for the meaning of the acronym.
If the acronym is at the end of a sentence, and if there is no second
argument, remember to use the @. or similar command
(see Ending a Sentence) to get the correct spacing.
In TeX, the acronym is printed in slightly smaller font. In the
Info output, the argument is printed as-is. In either format, if the
second argument is present, it is printed in parentheses after the
acronym. In HTML, Docbook, and XML, the <acronym> tag is
used.
For instance (since GNU is a recursive acronym, we use
@acronym recursively):
@acronym{GNU, @acronym{GNU}'s Not Unix}
produces:
GNU (@acronym{GNU}'s Not Unix)
In some circumstances, it is conventional to print family names in all
capitals. Don't use @acronym for this, since a name is not an
acronym. Use @sc instead (see Smallcaps).
@abbr and @acronym are closely related commands: they
both signal to the reader that a shortened form is being used, and
possibly give a meaning. When choosing whether to use these two
commands, please bear the following in mind.
@indicateurl{uniform-resource-locator}
Use the @indicateurl command to indicate a uniform resource
locator on the World Wide Web. This is analogous to @file,
@var, etc., and is purely for markup purposes. It does not
produce a link you can follow in HTML output (use the @uref
command for that, see @uref). It is useful for
url's which do not actually exist. For example:
For example, the url might be @indicateurl{http://example.org/path}.
which produces:
For example, the url might be <http://example.org/path>.
@email{email-address[, displayed-text]}
Use the @email command to indicate an electronic mail address.
It takes one mandatory argument, the address, and one optional argument, the
text to display (the default is the address itself).
In Info, the address is shown in angle brackets, preceded by the text
to display if any. In TeX, the angle brackets are omitted. In
HTML output, @email produces a ‘mailto’ link that usually
brings up a mail composition window. For example:
Send bug reports to @email{bug-texinfo@@gnu.org},
suggestions to the @email{bug-texinfo@@gnu.org, same place}.
produces
Send bug reports to bug-texinfo@gnu.org,
suggestions to the same place.
Usually, Texinfo changes the font to mark words in the text according to
what category the words belong to; an example is the @code command.
Most often, this is the best way to mark words.
However, sometimes you will want to emphasize text without indicating a
category. Texinfo has two commands to do this. Also, Texinfo has
several commands that specify the font in which TeX will typeset
text. These commands have no effect on Info and only one of them,
the @r command, has any regular use.
@emph{text} and @strong{text}
The @emph and @strong commands are for emphasis;
@strong is stronger. In printed output, @emph produces
italics and @strong produces bold.
For example,
@strong{Caution:} @samp{rm * .[^.]*}
removes @emph{all} files in the directory.
produces the following in printed output and HTML:
Caution: ‘rm * .[^.]*’ removes all files in the directory.
and the following in Info:
*Caution:* `rm * .[^.]*' removes _all_
files in the directory.
The @strong command is seldom used except to mark what is, in
effect, a typographical element, such as the word `Caution' in the
preceding example.
In the Info output, @emph surrounds the text with underscores
(‘_’), and @strong puts asterisks around the text.
Caution: Do not use@strongwith the word ‘Note’; Info will mistake the combination for a cross reference. (It's usually redundant, anyway.) Use a phrase such as Please notice or Caution instead, or the optional argument to@quotation—‘Note’ is allowable there.
@sc{text}: The Small Caps FontUse the ‘@sc’ command to set text in a small caps font (where possible). Write the text you want to be in small caps between braces in lower case, like this:
Richard @sc{Stallman} founded @acronym{GNU}.
This produces:
Richard Stallman founded GNU.
As shown here, we recommend using @acronym for actual
acronyms (see acronym), and reserving @sc for special
cases where you want small caps. The output is not the same
(@acronym prints in a smaller text font, not the small caps
font), but more importantly it describes the actual text more
accurately.
Family names are one case where small capitals are sometimes desirable, also as shown here.
TeX typesets any uppercase letters between the braces of an
@sc command in full-size capitals; only lowercase letters are
printed in the small caps font. In the Info output, the argument to
@sc is printed in all upper case. In HTML, the argument is
uppercased and the output marked with the <small> tag to reduce
the font size.
Since it's redundant to mark all-uppercase text with @sc,
makeinfo warns about such usage.
We recommend using regular mixed case wherever possible.
Texinfo provides one command to change the size of the main body font
in the TeX output for a document: @fonttextsize. It has no
effect at all in other output. It takes a single argument on the
remainder of the line, which must be either ‘10’ or ‘11’.
For example:
@fonttextsize 10
The effect is to reduce the body font to a 10pt size (the
default is 11pt). Fonts for other elements, such as sections
and chapters, are reduced accordingly. This should only be used in
conjunction with @smallbook (see Printing “Small” Books) or similar, since 10pt fonts on standard paper
(8.5x11 or A4) are too small. One reason to use this command is to
save pages, and hence printing cost, for physical books.
Texinfo does not at present have commands to switch the font family to use, or more general size-changing commands.
Texinfo also provides a number of font commands that specify font changes in the printed manual and (where possible) in the HTML output, but have no effect in the Info file. All the commands apply to an argument that follows, surrounded by braces.
@b@i@r@sansserif@slanted@t@code;
(The commands with longer names were invented much later than the others, at which time it did not seem desirable to use very short names for such an infrequently needed feature.)
Only the @r command has much use: in example-like
environments, you can use the @r command to write comments in
the standard roman font instead of the fixed-width font. This looks
better in printed output, and produces a <lineannotation> tag
in Docbook output.
For example,
@lisp
(+ 2 2) ; @r{Add two plus two.}
@end lisp
produces
(+ 2 2) ; Add two plus two.
In general, you should avoid using the other font commands. Some of them are only useful when documenting functionality of specific font effects, such as in TeX and related packages.
Quotations and examples are blocks of text consisting of one or more whole paragraphs that are set off from the bulk of the text and treated differently. They are usually indented in the output.
In Texinfo, you always begin a quotation or example by writing an
@-command at the beginning of a line by itself, and end it by writing
an @end command that is also at the beginning of a line by
itself. For instance, you begin an example by writing @example
by itself at the beginning of a line and end the example by writing
@end example on a line by itself, at the beginning of that
line, and with only one space between the @end and the
example.
Here are commands for quotations and examples, explained further in the following sections:
@quotation@example@verbatim@end verbatim. The text is printed in a fixed-width font,
and not indented or filled. Extra spaces and blank lines are
significant, and tabs are expanded.
@smallexample@example, except that in TeX this command typesets
text in a smaller font.
@lisp@example, but specifically for illustrating Lisp code. The
text is printed in a fixed-width font, and indented but not filled.
@smalllisp@lisp as @smallexample is to @example.
@display@smalldisplay@display as @smallexample is to @example.
@format@display (the text is not filled and no font is selected),
but the text is not indented.
@smallformat@format as @smallexample is to @example.
The @exdent command is used within the above constructs to
undo the indentation of a line.
The @flushleft and @flushright commands are used to line
up the left or right margins of unfilled text.
The @noindent command may be used after one of the above
constructs to prevent the following text from being indented as a new
paragraph.
You can use the @cartouche environment around one of the above
constructs to highlight the example or quotation by drawing a box with
rounded corners around it. See Drawing Cartouches Around Examples.
@quotation: Block quotationsThe text of a quotation is processed normally (regular font, text is filled) except that:
This is an example of text written between an@quotationcommand and an@end quotationcommand. An@quotationcommand is most often used to indicate text that is excerpted from another (real or hypothetical) printed work.
Write an @quotation command as text on a line by itself. This
line will disappear from the output. Mark the end of the quotation
with a line beginning with and containing only @end quotation.
The @end quotation line will likewise disappear from the
output.
@quotation takes one optional argument, given on the remainder
of the line. This text, if present, is included at the beginning of
the quotation in bold or otherwise emphasized, and followed with a
‘:’. For example:
@quotation Note
This is
a foo.
@end quotation
produces
Note: This is a foo.
If the @quotation argument is exactly one of these words:
Caution Important Note Tip Warning
then the Docbook output uses corresponding special tags
(<note>, etc.) instead of the default <blockquote>.
HTML output always uses <blockquote>.
@example: Example Text
The @example environment is used to indicate an example that
is not part of the running text, such as computer input or output.
Write an @example command at the beginning of a line by
itself. Mark the end of the example with an @end example
command, also written at the beginning of a line by itself.
An @example environment has the following characteristics:
@verbatim environment instead
(see @verbatim).
For example,
@example
cp foo @var{dest1}; \
cp foo @var{dest2}
@end example
produces
cp foo dest1; \
cp foo dest2
The lines containing @example and @end example will
disappear from the output. To make the output look good, you should
put a blank line before the @example and another blank line
after the @end example. Blank lines inside the beginning
@example and the ending @end example, on the other
hand, do appear in the output.
Caution: Do not use tabs in the lines of an example! (Or anywhere else in Texinfo, except in verbatim environments.) TeX treats tabs as single spaces, and that is not what they look like. In Emacs, you can use M-x untabify to convert tabs in a region to multiple spaces.
Examples are often, logically speaking, “in the middle” of a
paragraph, and the text that continues afterwards should not be
indented, as in the example above. The @noindent command
prevents a piece of text from being indented as if it were a new
paragraph (see @noindent.
If you want to embed code fragments within sentences, instead of
displaying them, use the @code command or its relatives
(see @code).
If you wish to write a “comment” on a line of an example in the
normal roman font, you can use the @r command (see Fonts).
@verbatim: Literal Text
Use the @verbatim environment for printing of text that may
contain special characters or commands that should not be interpreted,
such as computer input or output (@example interprets its text
as regular Texinfo commands). This is especially useful for including automatically
generated files in a Texinfo manual.
In general, the output will be just the same as the input. No character substitutions are made, e.g., all spaces and blank lines are significant, including tabs. In the printed manual, the text is typeset in a fixed-width font, and not indented or filled.
Write a @verbatim command at the beginning of a line by itself.
This line will disappear from the output. Mark the end of the verbatim
block with a @end verbatim command, also written at the
beginning of a line by itself. The @end verbatim will also
disappear from the output.
For example:
@verbatim
{
<TAB>@command with strange characters: @'e
expand<TAB>me
}
@end verbatim
This produces:
{
@command with strange characters: @'e
expand me
}
Since the lines containing @verbatim and @end verbatim
produce no output, typically you should put a blank line before the
@verbatim and another blank line after the @end
verbatim. Blank lines between the beginning @verbatim and
the ending @end verbatim will appear in the output.
You can get a “small” verbatim by enclosing the @verbatim in
an @smallformat environment, as shown here:
@smallformat
@verbatim
... still verbatim, but in a smaller font ...
@end verbatim
@end smallformat
Finally, a word of warning: it is not reliable to use
@verbatim inside other Texinfo constructs.
@verbatiminclude file: Include a File Verbatim
You can include the exact contents of a file in the document with the
@verbatiminclude command:
@verbatiminclude filename
The contents of filename is printed in a verbatim environment
(see @verbatim). Generally, the file is printed
exactly as it is, with all special characters and white space
retained. No indentation is added; if you want indentation, enclose
the @verbatiminclude within @example
(see @example).
The name of the file is taken literally, with a single exception:
@value{var} references are expanded. This makes it
possible to include files in other directories within a distribution,
for instance:
@verbatiminclude @value{top_srcdir}/NEWS
(You still have to get top_srcdir defined in the
first place.)
For a method on printing the file contents in a smaller font size, see
the end of the previous section on @verbatim.
@lisp: Marking a Lisp Example
The @lisp command is used for Lisp code. It is synonymous
with the @example command.
This is an example of text written between an
@lisp command and an @end lisp command.
Use @lisp instead of @example to preserve information
regarding the nature of the example. This is useful, for example, if
you write a function that evaluates only and all the Lisp code in a
Texinfo file. Then you can use the Texinfo file as a Lisp
library.6
Mark the end of @lisp with @end lisp on a line by
itself.
@small... Block Commands
In addition to the regular @example and @lisp commands,
Texinfo has “small” example-style commands. These are
@smalldisplay, @smallexample, @smallformat, and
@smalllisp.
In Info, the @small... commands are equivalent to their
non-small companion commands.
In TeX, however, the @small... commands typeset text in
a smaller font than the non-small example commands. Consequently,
many examples containing long lines fit on a page without needing to
be shortened.
Mark the end of an @small... block with a corresponding
@end small.... For example, pair @smallexample with
@end smallexample.
Here is an example of the font used by the @small...
commands (in Info, the output will be the same as usual):
... to make sure that you have the freedom to
distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source
code or can get it if you want it, that you can
change the software or use pieces of it in new free
programs; and that you know you can do these things.
The @small... commands make it easier to prepare manuals
without forcing you to edit examples by hand to fit them onto narrower
pages.
As a general rule, a printed document looks much better if you use
only one of (for instance) @example or @smallexample
consistently within a chapter.
@display and @smalldisplay
The @display command begins a kind of example, where each line
of input produces a line of output, and the output is indented. It is
thus like the @example command except that, in a printed
manual, @display does not select the fixed-width font. In
fact, it does not specify the font at all, so that the text appears in
the same font it would have appeared in without the @display
command.
This is an example of text written between an@displaycommand and an@end displaycommand. The@displaycommand indents the text, but does not fill it.
Texinfo also provides a command @smalldisplay, which is like
@display but uses a smaller font in @smallbook format.
See small.
The @table command (see table) does not work inside
@display. Since @display is line-oriented, it doesn't
make sense to use them together. If you want to indent a table, try
@quotation (see quotation).
@format and @smallformat
The @format command is similar to @example except
that, in the printed manual, @format does not select the
fixed-width font and does not narrow the margins.
This is an example of text written between an@formatcommand and an@end formatcommand. As you can see from this example, the@formatcommand does not fill the text.
Texinfo also provides a command @smallformat, which is like
@format but uses a smaller font in @smallbook format.
See small.
@exdent: Undoing a Line's Indentation
The @exdent command removes any indentation a line might have.
The command is written at the beginning of a line and applies only to
the text that follows the command that is on the same line. Do not use
braces around the text. In a printed manual, the text on an
@exdent line is printed in the roman font.
@exdent is usually used within examples. Thus,
@example
This line follows an @@example command.
@exdent This line is exdented.
This line follows the exdented line.
The @@end example comes on the next line.
@end example
produces
This line follows an @example command.
This line is exdented.
This line follows the exdented line. The @end example comes on the next line.
In practice, the @exdent command is rarely used.
Usually, you un-indent text by ending the example and
returning the page to its normal width.
@flushleft and @flushright
The @flushleft and @flushright commands line up the
ends of lines on the left and right margins of a page,
but do not fill the text. The commands are written on lines of their
own, without braces. The @flushleft and @flushright
commands are ended by @end flushleft and @end
flushright commands on lines of their own.
For example,
@flushleft
This text is
written flushleft.
@end flushleft
produces
This text is written flushleft.
@flushright produces the type of indentation often used in the
return address of letters. For example,
@flushright
Here is an example of text written
flushright. The @code{@flushright} command
right justifies every line but leaves the
left end ragged.
@end flushright
produces
flushright. The @flushright command
right justifies every line but leaves the
left end ragged.
@noindent: Omitting Indentation
An example or other inclusion can break a paragraph into segments.
Ordinarily, the formatters indent text that follows an example as a new
paragraph. You can prevent this on a case-by-case basis by writing
@noindent at the beginning of a line, preceding the continuation
text. You can also disable indentation for all paragraphs globally with
@paragraphindent (see Paragraph Indenting).
It is best to write @noindent on a line by itself, since in most
environments, spaces following the command will not be ignored. It's ok
to use it at the beginning of a line, with text following, outside of
any environment.
For example:
@example
This is an example
@end example
@noindent
This line is not indented. As you can see, the
beginning of the line is fully flush left with the line
that follows after it. (This whole example is between
@code{@@display} and @code{@@end display}.)
produces:
This is an example
This line is not indented. As you can see, the
beginning of the line is fully flush left with the line
that follows after it. (This whole example is between
@display and @end display.)
To adjust the number of blank lines properly in the Info file output,
remember that the line containing @noindent does not generate a
blank line, and neither does the @end example line.
In the Texinfo source file for this manual, each line that says
`produces' is preceded by @noindent.
Do not put braces after an @noindent command; they are not
necessary, since @noindent is a command used outside of
paragraphs (see Command Syntax).
@indent: Forcing Indentation
To complement the @noindent command (see the previous
section), Texinfo provides the @indent command that forces a
paragraph to be indented. This paragraph, for instance, is indented
using an @indent command. The first paragraph of a section is
the most likely place to use @indent, to override the normal
behavior of no indentation there (see paragraphindent).
It is best to write @indent on a line by itself, since in most
environments, spaces following the command will not be ignored. The
@indent line will not generate a blank line in the Info output
within an environment.
However, it is ok to use it at the beginning of a line, with text following, outside of any environment.
Do not put braces after an @indent command; they are not
necessary, since @indent is a command used outside of
paragraphs (see Command Syntax).
@cartouche: Rounded Rectangles Around Examples
In a printed manual, the @cartouche command draws a box with
rounded corners around its contents. In HTML, a normal rectangle is
drawn (that's the best HTML can do). @cartouche has no effect
in Info output.
You can use this command to further highlight an example or quotation. For instance, you could write a manual in which one type of example is surrounded by a cartouche for emphasis.
For example,
@cartouche
@example
% pwd
/usr/local/share/emacs
@end example
@end cartouche
surrounds the two-line example with a box with rounded corners, in the printed manual.
The output from the example looks like this (if you're reading this in
Info, you'll see the @cartouche had no effect):
% pwd
/usr/local/info
|
For proper output in HTML, it's necessary to put the
@cartouche around the @example, and not the other way
around. This limitation of makeinfo may be removed one day.
@cartouche also implies @group (see group).
Texinfo has several ways of making lists and tables. Lists can be bulleted or numbered; two-column tables can highlight the items in the first column; multi-column tables are also supported.
Texinfo automatically indents the text in lists or tables, and numbers an enumerated list. This last feature is useful if you modify the list, since you do not need to renumber it yourself.
Numbered lists and tables begin with the appropriate @-command at the
beginning of a line, and end with the corresponding @end
command on a line by itself. The table and itemized-list commands
also require that you write formatting information on the same line as
the beginning @-command.
Begin an enumerated list, for example, with an @enumerate
command and end the list with an @end enumerate command.
Begin an itemized list with an @itemize command, followed on
the same line by a formatting command such as @bullet, and end
the list with an @end itemize command.
Precede each element of a list with an @item or @itemx
command.
Here is an itemized list of the different kinds of table and lists:
Here is an enumerated list with the same items:
And here is a two-column table with the same items and their @-commands:
@itemize@enumerate@table@ftable@vtable@itemize: Making an Itemized List
The @itemize command produces sequences of indented
paragraphs, with a bullet or other mark inside the left margin
at the beginning of each paragraph for which such a mark is desired.
Begin an itemized list by writing @itemize at the beginning of
a line. Follow the command, on the same line, with a character or a
Texinfo command that generates a mark. Usually, you will write
@bullet after @itemize, but you can use
@minus, or any command or character that results in a single
character in the Info file. If you don't want any mark at all, use
@w. (When you write the mark command such as
@bullet after an @itemize command, you may omit the
‘{}’.) If you don't specify a mark command, the default is
@bullet.
Write the text of the indented paragraphs themselves after the
@itemize, up to another line that says @end
itemize.
At the beginning of each paragraph for which a mark in the margin is
desired, write a line that starts with @item. It is ok to
have text following the @item.
Usually, you should put a blank line before an @item. This
puts a blank line in the Info file. (TeX inserts the proper
interline whitespace in either case.) Except when the entries are
very brief, these blank lines make the list look better.
Here is an example of the use of @itemize, followed by the
output it produces. @bullet produces an ‘*’ in Info and a
round dot in TeX.
@itemize @bullet
@item
Some text for foo.
@item
Some text
for bar.
@end itemize
This produces:
- Some text for foo.
- Some text for bar.
Itemized lists may be embedded within other itemized lists. Here is a list marked with dashes embedded in a list marked with bullets:
@itemize @bullet
@item
First item.
@itemize @minus
@item
Inner item.
@item
Second inner item.
@end itemize
@item
Second outer item.
@end itemize
This produces:
- First item.
- Inner item.
- Second inner item.
- Second outer item.
@enumerate: Making a Numbered or Lettered List
@enumerate is like @itemize (see @itemize), except that the labels on the items are
successive integers or letters instead of bullets.
Write the @enumerate command at the beginning of a line. The
command does not require an argument, but accepts either a number or a
letter as an option. Without an argument, @enumerate starts the
list with the number ‘1’. With a numeric argument, such as
‘3’, the command starts the list with that number. With an upper
or lower case letter, such as ‘a’ or ‘A’, the command starts
the list with that letter.
Write the text of the enumerated list in the same way as an itemized
list: write a line starting with @item at the beginning of
each paragraph that you want enumerated. It is ok to have text
following the @item.
You should put a blank line between entries in the list. This generally makes it easier to read the Info file.
Here is an example of @enumerate without an argument:
@enumerate
@item
Underlying causes.
@item
Proximate causes.
@end enumerate
This produces:
Here is an example with an argument of 3:
@enumerate 3
@item
Predisposing causes.
@item
Precipitating causes.
@item
Perpetuating causes.
@end enumerate
This produces:
Here is a brief summary of the alternatives. The summary is constructed using
@enumerate with an argument of a.
@enumerate
Without an argument, produce a numbered list, starting with the number 1.
@enumerate positive-integer
With a (positive) numeric argument, start a numbered list with that number. You can use this to continue a list that you interrupted with other text.
@enumerate upper-case-letter
With an upper case letter as argument, start a list in which each item is marked by a letter, beginning with that upper case letter.
@enumerate lower-case-letter
With a lower case letter as argument, start a list in which each item is marked by a letter, beginning with that lower case letter.
You can also nest enumerated lists, as in an outline.
@table is similar to @itemize (see @itemize), but allows you to specify a name or heading line for
each item. The @table command is used to produce two-column
tables, and is especially useful for glossaries, explanatory
exhibits, and command-line option summaries.
@table CommandUse the @table command to produce two-column tables. It is
usually listed for “definition lists” of various sorts, where you
have a list of terms and a brief text with each one.
Write the @table command at the beginning of a line, after a
blank line, and follow it on the same line with an argument that is a
Texinfo “indicating” command such as @code, @samp,
@var, @option, or @kbd (see Indicating).
This command will be applied to the text that goes into the first
column of each item and thus determines how it will be highlighted.
For example, @table @code will cause the text in the first
column to be output as if it @code command.
You may also use the @asis command as an argument to
@table. @asis is a command that does nothing; if you
use this command after @table, the first column entries are
output without added highlighting (“as is”).
The @table command works with other commands besides those
explicitly mentioned here. However, you can only use commands that
normally take arguments in braces. (In this case, however, you use
the command name without an argument, because the subsequent
@item's will supply the argument.)
Begin each table entry with an @item command at the beginning
of a line. Write the first column text on the same line as the
@item command. Write the second column text on the line
following the @item line and on subsequent lines. (You do not
need to type anything for an empty second column entry.) You may
write as many lines of supporting text as you wish, even several
paragraphs. But only the text on the same line as the @item
will be placed in the first column (including any footnotes).
Normally, you should put a blank line before an @item line.
This puts a blank line in the Info file. Except when the entries are
very brief, a blank line looks better.
End the table with a line consisting of @end table, followed
by a blank line. TeX will always start a new paragraph after the
table, so the blank line is needed for the Info output to be analogous.
The following table, for example, highlights the text in the first
column with an @samp command:
@table @samp
@item foo
This is the text for
@samp{foo}.
@item bar
Text for @samp{bar}.
@end table
This produces:
If you want to list two or more named items with a single block of
text, use the @itemx command. (See @itemx.)
@ftable and @vtable
The @ftable and @vtable commands are the same as the
@table command except that @ftable automatically enters
each of the items in the first column of the table into the index of
functions and @vtable automatically enters each of the items in
the first column of the table into the index of variables. This
simplifies the task of creating indices. Only the items on the same
line as the @item commands are indexed, and they are indexed in
exactly the form that they appear on that line. See Indices,
for more information about indices.
Begin a two-column table using @ftable or @vtable by
writing the @-command at the beginning of a line, followed on the same
line by an argument that is a Texinfo command such as @code,
exactly as you would for an @table command; and end the table
with an @end ftable or @end vtable command on a line by
itself.
See the example for @table in the previous section.
@itemx
Use the @itemx command inside a table when you have two or more
first column entries for the same item, each of which should appear on a
line of its own.
Use @item for the first entry, and @itemx for all
subsequent entries; @itemx must always follow an @item
command, with no blank line intervening.
The @itemx command works exactly like @item except
that it does not generate extra vertical space above the first column
text. If you have multiple consecutive @itemx commands, do
not insert any blank lines between them.
For example,
@table @code
@item upcase
@itemx downcase
These two functions accept a character or a string as
argument, and return the corresponding upper case (lower
case) character or string.
@end table
This produces:
upcasedowncase(Note also that this example illustrates multi-line supporting text in a two-column table.)
@multitable: Multi-column Tables
@multitable allows you to construct tables with any number of
columns, with each column having any width you like.
You define the column widths on the @multitable line itself, and
write each row of the actual table following an @item command,
with columns separated by an @tab command. Finally, @end
multitable completes the table. Details in the sections below.
You can define the column widths for a multitable in two ways: as
fractions of the line length; or with a prototype row. Mixing the two
methods is not supported. In either case, the widths are defined
entirely on the same line as the @multitable command.
@columnfractions and the decimal numbers (presumably less than
1; a leading zero is allowed and ignored) after the
@multitable command, as in:
@multitable @columnfractions .33 .33 .33
The fractions need not add up exactly to 1.0, as these do not. This allows you to produce tables that do not need the full line length.
@multitable command. For example:
@multitable {some text for column one} {for column two}
The first column will then have the width of the typeset `some text for column one', and the second column the width of `for column two'.
The prototype entries need not appear in the table itself.
Although we used simple text in this example, the prototype entries can
contain Texinfo commands; markup commands such as @code are
particularly likely to be useful.
After the @multitable command defining the column widths (see
the previous section), you begin each row in the body of a multitable
with @item, and separate the column entries with @tab.
Line breaks are not special within the table body, and you may break
input lines in your source file as necessary.
You can also use @headitem instead of @item to produce
a heading row. The TeX output for such a row is in bold, and
the HTML, XML, and Docbook output uses the <thead> tag. In
Info, the heading row is followed by a separator line made of dashes
(‘-’ characters).
Here is a complete example of a multi-column table (the text is from The GNU Emacs Manual, see Splitting Windows):
@multitable @columnfractions .15 .45 .4
@headitem Key @tab Command @tab Description
@item C-x 2
@tab @code{split-window-vertically}
@tab Split the selected window into two windows,
with one above the other.
@item C-x 3
@tab @code{split-window-horizontally}
@tab Split the selected window into two windows
positioned side by side.
@item C-Mouse-2
@tab
@tab In the mode line or scroll bar of a window,
split that window.
@end multitable
produces:
| Key | Command | Description
|
|---|---|---|
| C-x 2 | split-window-vertically
| Split the selected window into two windows,
with one above the other.
|
| C-x 3 | split-window-horizontally
| Split the selected window into two windows
positioned side by side.
|
| C-Mouse-2 | In the mode line or scroll bar of a window,
split that window.
|
The commands in this chapter allow you to write text that is specially displayed (output format permitting), outside of the normal document flow.
One set of such commands is for creating “floats”, that is, figures, tables, and the like, set off from the main text, possibly numbered, captioned, and/or referred to from elsewhere in the document. Images are often included in these displays.
Another group of commands is for creating footnotes in Texinfo.
A float is a display which is set off from the main text. It is typically labelled as being a “Figure”, “Table”, “Example”, or some similar type.
A float is so-named because, in principle, it can be moved to the
bottom or top of the current page, or to a following page, in the
printed output. (Floating does not make sense in other output
formats.) In the present version of Texinfo, however, this floating
is unfortunately not yet implemented. Instead, the floating material
is simply output at the current location, more or less as if it were
an @group (see @group).
@float [type][,label]: Floating Material
To produce floating material, enclose the material you want to be
displayed separate between @float and @end float
commands, on lines by themselves.
Floating material uses @image to display an already-existing
graphic (see Images), or @multitable to display a table
(see Multi-column Tables). However, the contents of the float can
be anything. Here's an example with simple text:
@float Figure,fig:ex1
This is an example float.
@end float
And the output:
As shown in the example, @float takes two arguments (separated
by a comma), type and label. Both are optional.
@listoffloats output (see listoffloats). Cross-references
to label are allowed.
On the other hand, if label is not given, then the float will
not be numbered and consequently will not appear in the
@listoffloats output or be cross-referenceable.
Normally, you specify both type and label, to get a labeled and numbered float.
In Texinfo, all floats are numbered the same way: with the chapter number (or appendix letter), a period, and the float number, which simply counts 1, 2, 3, ..., and is reset at each chapter. Each float type is counted independently.
Floats within an @unnumbered are numbered, or outside of any
chapter, are simply numbered consecutively from 1.
These numbering conventions are not, at present, changeable.
@caption & @shortcaption
You may write an @caption anywhere within a @float
environment, to define a caption for the float. It is not allowed in
any other context. @caption takes a single argument, enclosed
in braces. Here's an example:
@float
An example float, with caption.
@caption{Caption for example float.}
@end float
The output is:
Caption for example float.
@caption can appear anywhere within the float; it is not
processed until the @end float. The caption text is usually a
sentence or two, but may consist of several paragraphs if necessary.
In the output, the caption always appears below the float; this is not
currently changeable. It is preceded by the float type and/or number,
as specified to the @float command (see the previous section).
The @shortcaption command likewise may be used only within
@float, and takes a single argument in braces. The short
caption text is used instead of the caption text in a list of floats
(see the next section). Thus, you can write a long caption for the
main document, and a short title to appear in the list of floats. For
example:
@float
... as above ...
@shortcaption{Text for list of floats.}
@end float
The text for @caption and @shortcaption may not
contain comments (@c), verbatim text (@verb),
environments such as @example, or other complex constructs.
@listoffloats: Tables of Contents for Floats
You can write a @listoffloats command to generate a list of
floats for a given float type (see float), analogous to the
document's overall table of contents. Typically, it is written in its
own @unnumbered node to provide a heading and structure,
rather like @printindex (see Printing Indices & Menus).
@listoffloats takes one optional argument, the float type.
Here's an example:
@node List of Figures
@unnumbered List of Figures
@listoffloats Figure
And the output from @listoffloats:
Without any argument, @listoffloats generates a list of
floats for which no float type was specified, i.e., no first argument
to the @float command (see float).
Each line in the list of floats contains the float type (if any),
the float number, and the caption, if any—the @shortcaption
argument, if it was specified, else the @caption argument.
In Info, the result is a menu where each float can be selected. In
HTML, each line is a link to the float. In printed output, the page
number is included.
Unnumbered floats (those without cross-reference labels) are omitted from the list of floats.
You can insert an image given in an external file with the
@image command. Although images can be used anywhere,
including the middle of a paragraph, we describe them in this chapter
since they are most often part of a displayed figure or example.
Here is the synopsis of the @image command:
@image{filename[, width[, height[, alttext[, extension]]]]}
The filename argument is mandatory, and must not have an extension, because the different processors support different formats:
makeinfo includes filename.txt verbatim for
Info output (more or less as if it was an @example).
makeinfo uses the optional fifth argument extension to
@image for the filename extension, if it is specified. For example:
@image{foo,,,,.xpm}
will cause makeinfo to look for foo.xpm before any others.
The width and height arguments are described in the next section.
For TeX output, if an image is the only thing in a paragraph it
will ordinarily be displayed on a line by itself, respecting the
current environment indentation, but without the normal paragraph
indentation. If you want it centered, use @center
(see @titlefont @center @sp).
For HTML output, makeinfo sets the alt attribute for
inline images to the optional alttext (fourth) argument to
@image, if supplied. If not supplied, makeinfo uses
the full file name of the image being displayed. The alttext is
taken as Texinfo text, so special characters such as ‘"’ and
‘<’ and ‘&’ are escaped in the HTML and XML output; also,
you can get an empty alt string with @- (a command
that produces no output; see - and hyphenation).
For Info output, the alt string is also processed as Texinfo
text and output. In this case, ‘\’ is escaped as ‘\\’ and
‘"’ as ‘\"’; no other escapes are done.
If you do not supply the optional extension (fifth) argument,
makeinfo first tries filename.png; if that does
not exist, it tries filename.jpg. If that does not exist
either, it complains.
In Info output, makeinfo writes a reference to the binary image
file (trying filename suffixed with extension,
.extension, .png, or .jpg, in that order)
if one exists. It also literally includes the .txt file if one
exists. This way, Info readers which can display images (such as the
Emacs Info browser, running under X) can do so, whereas Info readers
which can only use text (such as the standalone Info reader) can
display the textual version.
The implementation of this is to put the following construct into the Info output:
^@^H[image src="binaryfile" text="txtfile"
alt="alttext ... ^@^H]
where ‘^@’ and ‘^H’ stand for the actual null and backspace control characters. If one of the files is not present, the corresponding argument is omitted.
The reason for mentioning this here is that older Info browsers (this feature was introduced in Texinfo version 4.6) will display the above literally, which, although not pretty, should not be harmful.
The optional width and height arguments to the
@image command (see the previous section) specify the size to
scale the image to. They are ignored for Info output. If neither is
specified, the image is presented in its natural size (given in the
file); if only one is specified, the other is scaled proportionately;
and if both are specified, both are respected, thus possibly distorting
the original image by changing its aspect ratio.
The width and height may be specified using any valid TeX dimension, namely:
For example, the following will scale a file ridt.eps to one inch vertically, with the width scaled proportionately:
@image{ridt,,1in}
For @image to work with TeX, the file epsf.tex must be
installed somewhere that TeX can find it. (The standard location is
texmf/tex/generic/dvips/epsf.tex, where texmf is a
root of your TeX directory tree.) This file is included in the
Texinfo distribution and is also available from
ftp://tug.org/tex/epsf.tex, among other places.
@image can be used within a line as well as for displayed
figures. Therefore, if you intend it to be displayed, be sure to leave
a blank line before the command, or the output will run into the
preceding text.
Image scaling is presently implemented only in TeX, not in HTML or any other sort of output.
A footnote is for a reference that documents or elucidates the primary text.7 Footnotes are distracting; use them sparingly, if at all. Standard bibliographical references are better placed in a bibliography at the end of a document than in footnotes throughout.
In Texinfo, footnotes are created with the @footnote command.
This command is followed immediately by a left brace, then by the text
of the footnote, and then by a terminating right brace. Footnotes may
be of any length (they will be broken across pages if necessary), but
are usually short. The template is:
ordinary text@footnote{text of footnote}
As shown here, the @footnote command should come right after the
text being footnoted, with no intervening space; otherwise, the footnote
marker might end up starting a line.
For example, this clause is followed by a sample footnote8; in the Texinfo source, it looks like this:
...a sample footnote@footnote{Here is the sample
footnote.}; in the Texinfo source...
As you can see, the source includes two punctuation marks next to each other; in this case, ‘.};’ is the sequence. This is normal (the first ends the footnote and the second belongs to the sentence being footnoted), so don't worry that it looks odd.
In a printed manual or book, the reference mark for a footnote is a small, superscripted number; the text of the footnote appears at the bottom of the page, below a horizontal line.
In Info, the reference mark for a footnote is a pair of parentheses with the footnote number between them, like this: ‘(1)’. The reference mark is followed by a cross-reference link to the footnote's text.
In the HTML output, footnote references are marked with a small, superscripted number which is rendered as a hypertext link to the footnote text.
By the way, footnotes in the argument of an @item command for a
@table must be on the same line as the @item
(as usual). See Two-column Tables.
Info has two footnote styles, which determine where the text of the footnote is located:
Here is an example of a single footnote in the end of node style:
--------- Footnotes ---------
(1) Here is a sample footnote.
The name of the node with the footnotes is constructed by appending ‘-Footnotes’ to the name of the node that contains the footnotes. (Consequently, the footnotes' node for the Footnotes node is Footnotes-Footnotes!) The footnotes' node has an `Up' node pointer that leads back to its parent node.
Here is how the first footnote in this manual looks after being formatted for Info in the separate node style:
File: texinfo.info Node: Overview-Footnotes, Up: Overview
(1) The first syllable of "Texinfo" is pronounced like "speck", not
"hex". ...
Unless your document has long and important footnotes (as in, say, Gibbon's Decline and Fall ...), we recommend the ‘end’ style, as it is simpler for readers to follow.
Use the @footnotestyle command to specify an Info file's
footnote style. Write this command at the beginning of a line followed
by an argument, either ‘end’ for the end node style or
‘separate’ for the separate node style.
For example,
@footnotestyle end
or
@footnotestyle separate
Write an @footnotestyle command before or shortly after the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file. (If you
include the @footnotestyle command between the start-of-header
and end-of-header lines, the region formatting commands will format
footnotes as specified.)
If you do not specify a footnote style, the formatting commands use
their default style. Currently, texinfo-format-buffer and
texinfo-format-region use the `separate' style and
makeinfo uses the `end' style.
Using Texinfo, you can generate indices without having to sort and collate entries manually. In an index, the entries are listed in alphabetical order, together with information on how to find the discussion of each entry. In a printed manual, this information consists of page numbers. In an Info file, this information is a menu entry leading to the first node referenced.
Texinfo provides several predefined kinds of index: an index for functions, an index for variables, an index for concepts, and so on. You can combine indices or use them for other than their canonical purpose. Lastly, you can define your own new indices.
See Printing Indices & Menus, for information on how to print indices.
When you are making index entries, it is good practice to think of the different ways people may look for something. Different people do not think of the same words when they look something up. A helpful index will have items indexed under all the different words that people may use. For example, one reader may think it obvious that the two-letter names for indices should be listed under “Indices, two-letter names”, since the word “Index” is the general concept. But another reader may remember the specific concept of two-letter names and search for the entry listed as “Two letter names for indices”. A good index will have both entries and will help both readers.
Like typesetting, the construction of an index is a highly skilled, professional art, the subtleties of which are not appreciated until you need to do it yourself.
See Printing Indices & Menus, for information about printing an index at the end of a book or creating an index menu in an Info file.
Texinfo provides six predefined indices. Here are their nominal meanings, abbreviations, and the corresponding index entry commands:
@cindex) concept index, for general concepts.
@findex) function index, for function and function-like
names (such as entry points of libraries).
@kindex) keystroke index, for keyboard commands.
@pindex) program index, for names of programs.
@tindex) data type index, for type names (such as structures
defined in header files).
@vindex) variable index, for variable names (such as global
variables of libraries).
Not every manual needs all of these, and most manuals use only two or three at most. The present manual, for example, has two indices: a concept index and an @-command index (that is actually the function index but is called a command index in the chapter heading).
You are not required to use the predefined indices strictly for their
canonical purposes. For example, suppose you wish to index some C
preprocessor macros. You could put them in the function index along
with actual functions, just by writing @findex commands for
them; then, when you print the “Function Index” as an unnumbered
chapter, you could give it the title `Function and Macro Index' and
all will be consistent for the reader.
On the other hand, it is best not to stray too far from the meaning of the predefined indices. Otherwise, in the event that your text is combined with other text from other manuals, the index entries will not match up. Instead, define your own new index (see New Indices).
We recommend having a single index in the final document whenever
possible, however many source indices you use, since then readers have
only one place to look. Two or more source indices can be combined
into one output index using the @synindex or
@syncodeindex commands (see Combining Indices).
The data to make an index come from many individual indexing commands scattered throughout the Texinfo source file. Each command says to add one entry to a particular index; after formatting, the index will give the current page number or node name as the reference.
An index entry consists of an indexing command at the beginning of a line followed, on the rest of the line, by the entry.
For example, this section begins with the following five entries for the concept index:
@cindex Defining indexing entries
@cindex Index entries, defining
@cindex Entries for an index
@cindex Specifying index entries
@cindex Creating index entries
Each predefined index has its own indexing command—@cindex
for the concept index, @findex for the function index, and so
on, as listed in the previous section.
Concept index entries consist of text. The best way to write an index is to choose entries that are terse yet clear. If you can do this, the index often looks better if the entries are not capitalized, but written just as they would appear in the middle of a sentence. (Capitalize proper names and acronyms that always call for upper case letters.) This is the case convention we use in most GNU manuals' indices.
If you don't see how to make an entry terse yet clear, make it longer and clear—not terse and confusing. If many of the entries are several words long, the index may look better if you use a different convention: to capitalize the first word of each entry. But do not capitalize a case-sensitive name such as a C or Lisp function name or a shell command; that would be a spelling error.
Whichever case convention you use, please use it consistently!
Entries in indices other than the concept index are symbol names in programming languages, or program names; these names are usually case-sensitive, so use upper and lower case as required for them.
By default, entries for a concept index are printed in a small roman
font and entries for the other indices are printed in a small
@code font. You may change the way part of an entry is
printed with the usual Texinfo commands, such as @file for
file names (see Marking Text), and @r for the normal roman
font (see Fonts).
Caution: Do not use a colon in an index entry. In Info, a colon separates the menu entry name from the node name, so a colon in the entry itself confuses Info. See Menu Parts, for more information about the structure of a menu entry.
Sometimes you will want to combine two disparate indices such as functions and concepts, perhaps because you have few enough entries that a separate index would look silly.
You could put functions into the concept index by writing
@cindex commands for them instead of @findex commands,
and produce a consistent manual by printing the concept index with the
title `Function and Concept Index' and not printing the `Function
Index' at all; but this is not a robust procedure. It works only if
your document is never included as part of another document that is
designed to have a separate function index; if your document were to
be included with such a document, the functions from your document and
those from the other would not end up together. Also, to make your
function names appear in the right font in the concept index, you
would need to enclose every one of them between the braces of
@code.
@syncodeindex
When you want to combine functions and concepts into one index, you
should index the functions with @findex and index the concepts
with @cindex, and use the @syncodeindex command to
redirect the function index entries into the concept index.
The @syncodeindex command takes two arguments; they are the name
of the index to redirect, and the name of the index to redirect it to.
The template looks like this:
@syncodeindex from to
For this purpose, the indices are given two-letter names:
Write an @syncodeindex command before or shortly after the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file. For example,
to merge a function index with a concept index, write the
following:
@syncodeindex fn cp
This will cause all entries designated for the function index to merge in with the concept index instead.
To merge both a variables index and a function index into a concept index, write the following:
@syncodeindex vr cp
@syncodeindex fn cp
The @syncodeindex command puts all the entries from the `from'
index (the redirected index) into the @code font, overriding
whatever default font is used by the index to which the entries are
now directed. This way, if you direct function names from a function
index into a concept index, all the function names are printed in the
@code font as you would expect.
@synindex
The @synindex command is nearly the same as the
@syncodeindex command, except that it does not put the
`from' index entries into the @code font; rather it puts
them in the roman font. Thus, you use @synindex when you
merge a concept index into a function index.
See Printing Indices & Menus, for information about printing an index at the end of a book or creating an index menu in an Info file.
In addition to the predefined indices, you may use the
@defindex and @defcodeindex commands to define new
indices. These commands create new indexing @-commands with which
you mark index entries. The @defindex command is used like
this:
@defindex name
The name of an index should be a two letter word, such as ‘au’. For example:
@defindex au
This defines a new index, called the ‘au’ index. At the same
time, it creates a new indexing command, @auindex, that you
can use to make index entries. Use this new indexing command just as
you would use a predefined indexing command.
For example, here is a section heading followed by a concept index entry and two ‘au’ index entries.
@section Cognitive Semantics
@cindex kinesthetic image schemas
@auindex Johnson, Mark
@auindex Lakoff, George
(Evidently, ‘au’ serves here as an abbreviation for “author”.)
In general, Texinfo constructs the new indexing command by
concatenating the name of the index with ‘index’; thus, defining
an ‘xy’ index leads to the automatic creation of an
@xyindex command.
Use the @printindex command to print the index, as you do with
the predefined indices. For example:
@node Author Index
@unnumbered Author Index
@printindex au
The @defcodeindex is like the @defindex command,
except that, in the printed output, it prints entries in an
@code font by default instead of a roman font.
You should define new indices before the end-of-header line of a
Texinfo file, and (of course) before any @synindex or
@syncodeindex commands (see Texinfo File Header).
Texinfo provides several commands for inserting characters that have special meaning in Texinfo, such as braces, and for other graphic elements that do not correspond to simple characters you can type.
‘@’ and curly braces are special characters in Texinfo. To insert these characters so they appear in text, you must put an ‘@’ in front of these characters to prevent Texinfo from misinterpreting them.
The comma `,' is a special character only in one uncommon context: it separates arguments to commands that take multiple arguments.
@@
@@ stands for a single ‘@’ in either printed or Info
output.
Do not put braces after an @@ command.
@{ and @}
@{ stands for a single ‘{’ in either printed or Info
output.
@} stands for a single ‘}’ in either printed or Info
output.
Do not put braces after either an @{ or an @}
command.
@comma{}Ordinarily, a comma `,' is a normal character that can be simply typed in your input where you need it.
However, Texinfo uses the comma as a special character in one uncommon
context: some commands, such as @acronym (see acronym) and
@xref (see Cross References), as well as user-defined
macros (see Defining Macros), can take more than one argument. In
these cases, the comma character is used to separate arguments.
Since a comma character would confuse Texinfo's parsing for these commands, you must use the command ‘@comma{}’ instead if you want to pass an actual comma. Here are some examples:
@acronym{ABC, A Bizarre @comma{}}
@xref{Comma,, The @comma{} symbol}
@mymac{One argument@comma{} containing a comma}
Although , can be used nearly anywhere, there is no need for it anywhere except in this unusual case.
As explained in the early section on general Texinfo input conventions
(see Conventions), Texinfo source files use the ASCII character
` (96 decimal) to produce a left quote (`), and ASCII '
(39 decimal) to produce a right quote ('). Doubling these input
characters (`` and '') produces double quotes (“ and
”). These are the conventions used by TeX.
This works all right for text. However, in examples of computer code, readers are especially likely to cut and paste the text verbatim—and, unfortunately, some document viewers will mangle these characters. (The free PDF reader xpdf works fine, but other PDF readers, both free and nonfree, have problems.)
If this is a concern for your document, Texinfo provides two special
settings via @set:
@set txicodequoteundirected' character to be the undirected
single quote, like this:
'.
@set txicodequotebacktick` character to be the standalone grave
accent, like this:
`.
xyza`'bc
If you want these settings for only part of the document,
@clear will restore the normal behavior, as in
@clear txicodequoteundirected.
These settings affect @code, @example, and
@verbatim; they do not affect @samp. (See Useful Highlighting.)
The following sections describe commands that control spacing of various kinds within and after sentences.
Depending on whether a period or exclamation point or question mark is inside or at the end of a sentence, less or more space is inserted after a period in a typeset manual. Since it is not always possible to determine when a period ends a sentence and when it is used in an abbreviation, special commands are needed in some circumstances. Usually, Texinfo can guess how to handle periods, so you do not need to use the special commands; you just enter a period as you would if you were using a typewriter, which means you put two spaces after the period, question mark, or exclamation mark that ends a sentence.
Use the @: command after a period, question mark,
exclamation mark, or colon that should not be followed by extra space.
For example, use @: after periods that end abbreviations
which are not at the ends of sentences.
For example,
foo vs.@: bar
foo vs. bar
produces
foo vs. bar
foo vs. bar
@: has no effect on the Info and HTML output. In Docbook and
XML, the previous punctuation character (.?!:) is output as an entity
instead of as the normal character: ‘. ? !
:’. This gives further processors a chance to notice and not
add the usual extra space.
Do not put braces after @: (or any non-alphabetic command).
Use @. instead of a period, @! instead of an
exclamation point, and @? instead of a question mark at the end
of a sentence that ends with a capital letter. Otherwise, TeX
will think the letter is an abbreviation and will not insert the correct
end-of-sentence spacing. Here is an example:
Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W@. Also, give it to R.J.C@.
Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W. Also, give it to R.J.C.
produces
Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W. Also, give it to R.J.C.
Give it to M.I.B. and to M.E.W. Also, give it to R.J.C.
In the Info file output, @. is equivalent to a simple
‘.’; likewise for @! and @?.
The meanings of @: and @. in Texinfo are designed to
work well with the Emacs sentence motion commands (see Sentences).
Do not put braces after any of these commands.
Ordinarily, TeX collapses multiple whitespace characters (space, tab, and newline) into a single space. Info output, on the other hand, preserves whitespace as you type it, except for changing a newline into a space; this is why it is important to put two spaces at the end of sentences in Texinfo documents.
Occasionally, you may want to actually insert several consecutive
spaces, either for purposes of example (what your program does with
multiple spaces as input), or merely for purposes of appearance in
headings or lists. Texinfo supports three commands:
@SPACE, @TAB, and @NL, all of
which insert a single space into the output. (Here,
@SPACE represents an ‘@’ character followed by a
space, i.e., ‘@ ’, and TAB and NL represent the tab
character and end-of-line, i.e., when ‘@’ is the last character on
a line.)
For example,
Spacey@ @ @ @
example.
produces
Spacey example.
Other possible uses of @SPACE have been subsumed by
@multitable (see Multi-column Tables).
Do not follow any of these commands with braces.
To produce a non-breakable space, see @tie.
@frenchspacing val: Control sentence spacingIn American typography, it is traditional and correct to put extra space at the end of a sentence, after a semi-colon, and so on. This is the default in Texinfo. In French typography (and many others), this extra space is wrong; all spaces are uniform.
Therefore Texinfo provides the @frenchspacing command to
control the spacing after punctuation. It reads the rest of the line
as its argument, which must be the single word ‘on’ or ‘off’
(always these words, regardless of the language) of the document.
Here is an example:
@frenchspacing on
This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. French spacing.
@frenchspacing off
This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. Non-French spacing.
produces (there will be no difference in Info):
This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. French spacing.
This is text. Two sentences. Three sentences. Non-French spacing.
@frenchspacing mainly affects the printed output, including
the output after @., @!, and @? (see Ending a Sentence).
In Info, usually space characters in the input are written unaltered
to the output, and @frenchspacing does not change this. It
does change the one case where makeinfo outputs a space on
its own: when a sentence ends at a newline in the source. Here's an
example:
Some sentence.
Next sentence.
produces in Info output, with @frenchspacing off
(the default), two spaces between the sentences:
Some sentence. Next sentence.
With @frenchspacing on, makeinfo outputs
only a single space:
Some sentence. Next sentence.
@frenchspacing has no effect on the HTML or Docbook output;
for XML, it outputs a transliteration of itself (see Output Formats).
@dmn{dimension}: Format a Dimension
At times, you may want to write ‘12pt’ or
‘8.5in’ with little or no space between the number and the
abbreviation for the dimension. You can use the @dmn command
to do this. On seeing the command, TeX inserts just enough space
for proper typesetting; the Info formatting commands insert no space
at all, since the Info file does not require it.
To use the @dmn command, write the number and then follow it
immediately, with no intervening space, by @dmn, and then by
the dimension within braces. For example,
A4 paper is 8.27@dmn{in} wide.
produces
A4 paper is 8.27in wide.
Not everyone uses this style. Some people prefer ‘8.27 in.@:’
or ‘8.27 inches’ to ‘8.27@dmn{in}’ in the Texinfo file.
In these cases, however, the formatters may insert a line break between
the number and the dimension, so use @w (see w). Also, if
you write a period after an abbreviation within a sentence, you should
write ‘@:’ after the period to prevent TeX from inserting extra
whitespace, as shown here. See Not Ending a Sentence.
Here is a table with the commands Texinfo provides for inserting
floating accents. The commands with non-alphabetic names do not take
braces around their argument (which is taken to be the next character).
(Exception: @, does take braces around its argument.)
This is so as to make the source as convenient to type and read as
possible, since accented characters are very common in some languages.
To get the true accented characters output in Info, and not just the
ASCII transliterations, it is necessary to specify
@documentencoding with an encoding which supports the required
characters (see @documentencoding).
| Command | Output | What
|
|---|---|---|
| @"o | ö | umlaut accent
|
| @'o | ó | acute accent
|
| @,{c} | ç | cedilla accent
|
| @=o | o¯ | macron/overbar accent
|
| @^o | ô | circumflex accent
|
| @`o | ò | grave accent
|
| @~o | õ | tilde accent
|
| @dotaccent{o} | o. | overdot accent
|
| @H{o} | o'' | long Hungarian umlaut
|
| @ringaccent{o} | o* | ring accent
|
| @tieaccent{oo} | oo[ | tie-after accent
|
| @u{o} | o( | breve accent
|
| @ubaraccent{o} | o_ | underbar accent
|
| @udotaccent{o} | .o | underdot accent
|
| @v{o} | o< | hacek/check/caron accent
|
This table lists the Texinfo commands for inserting other characters commonly used in languages other than English.
| @exclamdown{} | ¡ | upside-down !
|
| @questiondown{} | ¿ | upside-down ?
|
| @aa{} @AA{} | å Å | a,A with circle
|
| @ae{} @AE{} | æ Æ | ae,AE ligatures
|
| @dotless{i} | i | dotless i
|
| @dotless{j} | j | dotless j
|
| @l{} @L{} | /l /L | suppressed-L,l
|
| @o{} @O{} | ø Ø | O,o with slash
|
| @oe{} @OE{} | œ Œ | oe,OE ligatures
|
| @ordf{} @ordm{} | ª º | Spanish ordinals
|
| @ss{} | ß | es-zet or sharp S
|
Use doubled single-quote characters to begin and end quotations: ``...''. TeX converts two single quotes to left- and right-hand doubled quotation marks, and Info converts doubled single-quote characters to ASCII double-quotes: ``...'' becomes "...".
You may occasionally need to produce two consecutive single quotes;
for example, in documenting a computer language such as Maxima where
'' is a valid command. You can do this with the input
'@w{}'; the empty @w command stops the combination into
the double-quote characters.
The left quote character (`, ASCII code 96) used in Texinfo is a grave accent in ANSI and ISO character set standards. We use it as a quote character because that is how TeX is set up, by default.
Texinfo supports several other quotation marks used in languages other than English. Below is a table with the commands Texinfo provides for inserting quotation marks.
In order to get the symbols for the quotation marks in encoded Info
output, it is necessary to specify @documentencoding UTF-8.
(See @documentencoding.) Double
guillemets are also present in ISO 8859-1 (aka Latin 1) and ISO
8859-15 (aka Latin 9).
The standard TeX fonts support the usual quotation marks used in English (the ones produced with single and doubled ASCII single-quotes). For the other quotation marks, TeX uses European Computer Modern (EC) fonts (ecrm1000 and other variants). These fonts are freely available, of course; you can download them from http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/ec, among other places.
The free EC fonts are bitmap fonts created with Metafont. Especially for on-line viewing, Type 1 (vector) versions of the fonts are preferable; these are available in the CM-Super font package (http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/ps-type1/cm-super).
Both distributions include installation instructions.
| Command | Glyph | Unicode name (point)
|
|---|---|---|
| @quotedblleft{} `` | “ | Left double quotation mark (U+201C)
|
| @quotedblright{} '' | ” | Right double quotation mark (U+201D)
|
| @quoteleft{} ` | ‘ | Left single quotation mark (U+2018)
|
| @quoteright{} ' | ’ | Right single quotation mark (U+2019)
|
| @quotedblbase{} | „ | Double low-9 quotation mark (U+201E)
|
| @quotesinglbase{} | ‚ | Single low-9 quotation mark (U+201A)
|
| @guillemetleft{} | « | Left-pointing double angle quotation mark (U+00AB)
|
| @guillemetright{} | » | Right-pointing double angle quotation mark (U+00BB)
|
| @guilsinglleft{} | ‹ | Single left-pointing angle quotation mark (U+2039)
|
| @guilsinglright{} | › | Single right-pointing angle quotation mark (U+203A)
|
For the double angle quotation marks, Adobe and LaTeX glyph names
are also supported: @guillemotleft and
@guillemotright. These names are actually incorrect; a
“guillemot” is a bird species (a type of auk).
Traditions for quotation mark usage vary to a great extent between
languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark%2C_non-English_usage#Overview).
Texinfo does not provide commands for typesetting quotation marks
according to the numerous traditions. Therefore, you have to choose
the commands appropriate for the language of your manual. Sometimes
aliases (see @alias) can simplify the usage and
make the source code more readable. For example, in German,
@quotedblbase is used for the left double quote, and the right
double quote is actually @quotedblleft, which is
counter-intuitive. Thus, in this case the following aliases would be
convenient:
@alias lgqq = quotedblbase
@alias rgqq = quotedblleft
An ellipsis (a line of dots) is not typeset as a string of
periods, so a special command is used for ellipsis in Texinfo. The
@bullet command is special, too. Each of these commands is
followed by a pair of braces, ‘{}’, without any whitespace
between the name of the command and the braces. (You need to use braces
with these commands because you can use them next to other text; without
the braces, the formatters would be confused. See @-Command Syntax, for further information.)
@dots{} (...) and @enddots{} (...)
Use the @dots{} command to generate an ellipsis, which is
three dots in a row, appropriately spaced ... like so. Do
not simply write three periods in the input file; that would work for
the Info file output, but would produce the wrong amount of space
between the periods in the printed manual.
Similarly, the @enddots{} command generates an
end-of-sentence ellipsis, which has different spacing afterwards,
... Look closely to see the difference.
@bullet{} (•)
Use the @bullet{} command to generate a large round dot, or
the closest possible thing to one. In Info, an asterisk is used.
Here is a bullet: •
When you use @bullet in @itemize, you do not need to
type the braces, because @itemize supplies them.
(See @itemize.)
The logo `TeX' is typeset in a special fashion and it needs an @-command. The copyright and registered symbols, `©' and `®', is also special. Each of these commands is followed by a pair of braces, ‘{}’, without any whitespace between the name of the command and the braces.
@TeX{} (TeX) and @LaTeX{} (LaTeX)
Use the @TeX{} command to generate `TeX'. In a printed
manual, this is a special logo that is different from three ordinary
letters. In Info, it just looks like ‘TeX’.
Similarly, use the @LaTeX{} command to generate `LaTeX',
which is even more special in printed manuals (and different from the
incorrect La@TeX{}. In Info, the result is just
‘LaTeX’. (LaTeX is another macro package built on top of
TeX, very loosely analogous to Texinfo in that it emphasizes
logical structure, but much (much) larger.)
The spelling of these commands are unusual among Texinfo commands in that they use both uppercase and lowercase letters.
@copyright{} (©)
Use the @copyright{} command to generate the copyright
symbol, `©'. Where possible, this is a ‘c’
inside a circle; in Info, this is ‘(C)’.
@registeredsymbol{} (®)
Use the @registeredsymbol{} command to generate the
registered symbol, `®'. Where possible, this is an
‘R’ inside a circle; in Info, this is ‘(R)’.
@euro{} (€): Euro Currency Symbol
Use the @euro{} command to generate `€'. Where
possible, this is the symbol for the Euro currency, invented as part
of the European economic unification. In plain Info, it is the word
‘Euro ’. A trailing space is included in the text
transliteration since typically no space is desired after the symbol,
so it would be inappropriate to have a space in the source document.
Texinfo cannot magically synthesize support for the Euro symbol where the underlying system (fonts, software, whatever) does not support it. Therefore, in many cases it is preferable to use the word “Euro”. (In banking circles, the abbreviation for the Euro is EUR.)
In order to get the Euro symbol in encoded Info output, for example,
it is necessary to specify @documentencoding ISO-8859-15.
(See @documentencoding.) The Euro symbol
is in ISO 8859-15 (aka Latin 9), and is not in the more
widely-used and supported ISO 8859-1 (Latin 1).
The Euro symbol does not exist in the standard TeX fonts (which
were designed before the Euro was legislated into existence).
Therefore, TeX uses an additional font, named feymr10 (along
with other variables). It is freely available, of course; you can
download it from http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/eurosym,
among other places. The distribution includes installation
instructions.
@pounds{} (£): Pounds Sterling
Use the @pounds{} command to generate `£'. Where
possible, this is the symbol for the currency pounds sterling. In
Info, it is a ‘#’.
@textdegree{} (°): Degrees Symbol
Use the @textdegree{} command to generate `°'.
Where possible, this is the normal symbol for degrees. In plain text
and Info output, it is an ‘o’.
@minus{} (−): Inserting a Minus Sign
Use the @minus{} command to generate a minus sign. In a
fixed-width font, this is a single hyphen, but in a proportional font,
the symbol is the customary length for a minus sign—a little longer
than a hyphen, shorter than an em-dash:
‘−’ is a minus sign generated with ‘@minus{}’, `-' is a hyphen generated with the character ‘-’, `—' is an em-dash for text.
In the fixed-width font used by Info, @minus{} is the same
as a hyphen.
You should not use @minus{} inside @code or
@example because the width distinction is not made in the
fixed-width font they use.
When you use @minus to specify the mark beginning each entry in
an itemized list, you do not need to type the braces
(see @itemize).
@geq{} (≥) and @leq{} (≤): Inserting relations
Use the @geq{} and @geq{} commands to generate
greater-than-or-equal and less-than-equal-signs, `≥' and
`≤'. In plain text and Info output, these are the ASCII
sequences ‘>=’ and ‘<=’.
@math: Inserting Mathematical Expressions
You can write a short mathematical expression with the @math
command. Write the mathematical expression between braces, like this:
@math{(a + b)(a + b) = a^2 + 2ab + b^2}
This produces the following in Info and HTML:
(a + b)(a + b) = a^2 + 2ab + b^2
The @math command has no special effect on the Info and HTML
output. makeinfo expands any @-commands as usual,
but it does not try to produce good mathematical formatting in any
way.
However, as far as the TeX output is concerned, plain TeX
mathematical commands are allowed in @math, starting with
‘\’, and the plain TeX math characters like ‘^’ and
‘_’ are also recognized. In essence, @math drops you
into plain TeX math mode.
This allows you to conveniently write superscripts and subscripts (as in the above example), and also to use all the plain TeX math control sequences for symbols, functions, and so on, and thus get proper formatting in the TeX output, at least.
It's best to use ‘\’ instead of ‘@’ for any such
mathematical commands; otherwise, makeinfo will complain.
On the other hand, input with matching (but unescaped) braces, such as
‘k_{75}’, is allowed inside @math, although
makeinfo would complain about the bare braces in regular
input.
Here's an example:
@math{\sin 2\pi \equiv \cos 3\pi}
which looks like the input in Info and HTML:
\sin 2\pi \equiv \cos 3\pi
Since ‘\’ is an escape character inside @math, you can use
@\ to get a literal backslash (\\ will work in TeX,
but you'd get the literal ‘\\’ in Info). @\ is not
defined outside of @math, since a ‘\’ ordinarily produces a
literal ‘\’.
For displayed equations, you must at present use TeX directly (see Raw Formatter Commands).
When documenting graphical interfaces, it is necessary to describe
sequences such as `Click on ‘File’, then choose ‘Open’, then
...'. Texinfo offers commands @clicksequence and
click to represent this, typically used like this:
... @clicksequence{File @click{} Open} ...
which produces:
... File → Open ...
The @click command produces a simple right arrow (‘->’ in
Info) by default; this glyph is also available independently via the
command @arrow{}.
You can change the glyph produced by @click with the command
@clickstyle, which takes a command name as its single argument
on the rest of the line, much like @itemize and friends
(see @itemize). The command should produce a
glyph, and the usual empty braces ‘{}’ are omitted. Here's an
example:
@clickstyle @result
... @clicksequence{File @click{} Open} ...
now produces:
... File ⇒ Open ...
In Texinfo, code is often illustrated in examples that are delimited
by @example and @end example, or by @lisp and
@end lisp. In such examples, you can indicate the results of
evaluation or an expansion using ‘⇒’ or
‘==>’. Likewise, there are commands to insert glyphs
to indicate
printed output, error messages, equivalence of expressions, and the
location of point.
The glyph-insertion commands do not need to be used within an example, but most often they are. Every glyph-insertion command is followed by a pair of left- and right-hand braces.
Here are the different glyph commands:
@result{} points to the result of an expression.
@expansion{} shows the results of a macro expansion.
@print{} indicates printed output.
@error{} indicates that the following text is an error
message.
@equiv{} indicates the exact equivalence of two forms.
@point{} shows the location of point.
@result{} (⇒): Indicating Evaluation
Use the @result{} command to indicate the result of
evaluating an expression.
The @result{} command is displayed as ‘⇒’ in
Info and HTML and as a true double stemmed arrow in the printed output.
Thus, the following,
(cdr '(1 2 3))
⇒ (2 3)
may be read as “(cdr '(1 2 3)) evaluates to (2 3)”.
@expansion{} (==>): Indicating an Expansion
When an expression is a macro call, it expands into a new expression.
You can indicate the result of the expansion with the
@expansion{} command.
The @expansion{} command is displayed as ‘==>’
in Info and HTML, and as a long arrow with a flat base in the printed
output.
For example, the following
@lisp
(third '(a b c))
@expansion{} (car (cdr (cdr '(a b c))))
@result{} c
@end lisp
produces
(third '(a b c))
==> (car (cdr (cdr '(a b c))))
⇒ c
which may be read as:
(third '(a b c))expands to(car (cdr (cdr '(a b c)))); the result of evaluating the expression isc.
Often, as in this case, an example looks better if the
@expansion{} and @result{} commands are indented.
@print{} (-|): Indicating Printed Output
Sometimes an expression will print output during its execution. You
can indicate the printed output with the @print{} command.
The @print{} command is displayed as ‘-|’ in Info
and HTML and (similarly) as a horizontal dash butting against a
vertical bar in the printed output.
In the following example, the printed text is indicated with ‘-|’, and the value of the expression follows on the last line.
(progn (print 'foo) (print 'bar))
-| foo
-| bar
⇒ bar
In a Texinfo source file, this example is written as follows:
@lisp
(progn (print 'foo) (print 'bar))
@print{} foo
@print{} bar
@result{} bar
@end lisp
@error{} (error-->): Indicating an Error Message
A piece of code may cause an error when you evaluate it. You can
designate the error message with the @error{} command.
The @error{} command is displayed as ‘error-->’ in Info
and HTML and as the word `error' in a box in the printed output.
Thus,
@lisp
(+ 23 'x)
@error{} Wrong type argument: integer-or-marker-p, x
@end lisp
produces
(+ 23 'x)
error--> Wrong type argument: integer-or-marker-p, x
This indicates that the following error message is printed when you evaluate the expression:
Wrong type argument: integer-or-marker-p, x
‘error-->’ itself is not part of the error message.
@equiv{} (==): Indicating Equivalence
Sometimes two expressions produce identical results. You can indicate the
exact equivalence of two forms with the @equiv{} command.
The @equiv{} command is displayed as ‘==’ in Info
and HTML and as a standard mathematical equivalence sign (three
parallel horizontal lines) in the printed output.
Thus,
@lisp
(make-sparse-keymap) @equiv{} (list 'keymap)
@end lisp
produces
(make-sparse-keymap) == (list 'keymap)
This indicates that evaluating (make-sparse-keymap) produces
identical results to evaluating (list 'keymap).
@point{} (-!-): Indicating Point in a BufferSometimes you need to show an example of text in an Emacs buffer. In such examples, the convention is to include the entire contents of the buffer in question between two lines of dashes containing the buffer name.
You can use the ‘@point{}’ command to show the location of point in the text in the buffer. (The symbol for point, of course, is not part of the text in the buffer; it indicates the place between two characters where point is located.)
The @point{} command is displayed as ‘-!-’ in Info
and HTML and as a small five pointed star in the printed
output.
The following example shows the contents of buffer foo before
and after evaluating a Lisp command to insert the word changed.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the -!-contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
(insert "changed ")
⇒ nil
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the changed -!-contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
In a Texinfo source file, the example is written like this:
@example
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the @point{}contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
(insert "changed ")
@result{} nil
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
This is the changed @point{}contents of foo.
---------- Buffer: foo ----------
@end example
Usually, a Texinfo file is processed both by TeX and by one of the Info formatting commands. Line, paragraph, or page breaks sometimes occur in the `wrong' place in one or other form of output. You must ensure that text looks right both in the printed manual and in the Info file.
For example, in a printed manual, page breaks may occur awkwardly in the middle of an example; to prevent this, you can hold text together using a grouping command that keeps the text from being split across two pages. Conversely, you may want to force a page break where none would occur normally. Fortunately, problems like these do not often arise. When they do, use the break, break prevention, or pagination commands.
The break commands create or allow line and paragraph breaks:
@*@sp n@-@hyphenation{hy-phen-a-ted words}These commands hold text together on a single line:
@w{text}@tie{}The pagination commands apply only to printed output, since Info files do not have pages.
@page@group@need mils@* and @/: Generate and Allow Line Breaks
The @* command forces a line break in both the printed manual and
in Info. The @/ command allows a line break (printed manual only).
Here is an example with @*:
This line @* is broken @*in two places.
produces
This line
is broken
in two places.
The @/ command can be useful within a url
(see @uref), which tend to be long and are otherwise
unbreakable. For example:
The official Texinfo home page is on the GNU web site:
@uref{http://www.gnu.org/@/software/@/gnu/@/texinfo}.
produces
The official Texinfo home page is on the GNU web site:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu/texinfo.
Without the @/ commands, TeX would have nowhere to
break the line. @/ has no effect in the online output.
@- and @hyphenation: Helping TeX HyphenateAlthough TeX's hyphenation algorithm is generally pretty good, it does miss useful hyphenation points from time to time. (Or, far more rarely, insert an incorrect hyphenation.) So, for documents with an unusual vocabulary or when fine-tuning for a printed edition, you may wish to help TeX out. Texinfo supports two commands for this:
@-@-.
@hyphenation{hy-phen-a-ted words} @hyphenation{man-u-script man-u-scripts}
TeX only uses the specified hyphenation points when the words match exactly, so give all necessary variants, such as plurals.
Info, HTML, and other non-TeX output is not hyphenated, so none of these commands have any effect there.
@allowcodebreaks: Control Line Breaks in @code
Ordinarily, TeX will consider breaking lines at ‘-’ and
‘_’ characters within @code and related commands
(see @code), more or less as if they were “empty”
hyphenation points.
This is necessary as many manuals, especially for Lisp-family
languages, must document very long identifiers. On the other hand,
other manuals don't have this problems, and you may not wish to allow
a line break at the underscore in, for example, SIZE_MAX, or
even worse, after any of the four underscores in __typeof__.
So Texinfo provides this command:
@allowcodebreaks false
to prevent TeX from breaking at ‘-’ or ‘_’ within
@code. You can go back to allowing such breaks with
@allowcodebreaks true. Write these commands on lines by
themselves.
These commands can be given anywhere in the document. For example, you may have just one problematic paragraph where you need to turn off the breaks, but want them in general, or vice versa.
This command has no effect in Info, HTML, and other non-TeX output.
@w{text}: Prevent Line Breaks
@w{text} outputs text and prohibits line breaks
within text, for both TeX and makeinfo.
Thus, you can use @w to produce a non-breakable space, fixed at
the width of a normal interword space:
@w{ } @w{ } @w{ } indentation.
produces:
indentation.
The space from @w{ }, as well as being non-breakable,
also will not stretch or shrink. Sometimes that is what you want, for
instance if you're doing manual indenting. However, usually you want
a normal interword space that does stretch and shrink (in the printed
output); see the @tie command in the next section.
You can also use the @w command to prevent TeX from
automatically hyphenating a long name or phrase that happens to fall
near the end of a line. makeinfo does not ever hyphenate
words.
You can also use @w to avoid unwanted keyword expansion in
source control systems. For example, to literally write $Id$
in your document, use @w{$}Id$.
@tie{}: Inserting an Unbreakable Space
The @tie{} command produces a normal interword space at which
a line break may not occur. Always write it with following (empty)
braces, as usual for commands used within a paragraph. Here's an
example:
@TeX{} was written by Donald E.@tie{}Knuth.
produces:
TeX was written by Donald E. Knuth.
There are two important differences between @tie{} and
@w{ }:
@tie{} will stretch and shrink slightly
along with the normal interword spaces in the paragraph; the space
produced by @w{ } will not vary.
@tie{} allows hyphenation of the surrounding words, while
@w{ } inhibits hyphenation of those words (for TeXnical
reasons, namely that it produces an ‘\hbox’).
@sp n: Insert Blank Lines
A line beginning with and containing only @sp n
generates n blank lines of space in both the printed manual and
the Info file. @sp also forces a paragraph break. For
example,
@sp 2
generates two blank lines.
The @sp command is most often used in the title page.
@page: Start a New Page
A line containing only @page starts a new page in a printed
manual. The command has no effect on Info files since they are not
paginated. An @page command is often used in the @titlepage
section of a Texinfo file to start the copyright page.
@group: Prevent Page Breaks
The @group command (on a line by itself) is used inside an
@example or similar construct to begin an unsplittable vertical
group, which will appear entirely on one page in the printed output.
The group is terminated by a line containing only @end group.
These two lines produce no output of their own, and in the Info file
output they have no effect at all.
Although @group would make sense conceptually in a wide
variety of contexts, its current implementation works reliably only
within @example and variants, and within @display,
@format, @flushleft and @flushright.
See Quotations and Examples. (What all these commands have in
common is that each line of input produces a line of output.) In
other contexts, @group can cause anomalous vertical
spacing.
This formatting requirement means that you should write:
@example
@group
...
@end group
@end example
with the @group and @end group commands inside the
@example and @end example commands.
The @group command is most often used to hold an example
together on one page. In this Texinfo manual, more than 100 examples
contain text that is enclosed between @group and @end
group.
If you forget to end a group, you may get strange and unfathomable
error messages when you run TeX. This is because TeX keeps
trying to put the rest of the Texinfo file onto the one page and does
not start to generate error messages until it has processed
considerable text. It is a good rule of thumb to look for a missing
@end group if you get incomprehensible error messages in
TeX.
@need mils: Prevent Page Breaks
A line containing only @need n starts
a new page in a printed manual if fewer than n mils (thousandths
of an inch) remain on the current page. Do not use
braces around the argument n. The @need command has no
effect on Info files since they are not paginated.
This paragraph is preceded by an @need command that tells
TeX to start a new page if fewer than 800 mils (eight-tenths
inch) remain on the page. It looks like this:
@need 800
This paragraph is preceded by ...
The @need command is useful for preventing orphans (single
lines at the bottoms of printed pages).
The @deffn command and the other definition commands
enable you to describe functions, variables, macros, commands, user
options, special forms and other such artifacts in a uniform
format.
In the Info file, a definition causes the entity
category—`Function', `Variable', or whatever—to appear at the
beginning of the first line of the definition, followed by the
entity's name and arguments. In the printed manual, the command
causes TeX to print the entity's name and its arguments on the left
margin and print the category next to the right margin. In both
output formats, the body of the definition is indented. Also, the
name of the entity is entered into the appropriate index:
@deffn enters the name into the index of functions,
@defvr enters it into the index of variables, and so
on (see Predefined Indices).
A manual need not and should not contain more than one definition for
a given name. An appendix containing a summary should use
@table rather than the definition commands.
The @deffn command is used for definitions of entities that
resemble functions. To write a definition using the @deffn
command, write the @deffn command at the beginning of a line
and follow it on the same line by the category of the entity, the name
of the entity itself, and its arguments (if any). Then write the body
of the definition on succeeding lines. (You may embed examples in the
body.) Finally, end the definition with an @end deffn command
written on a line of its own.
The other definition commands follow the same format: a line with the
@def... command and whatever arguments are appropriate for
that command; the body of the definition; and a corresponding
@end line.
The template for a definition looks like this:
@deffn category name arguments...
body-of-definition
@end deffn
For example,
@deffn Command forward-word count
This command moves point forward @var{count} words
(or backward if @var{count} is negative). ...
@end deffn
produces
Capitalize the category name like a title. If the name of the category contains spaces, as in the phrase `Interactive Command', enclose it in braces. For example:
@deffn {Interactive Command} isearch-forward
...
@end deffn
Otherwise, the second word will be mistaken for the name of the entity. As a general rule, when any of the arguments in the heading line except the last one are more than one word, you need to enclose them in braces. This may also be necessary if the text contains commands, for example, ‘{declaraci@'on}’ if you are writing in Spanish.
Some of the definition commands are more general than others. The
@deffn command, for example, is the general definition command
for functions and the like—for entities that may take arguments.
When you use this command, you specify the category to which the
entity belongs. Three predefined, specialized variations
(@defun, @defmac, and @defspec) specify the
category for you: “Function”, “Macro”, and “Special Form”
respectively. (In Lisp, a special form is an entity much like a
function.) Similarly, the general @defvr command is
accompanied by several specialized variations for describing
particular kinds of variables.
See Sample Function Definition, for a detailed example of a
function definition, including the use of @example inside the
definition.
Unfortunately, due to implementation difficulties, macros are not expanded
in @deffn and all the other definition commands.
The heading line of a definition command can get very long. Therefore, Texinfo has a special syntax allowing them to be continued over multiple lines of the source file: a lone ‘@’ at the end of each line to be continued. Here's an example:
@defun fn-name @
arg1 arg2 arg3
This is the basic continued defun.
@end defun
produces:
As you can see, the continued lines are combined, as if they had been typed on one source line.
Although this example only shows a one-line continuation,
continuations may extend over any number of lines; simply put an
@ at the end of each line to be continued.
The @ character does not have to be the last character on the
physical line: whitespace is allowed (and ignored) afterwards.
In general, any number of spaces or tabs around the @
continuation character, both on the line with the @ and on the
continued line, are collapsed into a single space. There is one
exception: the Texinfo processors will not fully collapse whitespace
around a continuation inside braces. For example:
@deffn {Category @
Name} ...
The output (not shown) has excess space between `Category'
and `Name'. In this case, simply elide any unwanted whitespace in
your input, or put the continuation @ outside braces.
@ does not (currently) function as a continuation character in
any other context. Ordinarily, ‘@’ followed by a
whitespace character (space, tab, newline) produces a normal interword
space (see Multiple Spaces).
Some entities take optional or repeated arguments, which may be specified by a distinctive glyph that uses square brackets and ellipses. For example, a special form often breaks its argument list into separate arguments in more complicated ways than a straightforward function.
An argument enclosed within square brackets is optional. Thus, [optional-arg] means that optional-arg is optional. An argument followed by an ellipsis is optional and may be repeated more than once. Thus, repeated-args‘...’ stands for zero or more arguments. Parentheses are used when several arguments are grouped into additional levels of list structure in Lisp.
Here is the @defspec line of an example of an imaginary
special form:
In this example, the arguments from and to are optional, but must both be present or both absent. If they are present, inc may optionally be specified as well. These arguments are grouped with the argument var into a list, to distinguish them from body, which includes all remaining elements of the form.
In a Texinfo source file, this @defspec line is written like
this (except it would not be split over two lines, as it is in this
example).
@defspec foobar (@var{var} [@var{from} @var{to}
[@var{inc}]]) @var{body}@dots{}
The function is listed in the Command and Variable Index under ‘foobar’.
To create two or more `first' or header lines for a definition, follow
the first @deffn line by a line beginning with @deffnx.
The @deffnx command works exactly like @deffn
except that it does not generate extra vertical white space between it
and the preceding line.
For example,
@deffn {Interactive Command} isearch-forward
@deffnx {Interactive Command} isearch-backward
These two search commands are similar except ...
@end deffn
produces
These two search commands are similar except ...
Each definition command has an `x' form: @defunx,
@defvrx, @deftypefunx, etc.
The `x' forms work similarly to @itemx (see itemx).
Texinfo provides more than a dozen definition commands, all of which are described in this section.
The definition commands automatically enter the name of the entity in
the appropriate index: for example, @deffn, @defun,
and @defmac enter function names in the index of functions;
@defvr and @defvar enter variable names in the index
of variables.
Although the examples that follow mostly illustrate Lisp, the commands can be used for other programming languages.
This section describes the commands for describing functions and similar entities:
@deffn category name arguments...@deffn command is the general definition command for
functions, interactive commands, and similar entities that may take
arguments. You must choose a term to describe the category of entity
being defined; for example, “Function” could be used if the entity is
a function. The @deffn command is written at the beginning of a
line and is followed on the same line by the category of entity being
described, the name of this particular entity, and its arguments, if
any. Terminate the definition with @end deffn on a line of its
own.
For example, here is a definition:
@deffn Command forward-char nchars
Move point forward @var{nchars} characters.
@end deffn
This shows a rather terse definition for a “command” named
forward-char with one argument, nchars.
@deffn and prints argument names such as nchars in slanted
type in the printed output, because we think of these names as
metasyntactic variables—they stand for the actual argument values.
Within the text of the description, however, write an argument name
explicitly with @var to refer to the value of the argument.
In the example above, we used ‘@var{nchars}’ in this way.
In the unusual case when an argument name contains ‘--’, or
another character sequence which is treated specially
(see Conventions), use @var around the argument. This
causes the name to be printed in slanted typewriter, instead of the
regular slanted font, exactly as input.
The template for @deffn is:
@deffn category name arguments...
body-of-definition
@end deffn
@defun name arguments...@defun command is the definition command for functions.
@defun is equivalent to ‘@deffn Function ...’.
Terminate the definition with @end defun on a line of its own.
Thus, the template is:
@defun function-name arguments...
body-of-definition
@end defun
@defmac name arguments...@defmac command is the definition command for macros.
@defmac is equivalent to ‘@deffn Macro ...’ and
works like @defun.
@defspec name arguments...@defspec command is the definition command for special
forms. (In Lisp, a special form is an entity much like a function,
see Special Forms.)
@defspec is equivalent to ‘@deffn {Special Form}
...’ and works like @defun.
All these commands create entries in the index of functions.
Here are the commands for defining variables and similar entities:
@defvr category name@defvr command is a general definition command for
something like a variable—an entity that records a value. You must
choose a term to describe the category of entity being defined; for
example, “Variable” could be used if the entity is a variable.
Write the @defvr command at the beginning of a line and
follow it on the same line by the category of the entity and the
name of the entity.
Capitalize the category name like a title. If the name of the category contains spaces, as in the name “User Option”, enclose it in braces. Otherwise, the second word will be mistaken for the name of the entity. For example,
@defvr {User Option} fill-column
This buffer-local variable specifies
the maximum width of filled lines.
...
@end defvr
Terminate the definition with @end defvr on a line of its
own.
The template is:
@defvr category name
body-of-definition
@end defvr
@defvr creates an entry in the index of variables for name.
@defvar name@defvar command is the definition command for variables.
@defvar is equivalent to ‘@defvr Variable
...’.
For example:
@defvar kill-ring
...
@end defvar
The template is:
@defvar name
body-of-definition
@end defvar
@defvar creates an entry in the index of variables for
name.
@defopt name@defopt command is the definition command for user
options, i.e., variables intended for users to change according to
taste; Emacs has many such (see Variables). @defopt is equivalent to ‘@defvr {User
Option} ...’ and works like @defvar. It creates an entry
in the index of variables.
The @deftypefn command and its variations are for describing
functions in languages in which you must declare types of variables and
functions, such as C and C++.
@deftypefn category data-type name arguments...@deftypefn command is the general definition command for
functions and similar entities that may take arguments and that are
typed. The @deftypefn command is written at the beginning of
a line and is followed on the same line by the category of entity
being described, the type of the returned value, the name of this
particular entity, and its arguments, if any.
For example,
@deftypefn {Library Function} int foobar
(int @var{foo}, float @var{bar})
...
@end deftypefn
(where the text before the “...”, shown above as two lines, would actually be a single line in a real Texinfo file) produces the following in Info:
-- Library Function: int foobar (int FOO, float BAR)
...
This means that foobar is a “library function” that returns an
int, and its arguments are foo (an int) and
bar (a float).
Since in typed languages, the actual names of the arguments are
typically scattered among data type names and keywords, Texinfo cannot
find them without help. You can either (a) write everything
as straight text, and it will be printed in slanted type; (b) use
@var for the variable names, which will uppercase the
variable names in Info and use the slanted typewriter font in printed
output; (c) use @var for the variable names and
@code for the type names and keywords, which will be dutifully
obeyed.
The template for @deftypefn is:
@deftypefn category data-type name arguments ...
body-of-description
@end deftypefn
Note that if the category or data type is more than one word then it must be enclosed in braces to make it a single argument.
If you are describing a procedure in a language that has packages,
such as Ada, you might consider using @deftypefn in a manner
somewhat contrary to the convention described in the preceding
paragraphs. For example:
@deftypefn stacks private push @
(@var{s}:in out stack; @
@var{n}:in integer)
...
@end deftypefn
(The @deftypefn arguments are shown using continuations
(see Def Cmd Continuation Lines), but could be on a single line in
a real Texinfo file.)
In this instance, the procedure is classified as belonging to the
package stacks rather than classified as a `procedure' and its
data type is described as private. (The name of the procedure
is push, and its arguments are s and n.)
@deftypefn creates an entry in the index of functions for
name.
@deftypefun data-type name arguments...@deftypefun command is the specialized definition command
for functions in typed languages. The command is equivalent to
‘@deftypefn Function ...’. The template is:
@deftypefun type name arguments...
body-of-description
@end deftypefun
@deftypefun creates an entry in the index of functions for
name.
Variables in typed languages are handled in a manner similar to
functions in typed languages. See Typed Functions. The general
definition command @deftypevr corresponds to
@deftypefn and the specialized definition command
@deftypevar corresponds to @deftypefun.
@deftypevr category data-type name@deftypevr command is the general definition command for
something like a variable in a typed language—an entity that records
a value. You must choose a term to describe the category of the
entity being defined; for example, “Variable” could be used if the
entity is a variable.
The @deftypevr command is written at the beginning of a line
and is followed on the same line by the category of the entity
being described, the data type, and the name of this particular
entity.
For example:
@deftypevr {Global Flag} int enable
...
@end deftypevr
produces the following in Info:
-- Global Flag: int enable
...
The template is:
@deftypevr category data-type name
body-of-description
@end deftypevr
@deftypevar data-type name@deftypevar command is the specialized definition command
for variables in typed languages. @deftypevar is equivalent
to ‘@deftypevr Variable ...’. The template is:
@deftypevar data-type name
body-of-description
@end deftypevar
These commands create entries in the index of variables.
Here is the command for data types:
@deftp category name attributes...@deftp command is the generic definition command for data
types. The command is written at the beginning of a line and is
followed on the same line by the category, by the name of the type
(which is a word like int or float), and then by names of
attributes of objects of that type. Thus, you could use this command
for describing int or float, in which case you could use
data type as the category. (A data type is a category of
certain objects for purposes of deciding which operations can be
performed on them.)
In Lisp, for example, pair names a particular data
type, and an object of that type has two slots called the
car and the cdr. Here is how you would write the first line
of a definition of pair.
@deftp {Data type} pair car cdr
...
@end deftp
The template is:
@deftp category name-of-type attributes...
body-of-definition
@end deftp
@deftp creates an entry in the index of data types.
Here are the commands for formatting descriptions about abstract objects, such as are used in object-oriented programming. A class is a defined type of abstract object. An instance of a class is a particular object that has the type of the class. An instance variable is a variable that belongs to the class but for which each instance has its own value.
These commands allow you to define different sorts of variables in object-oriented programming languages.
@defcv category class name@defcv command is the general definition command for
variables associated with classes in object-oriented programming. The
@defcv command is followed by three arguments: the category of
thing being defined, the class to which it belongs, and its
name. For instance:
@defcv {Class Option} Window border-pattern
...
@end defcv
produces:
@defcv creates an entry in the index of variables.
@deftypecv category class data-type name@deftypecv command is the definition command for typed
class variables in object-oriented programming. It is analogous to
@defcv with the addition of the data-type parameter to
specify the type of the instance variable. Ordinarily, the data type
is a programming language construct that should be marked with
@code. For instance:
@deftypecv {Class Option} Window @code{int} border-pattern
...
@end deftypecv
produces:
@deftypecv creates an entry in the index of variables.
@defivar class name@defivar command is the definition command for instance
variables in object-oriented programming. @defivar is
equivalent to ‘@defcv {Instance Variable} ...’. For
instance:
@defivar Window border-pattern
...
@end defivar
produces:
@defivar creates an entry in the index of variables.
@deftypeivar class data-type name@deftypeivar command is the definition command for typed
instance variables in object-oriented programming. It is analogous to
@defivar with the addition of the data-type parameter to
specify the type of the instance variable. Ordinarily, the data type
is a programming language construct that should be marked with
@code. For instance:
@deftypeivar Window @code{int} border-pattern
...
@end deftypeivar
produces:
@deftypeivar creates an entry in the index of variables.
These commands allow you to define different sorts of function-like entities resembling methods in object-oriented programming languages. These entities take arguments, as functions do, but are associated with particular classes of objects.
@defop category class name arguments...@defop command is the general definition command for these
method-like entities.
For example, some systems have constructs called wrappers that
are associated with classes as methods are, but that act more like
macros than like functions. You could use @defop Wrapper to
describe one of these.
Sometimes it is useful to distinguish methods and operations.
You can think of an operation as the specification for a method.
Thus, a window system might specify that all window classes have a
method named expose; we would say that this window system
defines an expose operation on windows in general. Typically,
the operation has a name and also specifies the pattern of arguments;
all methods that implement the operation must accept the same
arguments, since applications that use the operation do so without
knowing which method will implement it.
Often it makes more sense to document operations than methods. For
example, window application developers need to know about the
expose operation, but need not be concerned with whether a
given class of windows has its own method to implement this operation.
To describe this operation, you would write:
@defop Operation windows expose
The @defop command is written at the beginning of a line and
is followed on the same line by the overall name of the category of
operation, the name of the class of the operation, the name of the
operation, and its arguments, if any.
The template is:
@defop category class name arguments...
body-of-definition
@end defop
@defop creates an entry, such as `expose on
windows', in the index of functions.
@deftypeop category class data-type name arguments...@deftypeop command is the definition command for typed
operations in object-oriented programming. It is similar to
@defop with the addition of the data-type parameter to
specify the return type of the method. @deftypeop creates an
entry in the index of functions.
@defmethod class name arguments...@defmethod command is the definition command for methods
in object-oriented programming. A method is a kind of function that
implements an operation for a particular class of objects and its
subclasses.
@defmethod is equivalent to ‘@defop Method ...’.
The command is written at the beginning of a line and is followed by
the name of the class of the method, the name of the method, and its
arguments, if any.
For example:
@defmethod bar-class bar-method argument
...
@end defmethod
illustrates the definition for a method called bar-method of
the class bar-class. The method takes an argument.
@defmethod creates an entry in the index of functions.
@deftypemethod class data-type name arguments...@deftypemethod command is the definition command for methods
in object-oriented typed languages, such as C++ and Java. It is similar
to the @defmethod command with the addition of the
data-type parameter to specify the return type of the method.
@deftypemethod creates an entry in the index of functions.
When you write a definition using @deffn, @defun, or
one of the other definition commands, please take care to use
arguments that indicate the meaning, as with the count argument
to the forward-word function. Also, if the name of an argument
contains the name of a type, such as integer, take care that the
argument actually is of that type.
A function definition uses the @defun and @end defun
commands. The name of the function follows immediately after the
@defun command and it is followed, on the same line, by the
parameter list.
Here is a definition from Calling Functions.
— Function: apply function &rest arguments
applycalls function with arguments, just likefuncallbut with one difference: the last of arguments is a list of arguments to give to function, rather than a single argument. We also say that this list is appended to the other arguments.
applyreturns the result of calling function. As withfuncall, function must either be a Lisp function or a primitive function; special forms and macros do not make sense inapply.(setq f 'list) ⇒ list (apply f 'x 'y 'z) error--> Wrong type argument: listp, z (apply '+ 1 2 '(3 4)) ⇒ 10 (apply '+ '(1 2 3 4)) ⇒ 10 (apply 'append '((a b c) nil (x y z) nil)) ⇒ (a b c x y z)An interesting example of using
applyis found in the description ofmapcar.
In the Texinfo source file, this example looks like this:
@defun apply function &rest arguments
@code{apply} calls @var{function} with
@var{arguments}, just like @code{funcall} but with one
difference: the last of @var{arguments} is a list of
arguments to give to @var{function}, rather than a single
argument. We also say that this list is @dfn{appended}
to the other arguments.
@code{apply} returns the result of calling
@var{function}. As with @code{funcall},
@var{function} must either be a Lisp function or a
primitive function; special forms and macros do not make
sense in @code{apply}.
@example
(setq f 'list)
@result{} list
(apply f 'x 'y 'z)
@error{} Wrong type argument: listp, z
(apply '+ 1 2 '(3 4))
@result{} 10
(apply '+ '(1 2 3 4))
@result{} 10
(apply 'append '((a b c) nil (x y z) nil))
@result{} (a b c x y z)
@end example
An interesting example of using @code{apply} is found
in the description of @code{mapcar}.
@end defun
In this manual, this function is listed in the Command and Variable
Index under apply.
Ordinary variables and user options are described using a format like that for functions except that variables do not take arguments.
The conditional commands allow you to use different text for different output formats, or for general conditions that you define. For example, you can use them to specify different text for the printed manual and the Info output.
The conditional commands comprise the following categories.
Texinfo has an @ifformat environment for each output
format, to allow conditional inclusion of text for a particular output
format.
@ifinfo begins segments of text that should be ignored by
TeX when it typesets the printed manual, and by makeinfo
when not producing Info output. The segment of text appears only in
the Info file and, for historical compatibility, the plain text
output.
The environments for the other formats are analogous:
@ifdocbook ... @end ifdocbook@ifhtml ... @end ifhtml@ifplaintext ... @end ifplaintext@iftex ... @end iftex@ifxml ... @end ifxmlThe @if... and @end if... commands must appear
on lines by themselves in your source file.
Here is an example showing all these conditionals:
@iftex
This text will appear only in the printed manual.
@end iftex
@ifinfo
However, this text will appear only in Info and plain text.
@end ifinfo
@ifhtml
And this text will only appear in HTML.
@end ifhtml
@ifplaintext
Whereas this text will only appear in plain text.
@end ifplaintext
@ifxml
Notwithstanding that this will only appear in XML.
@end ifxml
@ifdocbook
Nevertheless, this will only appear in Docbook.
@end ifdocbook
The preceding example produces the following line:
And this text will only appear in HTML.
Notice that you only see one of the input lines, depending on which version of the manual you are reading.
You can specify text to be included in any output format other
than a given one with the @ifnot... environments:
@ifnotdocbook ... @end ifnotdocbook
@ifnothtml ... @end ifnothtml
@ifnotinfo ... @end ifnotinfo
@ifnotplaintext ... @end ifnotplaintext
@ifnottex ... @end ifnottex
@ifnotxml ... @end ifnotxml
The @ifnot... command and the @end command must
appear on lines by themselves in your actual source file.
If the output file is being made in the given format, the region is ignored. Otherwise, it is included.
There is one exception (for historical compatibility):
@ifnotinfo text is omitted for both Info and plain text
output, not just Info. To specify text which appears only in Info and
not in plain text, use @ifnotplaintext, like this:
@ifinfo
@ifnotplaintext
This will be in Info, but not plain text.
@end ifnotplaintext
@end ifinfo
The regions delimited by these commands are ordinary Texinfo source as
with @iftex, not raw formatter source as with @tex
(see Raw Formatter Commands).
Inside a region delineated by @iftex and @end iftex,
you can embed some raw TeX commands. The Texinfo processors will
ignore such a region unless TeX output is being produced. You can
write the TeX commands as you would write them in a normal TeX
file, except that you must replace the ‘\’ used by TeX with an
‘@’. For example, in the @titlepage section of a
Texinfo file, you can use the TeX command @vskip to format
the copyright page. (The @titlepage command causes Info to
ignore the region automatically, as it does with the @iftex
command.)
However, most features of plain TeX will not work within
@iftex, as they are overridden by Texinfo features. The
purpose of @iftex is to provide conditional processing for the
Texinfo source, not provide access to underlying formatting features.
You can enter plain TeX completely, and use ‘\’ in the TeX
commands, by delineating a region with the @tex and @end
tex commands. All plain TeX commands and category codes are
restored within an @tex region. The sole exception is that the
@ character still introduces a command, so that @end tex
can be recognized properly. As with @iftex, Texinfo
processors will ignore such a region unless TeX output is being produced.
In complex cases, you may wish to define new TeX macros within
@tex. You must use \gdef to do this, not \def,
because @tex regions are processed in a TeX group.
As an example, here is a mathematical expression written in plain TeX:
@tex
$$ \chi^2 = \sum_{i=1}^N
\left (y_i - (a + b x_i)
\over \sigma_i\right)^2 $$
@end tex
The output of this example will appear only in a printed manual. If you are reading this in Info, you will not see the equation that appears in the printed manual.
Analogously, you can use @ifhtml ... @end ifhtml to delimit
a region to be included in HTML output only, and @html ...
@end html for a region of raw HTML.
Likewise, you can use @ifxml ... @end ifxml to delimit
a region to be included in XML output only, and @xml ...
@end xml for a region of raw XML.
Again likewise, you can use @ifdocbook ... @end ifdocbook
to delimit a region to be included in Docbook output only, and
@docbook ... @end docbook for a region of raw Docbook.
In all cases, the exception to the raw processing is that @ is
still an escape character, so the @end command can be
recognized.
@set, @clear, and @valueYou can direct the Texinfo formatting commands to format or ignore parts
of a Texinfo file with the @set, @clear, @ifset,
and @ifclear commands.
Here are brief descriptions of these commands, see the following sections for more details:
@set flag [value]@clear flag@ifset flag@end ifset command
is formatted. If flag is clear, text through the following
@end ifset command is ignored.
@ifclear flag@end ifclear command
is ignored. If flag is clear, text through the following
@end ifclear command is formatted.
@set and @value
You use the @set command to specify a value for a flag, which
is later expanded by the @value command.
A flag (aka variable) is an identifier. It is best to use only letters and numerals in a flag name, not ‘-’ or ‘_’—they will work in some contexts, but not all, due to limitations in TeX.
The value is the remainder of the input line, and can contain anything.
Write the @set command like this:
@set foo This is a string.
This sets the value of the flag foo to “This is a string.”.
The Texinfo formatters then replace an @value{flag}
command with the string to which flag is set. Thus, when
foo is set as shown above, the Texinfo formatters convert this:
@value{foo}
to this:
This is a string.
You can write an @value command within a paragraph; but you
must write an @set command on a line of its own.
If you write the @set command like this:
@set foo
without specifying a string, the value of foo is the empty string.
If you clear a previously set flag with @clear flag, a
subsequent @value{flag} command will report an error.
For example, if you set foo as follows:
@set howmuch very, very, very
then the formatters transform
It is a @value{howmuch} wet day.
into
It is a very, very, very wet day.
If you write
@clear howmuch
then the formatters transform
It is a @value{howmuch} wet day.
into
It is a {No value for "howmuch"} wet day.
@ifset and @ifclearWhen a flag is set, the Texinfo formatting commands format text
between subsequent pairs of @ifset flag and @end
ifset commands. When the flag is cleared, the Texinfo formatting
commands do not format the text. @ifclear operates
analogously.
Write the conditionally formatted text between @ifset flag
and @end ifset commands, like this:
@ifset flag
conditional-text
@end ifset
For example, you can create one document that has two variants, such as a manual for a `large' and `small' model:
You can use this machine to dig up shrubs
without hurting them.
@set large
@ifset large
It can also dig up fully grown trees.
@end ifset
Remember to replant promptly ...
In the example, the formatting commands will format the text between
@ifset large and @end ifset because the large
flag is set.
When flag is cleared, the Texinfo formatting commands do
not format the text between @ifset flag and
@end ifset; that text is ignored and does not appear in either
printed or Info output.
For example, if you clear the flag of the preceding example by writing
an @clear large command after the @set large command
(but before the conditional text), then the Texinfo formatting commands
ignore the text between the @ifset large and @end ifset
commands. In the formatted output, that text does not appear; in both
printed and Info output, you see only the lines that say, “You can use
this machine to dig up shrubs without hurting them. Remember to replant
promptly ...”.
If a flag is cleared with an @clear flag command, then
the formatting commands format text between subsequent pairs of
@ifclear and @end ifclear commands. But if the flag
is set with @set flag, then the formatting commands do
not format text between an @ifclear and an @end
ifclear command; rather, they ignore that text. An @ifclear
command looks like this:
@ifclear flag
@value ExampleYou can use the @value command to minimize the number of
places you need to change when you record an update to a manual.
See GNU Sample Texts, for the full text of an example of using this
to work with Automake distributions.
This example is adapted from Overview.
@set EDITION 0.35 Beta
@set VERSION 3.63 Beta
@set UPDATED 14 August 1992
@set UPDATE-MONTH August 1992
@copying section (see copying):
@copying
This is Edition @value{EDITION},
last updated @value{UPDATED},
of @cite{The GNU Make Manual},
for @code{make}, version @value{VERSION}.
Copyright ...
Permission is granted ...
@end copying
@titlepage
@title GNU Make
@subtitle A Program for Directing Recompilation
@subtitle Edition @value{EDITION}, ...
@subtitle @value{UPDATE-MONTH}
@page
@insertcopying
...
@end titlepage
(On a printed cover, a date listing the month and the year looks less fussy than a date listing the day as well as the month and year.)
@ifnottex
@node Top
@top Make
@insertcopying
...
@end ifnottex
After you format the manual, the @value constructs have been
expanded, so the output contains text like this:
This is Edition 0.35 Beta, last updated 14 August 1992,
of `The GNU Make Manual', for `make', Version 3.63 Beta.
When you update the manual, you change only the values of the flags; you do not need to edit the three sections.
Conditionals can be nested; however, the details are a little tricky.
The difficulty comes with failing conditionals, such as
@ifhtml when HTML is not being produced, where the included
text is to be ignored. However, it is not to be completely
ignored, since it is useful to have one @ifset inside another,
for example—that is a way to include text only if two conditions are
met. Here's an example:
@ifset somevar
@ifset anothervar
Both somevar and anothervar are set.
@end ifset
@ifclear anothervar
Somevar is set, anothervar is not.
@end ifclear
@end ifset
Technically, Texinfo requires that for a failing conditional, the ignored text must be properly nested with respect to that failing conditional. Unfortunately, it's not always feasible to check that all conditionals are properly nested, because then the processors could have to fully interpret the ignored text, which defeats the purpose of the command. Here's an example illustrating these rules:
@ifset a
@ifset b
@ifclear ok - ok, ignored
@end junky - ok, ignored
@end ifset
@c WRONG - missing @end ifset.
Finally, as mentioned above, all conditional commands must be on lines by themselves, with no text (even spaces) before or after. Otherwise, the processors cannot reliably determine which commands to consider for nesting purposes.
Texinfo has some support for writing in languages other than English, although this area still needs considerable work.
For a list of the various accented and special characters Texinfo supports, see Inserting Accents.
@documentlanguage ll[_cc]: Set the Document Language
The @documentlanguage command declares the current document
locale. Write it on a line by itself, near the beginning of the
file, but after @setfilename
(see @setfilename).
Include a two-letter ISO 639-2 language code (ll) following
the command name, optionally followed by a two-letter ISO 3166
two-letter country code (cc). If you have a multilingual
document, the intent is to be able to use this command multiple times,
to declare each language change. If the command is not used at all,
the default is en_US for US English.
As with GNU Gettext (see Top), if the country
code is omitted, the main dialect is assumed where possible. For
example, de is equivalent to de_DE (German as spoken in
Germany).
For Info and other online output, this command changes the translation of various document strings such as “see” in cross-references (see Cross References), “Function' in defuns (see Definition Commands), and so on. Some strings, such as “Node:”, “Next:”, “Menu:”, etc., are keywords in Info output, so are not translated there; they are translated in other output formats.
For TeX, this command causes a file txi-locale.tex to
be read (if it exists). If @setdocumentlanguage argument
contains the optional ‘_cc’ suffix, this is tried first.
For example, with @setdocumentlanguage de_DE, TeX first
looks for txi-de_DE.tex, then txi-de.tex.
Such a txi-* file is intended to redefine the various English words used in TeX output, such as `Chapter', `See', and so on. We are aware that individual words like these cannot always be translated in isolation, and that a very different strategy would be required for ideographic (among other) scripts. Help in improving Texinfo's language support is welcome.
It would also be desirable for this command to also change TeX's
ideas of the current hyphenation patterns (via the TeX primitive
\language), but this is unfortunately not currently
implemented.
In September 2006, the W3C Internationalization Activity released a new recommendation for specifying tags identifying language:
http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/bcp/bcp47.txt
When Gettext supports this new scheme, Texinfo will too.
Since the lists of language codes and country codes are quite dynamic, we don't attempt to list them here. The valid language codes are on the official home page for ISO 639, http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/. The country codes and the official web site for ISO 3166 can be found via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166.
@documentencoding enc: Set Input Encoding
The @documentencoding command declares the input document
encoding. Write it on a line by itself, with a valid encoding
specification following, near the beginning of the file but after
@setfilename (see @setfilename).
At present, Texinfo supports only these encodings:
US-ASCIIUTF-8ISO-8859-1ISO-8859-15ISO-8859-2A full description of the encodings is beyond our scope here;
one useful reference is http://czyborra.com/charsets/iso8859.html.
koi8-rkoi8-uSpecifying an encoding enc has the following effects:
In Info output, unless the option --disable-encoding is given to makeinfo, a so-called `Local Variables' section (see File Variables) is output including enc. This allows Info readers to set the encoding appropriately.
Local Variables:
coding: enc
End:
Also, in Info and plain text output (barring
--disable-encoding), accent constructs and special
characters, such as @'e, are output as the actual 8-bit
character in the given encoding.
In HTML output, a ‘<meta>’ tag is output, in the ‘<head>’ section of the HTML, that specifies enc. Web servers and browsers cooperate to use this information so the correct encoding is used to display the page, if supported by the system.
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=enc">
In split HTML output, if --transliterate-file-names is given (see HTML Xref 8-bit Character Expansion), the names of HTML files are formed by transliteration of the corresponding node names, using the specified encoding.
In XML and Docbook output, the given document encoding is written in the output file as usual with those formats.
In TeX output, the characters which are supported in the standard Computer Modern fonts are output accordingly. (For example, this means using constructed accents rather than precomposed glyphs.) Using a missing character generates a warning message, as does specifying an unimplemented encoding.
Texinfo provides several ways to define new commands:
Incidentally, these macros have nothing to do with the @defmac
command, which is for documenting macros in the subject of the manual
(see Def Cmd Template).
You use the Texinfo @macro command to define a macro, like this:
@macro macroname{param1, param2, ...}
text ... \param1\ ...
@end macro
The parameters param1, param2, ... correspond to arguments supplied when the macro is subsequently used in the document (described in the next section).
For a macro to work consistently with TeX, macroname must
consist entirely of letters: no digits, hyphens, underscores, or other
special characters. So, we recommend using only letters. However,
makeinfo will accept anything except ‘{}_^=’;
‘_’ and ‘^’ are excluded so that macros can be called in
@math mode without a following space
(see @math).
If a macro needs no parameters, you can define it either with an empty list (‘@macro foo {}’) or with no braces at all (‘@macro foo’).
The definition or body of the macro can contain most Texinfo
commands, including previously-defined macros. Not-yet-defined macro
invocations are not allowed; thus, it is not possible to have mutually
recursive Texinfo macros. Also, a macro definition that defines another
macro does not work in TeX due to limitations in the design of
@macro.
In the macro body, instances of a parameter name surrounded by backslashes, as in ‘\param1\’ in the example above, are replaced by the corresponding argument from the macro invocation. You can use parameter names any number of times in the body, including zero.
To get a single ‘\’ in the macro expansion, use ‘\\’. Any other use of ‘\’ in the body yields a warning.
The newlines after the @macro line and before the @end
macro line are ignored, that is, not included in the macro body. All
other whitespace is treated according to the usual Texinfo rules.
To allow a macro to be used recursively, that is, in an argument to a call to itself, you must define it with ‘@rmacro’, like this:
@rmacro rmac {arg}
a\arg\b
@end rmacro
...
@rmac{1@rmac{text}2}
This produces the output `a1atextb2b'. With ‘@macro’ instead of ‘@rmacro’, an error message is given.
You can undefine a macro foo with @unmacro foo.
It is not an error to undefine a macro that is already undefined.
For example:
@unmacro foo
After a macro is defined (see the previous section), you can use (invoke) it in your document like this:
@macroname {arg1, arg2, ...}
and the result will be just as if you typed the body of macroname at that spot. For example:
@macro foo {p, q}
Together: \p\ & \q\.
@end macro
@foo{a, b}
produces:
Together: a & b.
Thus, the arguments and parameters are separated by commas and delimited by braces; any whitespace after (but not before) a comma is ignored. The braces are required in the invocation (but not the definition), even when the macro takes no arguments, consistent with all other Texinfo commands. For example:
@macro argless {}
No arguments here.
@end macro
@argless{}
produces:
No arguments here.
Passing strings containing commas as macro arguments requires special
care, since they should be properly quoted to prevent
makeinfo from confusing them with argument separators. To
manually quote a comma, prepend it with a backslash character, like
this: \,. Alternatively, use the @comma command
(see Inserting a Comma). However, to facilitate use of macros,
makeinfo implements a set of rules called automatic
quoting:
@macro FIXME{text}
@strong{FIXME: \text\}
@end macro
@FIXME{A nice feature, though it can be dangerous.}
will produce the following output
FIXME: A nice feature, though it can be dangerous.
And indeed, it can. Namely, makeinfo does not control number of arguments passed to one-argument macros, so be careful when you invoke them.
@say{@strong{Yes, I do}, person one}
the comma after ‘Yes’ is implicitly quoted. Here's another example, with a recursive macro:
@rmacro cat{a,b}
\a\\b\
@end rmacro
@cat{@cat{foo, bar}, baz}
will produce the string ‘foobarbaz’.
Other characters that need to be quoted in macro arguments are curly braces and backslash. For example
@macname {\\\{\}\,}
will pass the (almost certainly error-producing) argument ‘\{},’ to macname. However, commas in parameters, even if escaped by a backslash, might cause trouble in TeX.
If the macro is defined to take a single argument, and is invoked without any braces, the entire rest of the line after the macro name is supplied as the argument. For example:
@macro bar {p}
Twice: \p\ & \p\.
@end macro
@bar aah
produces:
Twice: aah & aah.
If the macro is defined to take a single argument, and is invoked with braces, the braced text is passed as the argument, regardless of commas. For example:
@macro bar {p}
Twice: \p\ & \p\.
@end macro
@bar{a,b}
produces:
Twice: a,b & a,b.
Due to unavoidable limitations, certain macro-related constructs cause problems with TeX. If you get macro-related errors when producing the printed version of a manual, try expanding the macros with makeinfo by invoking texi2dvi with the ‘-E’ option (see Format with texi2dvi).
@set and other such commands have no effect inside a
macro.
@c. Suppose you
define a macro that is always intended to be used on a line by itself:
@macro linemac
@cindex whatever
@c
@end macro
...
foo
@linemac
bar
Without the @c, there will be an unwanted blank line between
the ‘@cindex whatever’ and the ‘bar’ (one newline comes
from the macro definition, one from after the invocation), causing a
paragraph break.
On the other hand, you wouldn't want the @c if the macro was
sometimes invoked in the middle of a line (the text after the
invocation would be treated as a comment).
@macro offmacro
off
@end macro
@headings @offmacro
You would expect this to be equivalent to @headings off, but
for TeXnical reasons, it fails with a mysterious error message
(Paragraph ended before @headings was complete).
@ifnottex
@macro ctor {name, arg}
@macro \name\
something involving \arg\ somehow
@end macro
@end macro
@end ifnottex
@tex
\gdef\ctor#1{\ctorx#1,}
\gdef\ctorx#1,#2,{\def#1{something involving #2 somehow}}
@end tex
The makeinfo implementation also has limitations:
@verbatim and macros do not mix; for instance, you can't start
a verbatim block inside a macro and end it outside.
(See verbatim.) Starting any environment inside a macro and ending
it outside may or may not work, for that matter.
@macro
and @end macro (likewise for @rmacro) must be
correctly paired. For example, you cannot start a macro definition
within a macro, and then end the nested definition outside the macro.
@rmacro is a kludge.
One more limitation is common to both implementations: white space is ignored at the beginnings of lines.
Future major revisions of Texinfo may ease some of these limitations (by introducing a new macro syntax).
The ‘@alias’ command defines a new command to be just like an existing one. This is useful for defining additional markup names, thus preserving semantic information in the input even though the output result may be the same.
Write the ‘@alias’ command on a line by itself, followed by the new command name, an equals sign, and the existing command name. Whitespace around the equals sign is ignored. Thus:
@alias new = existing
For example, if your document contains citations for both books and
some other media (movies, for example), you might like to define a
macro @moviecite{} that does the same thing as an ordinary
@cite{} but conveys the extra semantic information as well.
You'd do this as follows:
@alias moviecite = cite
Macros do not always have the same effect as aliases, due to vagaries of argument parsing. Also, aliases are much simpler to define than macros. So the command is not redundant. (It was also heavily used in the Jargon File!)
Aliases must not be recursive, directly or indirectly.
It is not advisable to redefine any TeX primitive, plain, or Texinfo command name as an alias. Unfortunately this is a very large set of names, and the possible resulting errors are completely random.
A @definfoenclose command may be used to define a highlighting
command for Info, but not for TeX. A command defined using
@definfoenclose marks text by enclosing it in strings that
precede and follow the text. You can use this to get closer control of
your Info output.
Presumably, if you define a command with @definfoenclose for Info,
you will create a corresponding command for TeX, either in
texinfo.tex, texinfo.cnf, or within an ‘@iftex’ in
your document.
Write a @definfoenclose command on a line and follow it with
three arguments separated by commas. The first argument to
@definfoenclose is the @-command name (without the @);
the second argument is the Info start delimiter string; and the third
argument is the Info end delimiter string. The latter two arguments
enclose the highlighted text in the Info file. A delimiter string may
contain spaces. Neither the start nor end delimiter is required. If
you do not want a start delimiter but do want an end delimiter, you must
follow the command name with two commas in a row; otherwise, the Info
formatting commands will naturally misinterpret the end delimiter string
you intended as the start delimiter string.
If you do a @definfoenclose on the name of a predefined macro
(such as @emph, @strong, @t, or @i), the
enclosure definition will override the built-in definition.
An enclosure command defined this way takes one argument in braces; this is intended for new markup commands (see Marking Text).
@definfoenclose phoo,//,\\
near the beginning of a Texinfo file to define @phoo as an Info
formatting command that inserts `//' before and `\\' after the argument
to @phoo. You can then write @phoo{bar} wherever you
want `//bar\\' highlighted in Info.
Also, for TeX formatting, you could write
@iftex
@global@let@phoo=@i
@end iftex
to define @phoo as a command that causes TeX to typeset the
argument to @phoo in italics.
Each definition applies to its own formatter: one for TeX, the other
for texinfo-format-buffer or texinfo-format-region. The
@definfoenclose command need not be within ‘@ifinfo’, but
the raw TeX commands do need to be in ‘@iftex’.
Here is another example: write
@definfoenclose headword, , :
near the beginning of the file, to define @headword as an Info
formatting command that inserts nothing before and a colon after the
argument to @headword.
‘@definfoenclose’ definitions must not be recursive, directly or indirectly.
There are three major shell commands for making a printed manual from a Texinfo file: one for converting the Texinfo file into a file that will be printed, a second for sorting indices, and a third for printing the formatted document. When you use the shell commands, you can either work directly in the operating system shell or work within a shell inside GNU Emacs.
If you are using GNU Emacs, you can use commands provided by Texinfo mode instead of shell commands. In addition to the three commands to format a file, sort the indices, and print the result, Texinfo mode offers key bindings for commands to recenter the output buffer, show the print queue, and delete a job from the print queue.
The typesetting program called TeX is used for formatting a Texinfo file. TeX is a very powerful typesetting program and, if used correctly, does an exceptionally good job. (See How to Obtain TeX, for information on how to obtain TeX.)
The standalone makeinfo program and Emacs functions
texinfo-format-region and texinfo-format-buffer commands
read the very same @-commands in the Texinfo file as does TeX, but
process them differently to make an Info file (see Creating an Info File).
tex and texindex
You can format the Texinfo file with the shell command tex
followed by the name of the Texinfo file. For example:
tex foo.texi
TeX will produce a DVI file as well as several auxiliary files containing information for indices, cross references, etc. The DVI file (for DeVice Independent file) can be printed on virtually any device (see the following sections).
The tex formatting command itself does not sort the indices; it
writes an output file of unsorted index data. To generate a printed
index after running the tex command, you first need a sorted
index to work from. The texindex command sorts indices.
(The source file texindex.c comes as part of the standard
Texinfo distribution, among other places.) (texi2dvi runs
tex and texindex as necessary.)
The tex formatting command outputs unsorted index files under
names that obey a standard convention: the name of your main input file
with any ‘.tex’ (or similar, see tex invocation) extension removed, followed by the two letter names of indices.
For example, the raw index output files for the input file
foo.texinfo would be foo.cp, foo.vr, foo.fn,
foo.tp, foo.pg and foo.ky. Those are exactly the
arguments to give to texindex.
Instead of specifying all the unsorted index file names explicitly, you can use ‘??’ as shell wildcards and give the command in this form:
texindex foo.??
This command will run texindex on all the unsorted index files,
including any that you have defined yourself using @defindex
or @defcodeindex. (You may execute ‘texindex foo.??’
even if there are similarly named files with two letter extensions
that are not index files, such as ‘foo.el’. The texindex
command reports but otherwise ignores such files.)
For each file specified, texindex generates a sorted index file
whose name is made by appending ‘s’ to the input file name. The
@printindex command looks for a file with that name
(see Printing Indices & Menus). texindex does not alter the
raw index output file.
After you have sorted the indices, you need to rerun tex on the
Texinfo file. This regenerates the DVI file, this time with
up-to-date index entries.
Finally, you may need to run tex one more time, to get the page
numbers in the cross-references correct.
To summarize, this is a five step process:
tex on your Texinfo file. This generates a DVI file (with
undefined cross-references and no indices), and the raw index files
(with two letter extensions).
texindex on the raw index files. This creates the
corresponding sorted index files (with three letter extensions).
tex again on your Texinfo file. This regenerates the DVI
file, this time with indices and defined cross-references, but with page
numbers for the cross-references from last time, generally incorrect.
texindex.
tex one last time. This time the correct page numbers are
written for the cross-references.
Alternatively, it's a one-step process: run texi2dvi
(see Format with texi2dvi).
You need not run texindex each time after you run tex. If
you do not, on the next run, the tex formatting command will use
whatever sorted index files happen to exist from the previous use of
texindex. This is usually ok while you are debugging.
Sometimes you may wish to print a document while you know it is
incomplete, or to print just one chapter of a document. In that case,
the usual auxiliary files that TeX creates and warnings TeX gives
when cross-references are not satisfied are just nuisances. You can
avoid them with the @novalidate command, which you must give
before the @setfilename command
(see @setfilename). Thus, the beginning of
your file would look approximately like this:
\input texinfo
@novalidate
@setfilename myfile.info
...
@novalidate also turns off validation in
makeinfo, just like its --no-validate option
(see Pointer Validation).
texi2dvi
The texi2dvi command automatically runs both TeX and
texindex as many times as necessary to produce a DVI file
with sorted indices and all cross-references resolved. It is
therefore simpler than manually executing the
tex—texindex—tex—tex sequence
described in the previous section.
To run texi2dvi on an input file foo.texi, do this (where
‘prompt$ ’ is your shell prompt):
prompt$ texi2dvi foo.texi
As shown in this example, the input filenames to texi2dvi must
include any extension (‘.texi’, ‘.texinfo’, etc.). Under
MS-DOS and perhaps in other circumstances, you may need to run ‘sh
texi2dvi foo.texi’ instead of relying on the operating system to invoke
the shell on the ‘texi2dvi’ script.
One useful option to texi2dvi is ‘--command=cmd’.
This inserts cmd on a line by itself after the
@setfilename in a temporary copy of the input file before
running TeX. With this, you can specify different printing
formats, such as @smallbook (see smallbook),
@afourpaper (see A4 Paper), or @pagesizes
(see pagesizes), without actually changing the document source.
(You can also do this on a site-wide basis with texinfo.cnf;
see Preparing for TeX).
With the --pdf option, texi2dvi produces PDF output instead of DVI (see PDF Output), by running pdftex instead of tex. Alternatively, the command texi2pdf is an abbreviation for running ‘texi2dvi --pdf’. The command pdftexi2dvi is also supported as a convenience to AUC-TeX users, since the latter merely prepends ‘pdf’ to DVI producing tools to have PDF producing tools.
texi2dvi can also be used to process LaTeX files; simply run ‘texi2dvi filename.ext’.
Normally texi2dvi is able to guess the input file language by its contents and file name suffix. If, however, it fails to do so you can specify the input language using --language=lang command line option, where lang is either ‘latex’ or ‘texinfo’.
texi2dvi will use etex (or pdfetex) if they are available; these extended versions of TeX are not required, and the DVI (or PDF) output is identical, but they simplify the TeX programming in some cases, and provide additional tracing information when debugging texinfo.tex.
Several options are provided for handling documents, written in character sets other than ASCII. The --translate-file=file option instructs texi2dv to translate input into internal TeX character set using translation file file (see TCX files).
The options --recode and --recode-from=enc
allow conversion of an input document before running TeX. The
--recode option recodes the document from encoding specified
by ‘@documentencoding’ command
(see documentencoding) to plain 7-bit
‘texinfo’ encoding.
The option --recode-from=enc recodes the document from enc encoding to the encoding specified by ‘@documentencoding’. This is useful, for example, if the document is written in ‘UTF-8’ encoding and an equivalent 8-bit encoding is supported by makeinfo.
Both --recode and --recode-from=enc use recode utility to perform the conversion. If recode fails to process the file, texi2dvi prints a warning and continues using unmodified input file.
For a list of other options, run ‘texi2dvi --help’.
lpr -dThe precise command to print a DVI file depends on your system installation. Two common ones are ‘dvips foo.dvi -o’ and ‘lpr -d foo.dvi’.
For example, the following commands will (perhaps) suffice to sort the indices, format, and print the Bison Manual:
tex bison.texinfo
texindex bison.??
tex bison.texinfo
lpr -d bison.dvi
(Remember that the shell commands may be different at your site; but these are commonly used versions.)
Using the texi2dvi shell script (see the previous section):
texi2dvi bison.texinfo
lpr -d bison.dvi
# or perhaps dvips bison.dvi -o
lpr is a standard program on Unix systems, but it is usually
absent on MS-DOS/MS-Windows. Some network packages come with a
program named lpr, but these are usually limited to sending files
to a print server over the network, and generally don't support the
‘-d’ option. If you are unfortunate enough to work on one of these
systems, you have several alternative ways of printing DVI files:
lpr program, or its clone.
If you can do that, you will be able to print DVI files just like
described above.
lpr which comes with your
network software will have a special option to send a file to specific
queues, like this:
lpr -Qdvi -hprint.server.domain bison.dvi
dvilj, for detailed description of these tools. Once
the DVI file is converted to the format your local printer understands
directly, just send it to the appropriate port, usually ‘PRN’.
You can give formatting and printing commands from a shell within GNU Emacs. To create a shell within Emacs, type M-x shell. In this shell, you can format and print the document. See Format and Print Hardcopy, for details.
You can switch to and from the shell buffer while tex is
running and do other editing. If you are formatting a long document
on a slow machine, this can be very convenient.
You can also use texi2dvi from an Emacs shell. For example,
here is how to use texi2dvi to format and print Using and
Porting GNU CC from a shell within Emacs:
texi2dvi gcc.texinfo
lpr -d gcc.dvi
See the next section for more information about formatting and printing in Texinfo mode.
Texinfo mode provides several predefined key commands for TeX formatting and printing. These include commands for sorting indices, looking at the printer queue, killing the formatting job, and recentering the display of the buffer in which the operations occur.
texi2dvi on the current buffer.
texinfo-tex-region.
texinfo-tex-region or
texinfo-tex-buffer.
texinfo-show-tex-print-queue).
texinfo-tex-region or texinfo-tex-buffer, or any other
process running in the Texinfo shell buffer.
Thus, the usual sequence of commands for formatting a buffer is as follows (with comments to the right):
C-c C-t C-b Run texi2dvi on the buffer.
C-c C-t C-p Print the DVI file.
C-c C-t C-q Display the printer queue.
The Texinfo mode TeX formatting commands start a subshell in Emacs
called the *tex-shell*. The texinfo-tex-command,
texinfo-texindex-command, and tex-dvi-print-command
commands are all run in this shell.
You can watch the commands operate in the ‘*tex-shell*’ buffer, and you can switch to and from and use the ‘*tex-shell*’ buffer as you would any other shell buffer.
The formatting and print commands depend on the values of several variables. The default values are:
Variable Default value texinfo-texi2dvi-command "texi2dvi" texinfo-tex-command "tex" texinfo-texindex-command "texindex" texinfo-delete-from-print-queue-command "lprm" texinfo-tex-trailer "@bye" tex-start-of-header "%**start" tex-end-of-header "%**end" tex-dvi-print-command "lpr -d" tex-show-queue-command "lpq"
You can change the values of these variables with the M-x set-variable command (see Examining and Setting Variables), or with your .emacs initialization file (see Init File).
Beginning with version 20, GNU Emacs offers a user-friendly interface, called Customize, for changing values of user-definable variables. See Easy Customization Interface, for more details about this. The Texinfo variables can be found in the ‘Development/Docs/Texinfo’ group, once you invoke the M-x customize command.
Yet another way to apply the TeX formatting command to a Texinfo file
is to put that command in a local variables list at the end of the
Texinfo file. You can then specify the tex or texi2dvi
commands as a compile-command and have Emacs run it by typing
M-x compile. This creates a special shell called the
*compilation* buffer in which Emacs runs the compile command.
For example, at the end of the gdb.texinfo file, after the
@bye, you could put the following:
Local Variables:
compile-command: "texi2dvi gdb.texinfo"
End:
This technique is most often used by programmers who also compile programs this way; see Compilation.
Every Texinfo file that is to be input to TeX must begin with a
\input command and must contain an @setfilename command:
\input texinfo
@setfilename arg-not-used-by-TeX
The first command instructs TeX to load the macros it needs to process a Texinfo file and the second command opens auxiliary files.
Every Texinfo file must end with a line that terminates TeX's processing and forces out unfinished pages:
@bye
Strictly speaking, these lines are all a Texinfo file needs to be processed successfully by TeX.
Usually, however, the beginning includes an @settitle command to
define the title of the printed manual, an @setchapternewpage
command, a title page, a copyright page, and permissions. Besides an
@bye, the end of a file usually includes indices and a table of
contents. (And of course most manuals contain a body of text as well.)
For more information, see:
@settitle.
@setchapternewpage.
TeX needs to know where to find the texinfo.tex file that the ‘\input texinfo’ command on the first line reads. The texinfo.tex file tells TeX how to handle @-commands; it is included in all standard GNU distributions. The latest version is always available from the Texinfo source repository:
http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/texinfo/texinfo/doc/texinfo.tex?rev=HEAD
Usually, the installer has put the texinfo.tex file in the default directory that contains TeX macros when GNU Texinfo, Emacs or other GNU software is installed. In this case, TeX will find the file and you do not need to do anything special. If this has not been done, you can put texinfo.tex in the current directory when you run TeX, and TeX will find it there.
Also, you should install epsf.tex, if it is not already installed
from another distribution. More details are at the end of the description
of the @image command (see Images).
To be able to use quotation marks other than those used in English you'll need to install European Computer Modern fonts and optionally CM-Super fonts, unless they are already installed (see Inserting Quotation Marks).
If you intend to use the @euro command, you should install the
Euro font, if it is not already installed. See euro.
Optionally, you may create an additional texinfo.cnf, and install
it as well. This file is read by TeX when the @setfilename
command is executed (see @setfilename). You can put any
commands you like there, according to local site-wide conventions. They
will be read by TeX when processing any Texinfo document. For
example, if texinfo.cnf contains the line ‘@afourpaper’
(see A4 Paper), then all Texinfo documents will be processed with
that page size in effect. If you have nothing to put in
texinfo.cnf, you do not need to create it.
If neither of the above locations for these system files suffice for
you, you can specify the directories explicitly. For
texinfo.tex, you can do this by writing the complete path for the
file after the \input command. Another way, that works for both
texinfo.tex and texinfo.cnf (and any other file TeX
might read), is to set the TEXINPUTS environment variable in your
.cshrc or .profile file.
Which you use of .cshrc or .profile depends on
whether you use a Bourne shell-compatible (sh, bash,
ksh, ...) or C shell-compatible (csh, tcsh)
command interpreter. The latter read the .cshrc file for
initialization information, and the former read .profile.
In a .cshrc file, you could use the following csh command
sequence:
setenv TEXINPUTS .:/home/me/mylib:
In a .profile file, you could use the following sh command
sequence:
TEXINPUTS=.:/home/me/mylib:
export TEXINPUTS
On MS-DOS/MS-Windows, you would say it like this9:
set TEXINPUTS=.;d:/home/me/mylib;c:
It is customary for DOS/Windows users to put such commands in the autoexec.bat file, or in the Windows Registry.
These settings would cause TeX to look for \input file first in the current directory, indicated by the ‘.’, then in a hypothetical user ‘me’'s mylib directory, and finally in the system directories. (A leading, trailing, or doubled ‘:’ indicates searching the system directories at that point.)
Finally, you may wish to dump a .fmt file (see Memory dumps) so that TeX can load Texinfo faster. (The disadvantage is that then updating texinfo.tex requires redumping.) You can do this by running this command, assuming epsf.tex is findable by TeX:
initex texinfo @dump
(dump is a TeX primitive.) Then, move texinfo.fmt to
wherever your .fmt files are found; typically, this will be in the
subdirectory web2c of your TeX installation.
TeX is sometimes unable to typeset a line without extending it into the right margin. This can occur when TeX comes upon what it interprets as a long word that it cannot hyphenate, such as an electronic mail network address or a very long title. When this happens, TeX prints an error message like this:
Overfull @hbox (20.76302pt too wide)
(In TeX, lines are in “horizontal boxes”, hence the term, “hbox”. ‘@hbox’ is a TeX primitive not needed in the Texinfo language.)
TeX also provides the line number in the Texinfo source file and the text of the offending line, which is marked at all the places that TeX considered hyphenation. See Catching Errors with TeX Formatting, for more information about typesetting errors.
If the Texinfo file has an overfull hbox, you can rewrite the sentence so the overfull hbox does not occur, or you can decide to leave it. A small excursion into the right margin often does not matter and may not even be noticeable.
If you have many overfull boxes and/or an antipathy to rewriting, you can coerce TeX into greatly increasing the allowable interword spacing, thus (if you're lucky) avoiding many of the bad line breaks, like this:
@tex
\global\emergencystretch = .9\hsize
@end tex
(You should adjust the fraction as needed.) This huge value for
\emergencystretch cannot be the default, since then the typeset
output would generally be of noticeably lower quality; the default
is ‘.15\hsize’. \hsize is the TeX dimension
containing the current line width.
For what overfull boxes you have, however, TeX will print a large, ugly, black rectangle beside the line that contains the overfull hbox unless told otherwise. This is so you will notice the location of the problem if you are correcting a draft.
To prevent such a monstrosity from marring your final printout, write
the following in the beginning of the Texinfo file on a line of its own,
before the @titlepage command:
@finalout
By default, TeX typesets pages for printing in an 8.5 by 11 inch format. However, you can direct TeX to typeset a document in a 7 by 9.25 inch format that is suitable for bound books by inserting the following command on a line by itself at the beginning of the Texinfo file, before the title page:
@smallbook
(Since many books are about 7 by 9.25 inches, this command might better
have been called the @regularbooksize command, but it came to be
called the @smallbook command by comparison to the 8.5 by 11
inch format.)
If you write the @smallbook command between the
start-of-header and end-of-header lines, the Texinfo mode TeX
region formatting command, texinfo-tex-region, will format the
region in “small” book size (see Start of Header).
See small, for information about commands that make it easier to produce examples for a smaller manual.
See Format with texi2dvi, and Preparing for TeX, for other ways to format with @smallbook that do not
require changing the source file.
You can tell TeX to format a document for printing on European size
A4 paper (or A5) with the @afourpaper (or @afivepaper)
command. Write the command on a line by itself near the beginning of
the Texinfo file, before the title page. For example, this is how you
would write the header for this manual:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename texinfo
@settitle Texinfo
@afourpaper
@c %**end of header
See Format with texi2dvi, and Preparing for TeX, for other ways to format for different paper sizes that do not require changing the source file.
You may or may not prefer the formatting that results from the command
@afourlatex. There's also @afourwide for A4 paper in
wide format.
@pagesizes [width][, height]: Custom Page Sizes
You can explicitly specify the height and (optionally) width of the main
text area on the page with the @pagesizes command. Write this
on a line by itself near the beginning of the Texinfo file, before the
title page. The height comes first, then the width if desired,
separated by a comma. Examples:
@pagesizes 200mm,150mm
and
@pagesizes 11.5in
This would be reasonable for printing on B5-size paper. To emphasize, this command specifies the size of the text area, not the size of the paper (which is 250mm by 177mm for B5, 14in by 8.5in for legal).
To make more elaborate changes, such as changing any of the page margins, you must define a new command in texinfo.tex (or texinfo.cnf, see Preparing for TeX).
See Format with texi2dvi, and Preparing for TeX, for other ways to specify @pagesizes that do not
require changing the source file.
@pagesizes is ignored by makeinfo.
You can (attempt to) direct TeX to print cropmarks at the corners of
pages with the @cropmarks command. Write the @cropmarks
command on a line by itself between @iftex and @end
iftex lines near the beginning of the Texinfo file, before the title
page, like this:
@iftex
@cropmarks
@end iftex
This command is mainly for printers that typeset several pages on one
sheet of film; but you can attempt to use it to mark the corners of a
book set to 7 by 9.25 inches with the @smallbook command.
(Printers will not produce cropmarks for regular sized output that is
printed on regular sized paper.) Since different printing machines work
in different ways, you should explore the use of this command with a
spirit of adventure. You may have to redefine the command in
texinfo.tex.
You can attempt to direct TeX to typeset pages larger or smaller than
usual with the \mag TeX command. Everything that is typeset
is scaled proportionally larger or smaller. (\mag stands for
“magnification”.) This is not a Texinfo @-command, but is a
plain TeX command that is prefixed with a backslash. You have to
write this command between @tex and @end tex
(see Raw Formatter Commands).
Follow the \mag command with an ‘=’ and then a number that
is 1000 times the magnification you desire. For example, to print pages
at 1.2 normal size, write the following near the beginning of the
Texinfo file, before the title page:
@tex
\mag=1200
@end tex
With some printing technologies, you can print normal-sized copies that look better than usual by giving a larger-than-normal master to your print shop. They do the reduction, thus effectively increasing the resolution.
Depending on your system, DVI files prepared with a
nonstandard-\mag may not print or may print only with certain
magnifications. Be prepared to experiment.
The simplest way to generate PDF output from Texinfo source is to run the convenience script texi2pdf (or pdftexi2dvi); this simply executes the texi2dvi script with the --pdf option (see Format with texi2dvi). If for some reason you want to process the document by hand, simply run the pdftex program instead of plain tex. That is, run ‘pdftex foo.texi’ instead of ‘tex foo.texi’.
PDF stands for `Portable Document Format'. It was invented by Adobe Systems some years ago for document interchange, based on their PostScript language. Related links:
At present, Texinfo does not provide ‘@ifpdf’ or ‘@pdf’ commands as for the other output formats, since PDF documents contain many internal links that would be hard or impossible to get right at the Texinfo source level.
PDF files require special software to be displayed, unlike the plain ASCII formats (Info, HTML) that Texinfo supports. They also tend to be much larger than the DVI files output by TeX by default. Nevertheless, a PDF file does define an actual typeset document in a self-contained file, so it has its place.
TeX is freely redistributable. You can obtain TeX for Unix systems via anonymous ftp or on physical media. The core material consists of the Web2c TeX distribution (http://tug.org/web2c).
Instructions for retrieval by anonymous ftp and information on other available distributions: http://tug.org/unixtex.ftp.
The Free Software Foundation provides a core distribution on its Source Code CD-ROM suitable for printing Texinfo manuals. To order it, contact:
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1301
USA
Telephone: +1-617-542-5942
Fax: (including Japan) +1-617-542-2652
Free Dial Fax (in Japan):
0031-13-2473 (KDD)
0066-3382-0158 (IDC)
Electronic mail: gnu@gnu.org
Many other TeX distributions are available; see http://tug.org/.
This chapter describes how to create and install Info files. See Info Files, for general information about the file format itself.
makeinfo is a program that converts a Texinfo file into an Info
file, HTML file, or plain text. texinfo-format-region and
texinfo-format-buffer are GNU Emacs functions that convert
Texinfo to Info.
For information on installing the Info file in the Info system, see Installing an Info File.
makeinfo PreferredThe makeinfo utility creates an Info file from a Texinfo source
file more quickly than either of the Emacs formatting commands and
provides better error messages. We recommend it. makeinfo is a
C program that is independent of Emacs. You do not need to run Emacs to
use makeinfo, which means you can use makeinfo on machines
that are too small to run Emacs. You can run makeinfo in any one
of three ways: from an operating system shell, from a shell inside
Emacs, or by typing the C-c C-m C-r or the C-c C-m C-b
command in Texinfo mode in Emacs.
The texinfo-format-region and the texinfo-format-buffer
commands are useful if you cannot run makeinfo. Also, in some
circumstances, they format short regions or buffers more quickly than
makeinfo.
makeinfo from a ShellTo create an Info file from a Texinfo file, invoke makeinfo followed by the name of the Texinfo file. Thus, to create the Info file for Bison, type the following to the shell:
makeinfo bison.texinfo
(You can run a shell inside Emacs by typing M-x shell.)
makeinfo has many options to control its actions and output; see the next section.
makeinfoThe makeinfo program accepts many options. Perhaps the most commonly needed are those that change the output format. By default, makeinfo outputs Info files.
Each command line option is a word preceded by ‘--’ or a letter preceded by ‘-’. You can use abbreviations for the long option names as long as they are unique.
For example, you could use the following shell command to create an Info file for bison.texinfo in which each line is filled to only 68 columns:
makeinfo --fill-column=68 bison.texinfo
You can write two or more options in sequence, like this:
makeinfo --no-split --fill-column=70 ...
This would keep the Info file together as one possibly very long file and would also set the fill column to 70.
The options are:
-D var@set var in the Texinfo file (see set clear value).
--commands-in-node-names@-commands in node names. This is not recommended, as it
can probably never be implemented in TeX. It also makes
makeinfo much slower. Also, this option is ignored when
‘--no-validate’ is used. See Pointer Validation, for more
details.
--css-include=file--css-ref=url--disable-encoding--enable-encodingdocumentencoding, and Inserting Accents.
--docbook--document-language=lang@documentlanguage command if there is one
(see documentlanguage).
--error-limit=limit-e limitmakeinfo will report
before exiting (on the assumption that continuing would be useless);
default 100.
--fill-column=width-f width--footnote-style=style-s style@footnotestyle command (see Footnotes). When the
footnote style is ‘separate’, makeinfo makes a new node
containing the footnotes found in the current node. When the footnote
style is ‘end’, makeinfo places the footnote references at
the end of the current node. Ignored with ‘--html’.
--force-F--help-h--html-I dir@include command. By default,
makeinfo searches only the current directory. If dir is
not given, the current directory . is appended. Note that
dir can actually be a list of several directories separated by the
usual path separator character (‘:’ on Unix, ‘;’ on
MS-DOS/MS-Windows).
--ifdocbook--ifhtml--ifinfo--ifplaintext--iftex--ifxml--macro-expand=file-E filemakeinfo and then discarded. This option is used by
texi2dvi.
--no-headers--plaintextFor HTML output, likewise omit menus. And if ‘--no-split’ is also specified, do not include a navigation links at the top of each node (these are never included in the default case of split output). See Generating HTML.
In both cases, ignore @setfilename and write to standard
output by default—can be overridden with -o.
--no-ifdocbook--no-ifhtml--no-ifinfo--no-ifplaintext--no-iftex--no-ifxml--no-number-footnotesmakeinfo
numbers each footnote sequentially in a single node, resetting the
current footnote number to 1 at the start of each node.
--no-number-sections--no-splitmakeinfo. By default, large
output files (where the size is greater than 70k bytes) are split into
smaller subfiles. For Info output, each one is approximately 50k bytes.
For HTML output, each file contains one node (see Generating HTML).
--no-pointer-validate--no-validatemakeinfo—a dangerous
thing to do. This can also be done with the @novalidate
command (see Use TeX). Normally, after a Texinfo file
is processed, some consistency checks are made to ensure that cross
references can be resolved, etc. See Pointer Validation.
--no-warn--number-sections--output=file-o file@setfilename command found in the
Texinfo source (see setfilename). If file is ‘-’, output
goes to standard output and ‘--no-split’ is implied. For split
HTML output, file is the name for the directory into which all
HTML nodes are written (see Generating HTML).
-P dir@include.
If dir is not given, the current directory . is prepended.
See ‘-I’ for more details.
--paragraph-indent=indent-p indent@paragraphindent command (see paragraphindent). The value
of indent is interpreted as follows:
--split-size=num--transliterate-file-names-U var@clear var in the Texinfo file (see set clear value).
--verbosemakeinfo to display messages saying what it is doing.
Normally, makeinfo only outputs messages if there are errors or
warnings.
--version-V--xmlmakeinfo also reads the environment variable TEXINFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT to determine the output format, if not overridden by a command line option. The possible values are:
docbook html info plaintext xml
If not set, Info output is the default.
If you do not suppress pointer validation with the ‘--no-validate’
option or the @novalidate command in the source file (see Use TeX), makeinfo will check the validity of the final
Info file. Mostly, this means ensuring that nodes you have referenced
really exist. Here is a complete list of what is checked:
Some Texinfo documents might fail during the validation phase because
they use commands like @value and @definfoenclose in
node definitions and cross-references inconsistently. (Your best bet
is to avoid using @-commands in node names.) Consider the
following example:
@set nodename Node 1
@node @value{nodename}, Node 2, Top, Top
This is node 1.
@node Node 2, , Node 1, Top
This is node 2.
Here, the node “Node 1” was referenced both verbatim and through
@value.
By default, makeinfo fails such cases, because node names are not
fully expanded until they are written to the output file. You should
always try to reference nodes consistently; e.g., in the above example,
the second @node line should have also used @value.
However, if, for some reason, you must reference node names
inconsistently, and makeinfo fails to validate the file, you can
use the ‘--commands-in-node-names’ option to force makeinfo
to perform the expensive expansion of all node names it finds in the
document. This might considerably slow down the program, though;
twofold increase in conversion time was measured for large documents
such as the Jargon file.
The support for @-commands in @node directives is not
general enough to be freely used. For example, if the example above
redefined nodename somewhere in the document, makeinfo
will fail to convert it, even if invoked with the
‘--commands-in-node-names’ option.
‘--commands-in-node-names’ has no effect if the ‘--no-validate’ option is given.
makeinfo Within Emacs
You can run makeinfo in GNU Emacs Texinfo mode by using either the
makeinfo-region or the makeinfo-buffer commands. In
Texinfo mode, the commands are bound to C-c C-m C-r and C-c
C-m C-b by default.
When you invoke makeinfo-region the output goes to a temporary
buffer. When you invoke makeinfo-buffer output goes to the
file set with @setfilename (see setfilename).
The Emacs makeinfo-region and makeinfo-buffer commands
run the makeinfo program in a temporary shell buffer. If
makeinfo finds any errors, Emacs displays the error messages in
the temporary buffer.
You can parse the error messages by typing C-x `
(next-error). This causes Emacs to go to and position the
cursor on the line in the Texinfo source that makeinfo thinks
caused the error. See Running make or Compilers Generally, for more
information about using the next-error command.
In addition, you can kill the shell in which the makeinfo
command is running or make the shell buffer display its most recent
output.
makeinfo job
(from makeinfo-region or makeinfo-buffer).
makeinfo shell buffer to display its most recent
output.
(Note that the parallel commands for killing and recentering a TeX job are C-c C-t C-k and C-c C-t C-l. See Texinfo Mode Printing.)
You can specify options for makeinfo by setting the
makeinfo-options variable with either the M-x
customize or the M-x set-variable command, or by setting the
variable in your .emacs initialization file.
For example, you could write the following in your .emacs file:
(setq makeinfo-options
"--paragraph-indent=0 --no-split
--fill-column=70 --verbose")
For more information, see
Easy Customization Interface,
Examining and Setting Variables,
Init File, and
Options for makeinfo.
texinfo-format... CommandsIn GNU Emacs in Texinfo mode, you can format part or all of a Texinfo
file with the texinfo-format-region command. This formats the
current region and displays the formatted text in a temporary buffer
called ‘*Info Region*’.
Similarly, you can format a buffer with the
texinfo-format-buffer command. This command creates a new
buffer and generates the Info file in it. Typing C-x C-s will
save the Info file under the name specified by the
@setfilename line which must be near the beginning of the
Texinfo file.
texinfo-format-regiontexinfo-format-bufferThe texinfo-format-region and texinfo-format-buffer
commands provide you with some error checking, and other functions can
provide you with further help in finding formatting errors. These
procedures are described in an appendix; see Catching Mistakes.
However, the makeinfo program is often faster and
provides better error checking (see makeinfo in Emacs).
You can format Texinfo files for Info using batch-texinfo-format
and Emacs Batch mode. You can run Emacs in Batch mode from any shell,
including a shell inside of Emacs. (See Command Arguments.)
Here is a shell command to format all the files that end in .texinfo in the current directory:
emacs -batch -funcall batch-texinfo-format *.texinfo
Emacs processes all the files listed on the command line, even if an error occurs while attempting to format some of them.
Run batch-texinfo-format only with Emacs in Batch mode as shown;
it is not interactive. It kills the Batch mode Emacs on completion.
batch-texinfo-format is convenient if you lack makeinfo
and want to format several Texinfo files at once. When you use Batch
mode, you create a new Emacs process. This frees your current Emacs, so
you can continue working in it. (When you run
texinfo-format-region or texinfo-format-buffer, you cannot
use that Emacs for anything else until the command finishes.)
If a Texinfo file has more than 30,000 bytes,
texinfo-format-buffer automatically creates a tag table
for its Info file; makeinfo always creates a tag table. With
a tag table, Info can jump to new nodes more quickly than it can
otherwise.
In addition, if the Texinfo file contains more than about 300,000
bytes, texinfo-format-buffer and makeinfo split the
large Info file into shorter indirect subfiles of about 300,000
bytes each. Big files are split into smaller files so that Emacs does
not need to make a large buffer to hold the whole of a large Info
file; instead, Emacs allocates just enough memory for the small, split-off
file that is needed at the time. This way, Emacs avoids wasting
memory when you run Info. (Before splitting was implemented, Info
files were always kept short and include files were designed as
a way to create a single, large printed manual out of the smaller Info
files. See Include Files, for more information. Include files are
still used for very large documents, such as The Emacs Lisp
Reference Manual, in which each chapter is a separate file.)
When a file is split, Info itself makes use of a shortened version of the original file that contains just the tag table and references to the files that were split off. The split-off files are called indirect files.
The split-off files have names that are created by appending ‘-1’,
‘-2’, ‘-3’ and so on to the file name specified by the
@setfilename command. The shortened version of the original file
continues to have the name specified by @setfilename.
At one stage in writing this document, for example, the Info file was saved as the file test-texinfo and that file looked like this:
Info file: test-texinfo, -*-Text-*-
produced by texinfo-format-buffer
from file: new-texinfo-manual.texinfo
^_
Indirect:
test-texinfo-1: 102
test-texinfo-2: 50422
test-texinfo-3: 101300
^_^L
Tag table:
(Indirect)
Node: overview^?104
Node: info file^?1271
Node: printed manual^?4853
Node: conventions^?6855
...
(But test-texinfo had far more nodes than are shown here.) Each of the split-off, indirect files, test-texinfo-1, test-texinfo-2, and test-texinfo-3, is listed in this file after the line that says ‘Indirect:’. The tag table is listed after the line that says ‘Tag table:’.
In the list of indirect files, the number following the file name records the cumulative number of bytes in the preceding indirect files, not counting the file list itself, the tag table, or the permissions text in each file. In the tag table, the number following the node name records the location of the beginning of the node, in bytes from the beginning of the (unsplit) output.
If you are using texinfo-format-buffer to create Info files,
you may want to run the Info-validate command. (The
makeinfo command does such a good job on its own, you do not
need Info-validate.) However, you cannot run the M-x
Info-validate node-checking command on indirect files. For
information on how to prevent files from being split and how to
validate the structure of the nodes, see Using Info-validate.
Info files are usually kept in the info directory. You can read Info files using the standalone Info program or the Info reader built into Emacs. (see info, for an introduction to Info.)
For Info to work, the info directory must contain a file that serves as a top level directory for the Info system. By convention, this file is called dir. (You can find the location of this file within Emacs by typing C-h i to enter Info and then typing C-x C-f to see the pathname to the info directory.)
The dir file is itself an Info file. It contains the top level menu for all the Info files in the system. The menu looks like this:
* Menu:
* Info: (info). Documentation browsing system.
* Emacs: (emacs). The extensible, self-documenting
text editor.
* Texinfo: (texinfo). With one source file, make
either a printed manual using
@TeX{} or an Info file.
...
Each of these menu entries points to the `Top' node of the Info file that is named in parentheses. (The menu entry does not need to specify the `Top' node, since Info goes to the `Top' node if no node name is mentioned. See Nodes in Other Info Files.)
Thus, the ‘Info’ entry points to the `Top' node of the info file and the ‘Emacs’ entry points to the `Top' node of the emacs file.
In each of the Info files, the `Up' pointer of the `Top' node refers
back to the dir file. For example, the line for the `Top'
node of the Emacs manual looks like this in Info:
File: emacs Node: Top, Up: (DIR), Next: Distrib
In this case, the dir file name is written in upper case letters—it can be written in either upper or lower case. This is not true in general, it is a special case for dir.
To add a new Info file to your system, you must write a menu entry to add to the menu in the dir file in the info directory. For example, if you were adding documentation for GDB, you would write the following new entry:
* GDB: (gdb). The source-level C debugger.
The first part of the menu entry is the menu entry name, followed by a colon. The second part is the name of the Info file, in parentheses, followed by a period. The third part is the description.
The name of an Info file often has a .info extension. Thus, the Info file for GDB might be called either gdb or gdb.info. The Info reader programs automatically try the file name both with and without .info10; so it is better to avoid clutter and not to write ‘.info’ explicitly in the menu entry. For example, the GDB menu entry should use just ‘gdb’ for the file name, not ‘gdb.info’.
If an Info file is not in the info directory, there are three ways to specify its location:
Info-directory-list variable in your personal or site
initialization file.
This variable tells Emacs where to look for dir files (the files
must be named dir). Emacs merges the files named dir from
each of the listed directories. (In Emacs version 18, you can set the
Info-directory variable to the name of only one
directory.)
INFOPATH environment
variable in your .profile or .cshrc initialization file.
(Only you and others who set this environment variable will be able to
find Info files whose location is specified this way.)
For example, to reach a test file in the /home/bob/info directory, you could add an entry like this to the menu in the standard dir file:
* Test: (/home/bob/info/info-test). Bob's own test file.
In this case, the absolute file name of the info-test file is written as the second part of the menu entry.
Alternatively, you could write the following in your .emacs file:
(require 'info)
(setq Info-directory-list
(cons (expand-file-name "/home/bob/info")
Info-directory-list))
This tells Emacs to merge the system dir file with the dir
file in /home/bob/info. Thus, Info will list the
/home/bob/info/info-test file as a menu entry in the
/home/bob/info/dir file. Emacs does the merging only when
M-x info is first run, so if you want to set
Info-directory-list in an Emacs session where you've already run
info, you must (setq Info-dir-contents nil) to force Emacs
to recompose the dir file.
Finally, you can tell Info where to look by setting the INFOPATH
environment variable in your shell startup file, such as .cshrc,
.profile or autoexec.bat. If you use a Bourne-compatible
shell such as sh or bash for your shell command
interpreter, you set the INFOPATH environment variable in the
.profile initialization file; but if you use csh or
tcsh, you set the variable in the .cshrc initialization
file. On MS-DOS/MS-Windows systems, you must set INFOPATH in
your autoexec.bat file or in the Registry. Each type of shell
uses a different syntax.
INFOPATH
variable as follows:
setenv INFOPATH .:~/info:/usr/local/emacs/info
INFOPATH=.:$HOME/info:/usr/local/emacs/info
export INFOPATH
set INFOPATH=.;%HOME%/info;c:/usr/local/emacs/info
The ‘.’ indicates the current directory as usual. Emacs uses the
INFOPATH environment variable to initialize the value of Emacs's
own Info-directory-list variable. The stand-alone Info reader
merges any files named dir in any directory listed in the
INFOPATH variable into a single menu presented to you in the node
called ‘(dir)Top’.
However you set INFOPATH, if its last character is a
colon12, this
is replaced by the default (compiled-in) path. This gives you a way to
augment the default path with new directories without having to list all
the standard places. For example (using sh syntax):
INFOPATH=/local/info:
export INFOPATH
will search /local/info first, then the standard directories. Leading or doubled colons are not treated specially.
When you create your own dir file for use with
Info-directory-list or INFOPATH, it's easiest to start by
copying an existing dir file and replace all the text after the
‘* Menu:’ with your desired entries. That way, the punctuation and
special CTRL-_ characters that Info needs will be present.
When you install an Info file onto your system, you can use the program
install-info to update the Info directory file dir.
Normally the makefile for the package runs install-info, just
after copying the Info file into its proper installed location.
In order for the Info file to work with install-info, you include
the commands @dircategory and
@direntry...@end direntry in the Texinfo source
file. Use @direntry to specify the menu entries to add to the
Info directory file, and use @dircategory to specify which part
of the Info directory to put it in. Here is how these commands are used
in this manual:
@dircategory Texinfo documentation system
@direntry
* Texinfo: (texinfo). The GNU documentation format.
* install-info: (texinfo)Invoking install-info. ...
...
@end direntry
Here's what this produces in the Info file:
INFO-DIR-SECTION Texinfo documentation system
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Texinfo: (texinfo). The GNU documentation format.
* install-info: (texinfo)Invoking install-info. ...
...
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
The install-info program sees these lines in the Info file, and
that is how it knows what to do.
Always use the @direntry and @dircategory commands near
the beginning of the Texinfo input, before the first @node
command. If you use them later on in the input, install-info
will not notice them.
install-info will automatically reformat the description of the
menu entries it is adding. As a matter of convention, the description
of the main entry (above, ‘The GNU documentation format’) should
start at column 32, starting at zero (as in
what-cursor-position in Emacs). This will make it align with
most others. Description for individual utilities best start in
column 48, where possible. For more information about formatting see
the ‘--calign’, ‘--align’, and ‘--max-width’ options in
Invoking install-info.
If you use @dircategory more than once in the Texinfo source,
each usage specifies the `current' category; any subsequent
@direntry commands will add to that category.
When choosing a category name for the @dircategory command, we
recommend consulting the Free Software Directory. If your program is not listed there,
or listed incorrectly or incompletely, please report the situation to
the directory maintainers (bug-directory@gnu.org) so that the
category names can be kept in sync.
Here are a few examples (see the util/dir-example file in the
Texinfo distribution for large sample dir file):
Emacs
Localization
Printing
Software development
Software libraries
Text creation and manipulation
Each `Invoking' node for every program installed should have a
corresponding @direntry. This lets users easily find the
documentation for the different programs they can run, as with the
traditional man system.
install-info inserts menu entries from an Info file into the
top-level dir file in the Info system (see the previous sections
for an explanation of how the dir file works). install-info
also removes menu entries from the dir file. It's most often
run as part of software installation, or when constructing a dir file
for all manuals on a system. Synopsis:
install-info [option]... [info-file [dir-file]]
If info-file or dir-file are not specified, the options
(described below) that define them must be. There are no compile-time
defaults, and standard input is never used. install-info can
read only one Info file and write only one dir file per invocation.
If dir-file (however specified) does not exist,
install-info creates it if possible (with no entries).
If any input file is compressed with gzip (see Invoking gzip), install-info automatically uncompresses it
for reading. And if dir-file is compressed, install-info
also automatically leaves it compressed after writing any changes.
If dir-file itself does not exist, install-info tries to
open dir-file.gz.
Options:
--add-once--align=column--append-new-sections--calign=column--debug--delete--description=text--dir-file=name--dry-run--entry=text--help--info-file=file--info-dir=dir--infodir=dir--item=text--keep-old--max-width=column--maxwidth=column--menuentry=text--name=text--no-indent--quiet--silent--remove--remove-exactly.info and/or .gz suffixes are
not ignored.
--section=sec--section regex secinstall-info tries to detect when this alternate syntax is used,
but does not always guess correctly! Here is the heuristic that
install-info uses:
--section starts with a hyphen, the original syntax is presumed.
--section is a file that can be opened, the original syntax is presumed
When heuristic fails because your section title starts with a hyphen, or it
happens to be a filename that can be opened, the syntax should be changed
to ‘--regex=regex --section=sec --add-once’.
--regex=regex--test--versionmakeinfo generates Info output by default, but given the --html option, it will generate HTML, for web browsers and other programs. This chapter gives some details on such HTML output.
makeinfo can also write in XML and Docbook format, but we do not as yet describe these further. See Output Formats, for a brief overview of all the output formats.
makeinfo will include segments of Texinfo source between
@ifhtml and @end ifhtml in the HTML output (but not
any of the other conditionals, by default). Source between
@html and @end html is passed without change to the
output (i.e., suppressing the normal escaping of input ‘<’,
‘>’ and ‘&’ characters which have special significance in
HTML). See Conditional Commands.
The --footnote-style option is currently ignored for HTML output; footnotes are always linked to the end of the output file.
By default, a navigation bar is inserted at the start of each node,
analogous to Info output. The ‘--no-headers’ option suppresses
this if used with ‘--no-split’. Header <link> elements in
split output can support info-like navigation with browsers like Lynx
and Emacs W3 which implement this HTML 1.0 feature.
The HTML generated is mostly standard (i.e., HTML 2.0, RFC-1866).
One exception is that HTML 3.2 tables are generated from the
@multitable command, but tagged to degrade as well as possible
in browsers without table support. The HTML 4 ‘lang’
attribute on the ‘<html>’ attribute is also used. (Please report
output from an error-free run of makeinfo which has browser
portability problems as a bug.)
When splitting output (which is the default), makeinfo
writes HTML output into (generally) one output file per Texinfo source
@node.
The output file name is the node name with special characters replaced by ‘-’'s, so it can work as a filename. In the unusual case of two different nodes having the same name after this treatment, they are written consecutively to the same file, with HTML anchors so each can be referred to separately. If makeinfo is run on a system which does not distinguish case in filenames, nodes which are the same except for case will also be folded into the same output file.
When splitting, the HTML output files are written into a subdirectory, with the name chosen as follows:
@setfilename (that is, any extension is removed). For
example, HTML output for @setfilename gcc.info would be
written into a subdirectory named ‘gcc’.
@setfilename texinfo would be written
to ‘texinfo.html’.
makeinfo gives up.
In any case, the top-level output file within the directory is always named ‘index.html’.
Monolithic output (--no-split) is named according to
@setfilename (with any ‘.info’ extension is replaced with
‘.html’) or --output (the argument is used literally).
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS for short) is an Internet standard for influencing the display of HTML documents: see http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/.
By default, makeinfo includes a few simple CSS commands to better implement the appearance of some of the environments. Here are two of them, as an example:
pre.display { font-family:inherit }
pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller }
A full explanation of CSS is (far) beyond this manual; please see the
reference above. In brief, however, this specification tells the web
browser to use a `smaller' font size for @smalldisplay text,
and to use the `inherited' font (generally a regular roman typeface)
for both @smalldisplay and @display. By default, the
HTML ‘<pre>’ command uses a monospaced font.
You can influence the CSS in the HTML output with two makeinfo options: --css-include=file and --css-ref=url.
The option --css-ref=url adds to each output HTML file a ‘<link>’ tag referencing a CSS at the given url. This allows using external style sheets.
The option --css-include=file includes the contents file in the HTML output, as you might expect. However, the details are somewhat tricky, as described in the following, to provide maximum flexibility.
The CSS file may begin with so-called ‘@import’ directives, which link to external CSS specifications for browsers to use when interpreting the document. Again, a full description is beyond our scope here, but we'll describe how they work syntactically, so we can explain how makeinfo handles them.
There can be more than one ‘@import’, but they have to come first in the file, with only whitespace and comments interspersed, no normal definitions. (Technical exception: an ‘@charset’ directive may precede the ‘@import’'s. This does not alter makeinfo's behavior, it just copies the ‘@charset’ if present.) Comments in CSS files are delimited by ‘/* ... */’, as in C. An ‘@import’ directive must be in one of these two forms:
@import url(http://example.org/foo.css);
@import "http://example.net/bar.css";
As far as makeinfo is concerned, the crucial characters are the ‘@’ at the beginning and the semicolon terminating the directive. When reading the CSS file, it simply copies any such ‘@’-directive into the output, as follows:
pre.smallexample { font-size: inherit ! important }
If the CSS file is malformed or erroneous, makeinfo's output is unspecified. makeinfo does not try to interpret the meaning of the CSS file in any way; it just looks for the special ‘@’ and ‘;’ characters and blindly copies the text into the output. Comments in the CSS file may or may not be included in the output.
Cross-references between Texinfo manuals in HTML format amount, in the
end, to a standard HTML <a> link, but the details are
unfortunately complex. This section describes the algorithm used in
detail, so that Texinfo can cooperate with other programs, such as
texi2html, by writing mutually compatible HTML files.
This algorithm may or may not be used for links within HTML output for a Texinfo file. Since no issues of compatibility arise in such cases, we do not need to specify this.
We try to support references to such “external” manuals in both monolithic and split forms. A monolithic (mono) manual is entirely contained in one file, and a split manual has a file for each node. (See HTML Splitting.)
Acknowledgement: this algorithm was primarily devised by Patrice Dumas in 2003–04.
For our purposes, an HTML link consists of four components: a host
name, a directory part, a file part, and a target part. We
always assume the http protocol. For example:
http://host/dir/file.html#target
The information to construct a link comes from the node name and manual name in the cross-reference command in the Texinfo source (see Cross References), and from external information, which is currently simply hardwired. In the future, it may come from an external data file.
We now consider each part in turn.
The host is hardwired to be the local host. This could either be the literal string ‘localhost’, or, according to the rules for HTML links, the ‘http://localhost/’ could be omitted entirely.
The dir and file parts are more complicated, and depend on the relative split/mono nature of both the manual being processed and the manual that the cross-reference refers to. The underlying idea is that there is one directory for Texinfo manuals in HTML, and a given manual is either available as a monolithic file manual.html, or a split subdirectory manual/*.html. Here are the cases:
One exception: the algorithm for node name expansion prefixes the string ‘g_t’ when the node name begins with a non-letter. This kludge (due to XHTML rules) is not necessary for filenames, and is therefore omitted.
Any directory part in the filename argument of the source
cross-reference command is ignored. Thus, @xref{,,,../foo}
and @xref{,,,foo} both use ‘foo’ as the manual name.
This is because any such attempted hardwiring of the directory is very
unlikely to be useful for both Info and HTML output.
Finally, the target part is always the expanded node name.
Whether the present manual is split or mono is determined by user option; makeinfo defaults to split, with the --no-split option overriding this.
Whether the referent manual is split or mono is another bit of the external information. For now, makeinfo simply assumes the referent manual is the same as the present manual.
There can be a mismatch between the format of the referent manual that the generating software assumes, and the format it's actually present in. See HTML Xref Mismatch.
As mentioned in the previous section, the key part of the HTML cross-reference algorithm is the conversion of node names in the Texinfo source into strings suitable for XHTML identifiers and filenames. The restrictions are similar for each: plain ASCII letters, numbers, and the ‘-’ and ‘_’ characters are all that can be used. (Although HTML anchors can contain most characters, XHTML is more restrictive.)
Cross-references in Texinfo can actually refer either to nodes or anchors (see anchor), but anchors are treated identically to nodes in this context, so we'll continue to say “node” names for simplicity.
(@-commands and 8-bit characters are not presently handled by makeinfo for HTML cross-references. See the next section.)
A special exception: the Top node (see The Top Node) is always mapped to the file index.html, to match web server software. However, the HTML target is ‘Top’. Thus (in the split case):
@xref{Top, Introduction,, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}.
⇒ <a href="emacs/index.html#Top">
For example:
@node A node --- with _'%
⇒ A-node-_002d_002d_002d-with-_005f_0027_0025
Notice in particular:
On case-folding computer systems, nodes differing only by case will be mapped to the same file.
In particular, as mentioned above, Top always maps to the file index.html. Thus, on a case-folding system, Top and a node named `Index' will both be written to index.html.
Fortunately, the targets serve to distinguish these cases, since HTML target names are always case-sensitive, independent of operating system.
In standard Texinfo, node names may not contain @-commands. makeinfo has an option --commands-in-node-names which partially supports it (see Invoking makeinfo), but it is not robust and not recommended.
Thus, makeinfo also does not fully implement this part of the HTML cross-reference algorithm, but it is documented here for the sake of completeness.
First, comments are removed.
Next, any @value commands (see set value) and macro invocations
(see Invoking Macros) are fully expanded.
Then, for the following commands, the command name and braces are removed, the text of the argument is recursively transformed:
@asis @b @cite @code @command @dfn @dmn @dotless
@emph @env @file @indicateurl @kbd @key
@samp @sc @slanted @strong @t @var @w
For @sc, any letters are capitalized.
The following commands are replaced by constant text, as shown. If
any of these commands have non-empty arguments, as in
@TeX{bad}, it is an error, and the result is unspecified.
`(space)' means a space character, `(nothing)' means the empty string,
etc. The notation `U+xxxx' means Unicode code point xxxx.
There are further transformations of many of these expansions for the
final file or target name, such as space characters to ‘-’, etc.,
according to the other rules.
@(newline) | (space)
|
@(space) | (space)
|
@(tab) | (space)
|
@! | ‘!’
|
@* | (space)
|
@- | (nothing)
|
@. | ‘.’
|
@: | (nothing)
|
@? | ‘?’
|
@@ | ‘@’
|
@{ | ‘{’
|
@} | ‘}’
|
@LaTeX | ‘LaTeX’
|
@TeX | ‘TeX’
|
@bullet | U+2022
|
@comma | ‘,’
|
@copyright | U+00A9
|
@dots | U+2026
|
@enddots | ‘...’
|
@equiv | U+2261
|
@error | ‘error-->’
|
@euro | U+20AC
|
@exclamdown | U+00A1
|
@expansion | U+2192
|
@minus | U+2212
|
@ordf | U+00AA
|
@ordm | U+00BA
|
@point | U+2605
|
@pounds | U+00A3
|
@print | U+22A3
|
@questiondown | U+00BF
|
@registeredsymbol | U+00AE
|
@result | U+21D2
|
@tie | (space)
|
An @acronym or @abbr command is replaced by the first
argument, followed by the second argument in parentheses, if present.
See acronym.
An @email command is replaced by the text argument if
present, else the address. See email.
An @image command is replaced by the filename (first)
argument. See Images.
A @verb command is replaced by its transformed argument.
See verb.
Any other command is an error, and the result is unspecified.
Usually, characters other than plain 7-bit ASCII are transformed into the corresponding Unicode code point(s) in Normalization Form C, which uses precomposed characters where available. (This is the normalization form recommended by the W3C and other bodies.) This holds when that code point is 0xffff or less, as it almost always is.
These will then be further transformed by the rules above into the string ‘_xxxx’, where xxxx is the code point in hex.
For example, combining this rule and the previous section:
@node @b{A} @TeX{} @u{B} @point{}@enddots{}
⇒ A-TeX-B_0306-_2605_002e_002e_002e
Notice: 1) @enddots expands to three periods which in
turn expands to three ‘_002e’'s; 2) @u{B} is a `B'
with a breve accent, which does not exist as a pre-accented Unicode
character, therefore expands to ‘B_0306’ (B with combining
breve).
When the Unicode code point is above 0xffff, the transformation is ‘__xxxxxx’, that is, two leading underscores followed by six hex digits. Since Unicode has declared that their highest code point is 0x10ffff, this is sufficient. (We felt it was better to define this extra escape than to always use six hex digits, since the first two would nearly always be zeros.)
This method works fine if the node name consists mostly of ASCII characters and contains only few 8-bit ones. If the document is written in a language whose script is not based on the Latin alphabet (such as, e.g. Ukrainian), it will create file names consisting entirely of ‘_xxxx’ notations, which is inconvenient.
To handle such cases, makeinfo offers --transliterate-file-names command line option. This option enables transliteration of node names into ASCII characters for the purposes of file name creation and referencing. The transliteration is based on phonetic principle, which makes the produced file names easily readable.
For the definition of Unicode Normalization Form C, see Unicode report UAX#15, http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr15/. Many related documents and implementations are available elsewhere on the web.
As mentioned earlier (see HTML Xref Link Basics), the generating software has to guess whether a given manual being cross-referenced is available in split or monolithic form—and, inevitably, it might guess wrong. However, it is possible when the referent manual itself is generated, it is possible to handle at least some mismatches.
In the case where we assume the referent is split, but it is actually available in mono, the only recourse would be to generate a manual/ subdirectory full of HTML files which redirect back to the monolithic manual.html. Since this is essentially the same as a split manual in the first place, it's not very appealing.
On the other hand, in the case where we assume the referent is mono, but it is actually available in split, it is possible to use JavaScript to redirect from the putatively monolithic manual.html to the different manual/node.html files. Here's an example:
function redirect() {
switch (location.hash) {
case "#Node1":
location.replace("manual/Node1.html#Node1"); break;
case "#Node2" :
location.replace("manual/Node2.html#Node2"); break;
...
default:;
}
}
Then, in the <body> tag of manual.html:
<body onLoad="redirect();">
Once again, this is something the software which generated the referent manual has to do in advance, it's not something the software generating the actual cross-reference in the present manual can control.
Ultimately, we hope to allow for an external configuration file to control which manuals are available from where, and how.
Here is an alphabetical list of the @-commands in Texinfo. Square brackets, [ ], indicate optional arguments; an ellipsis, ‘...’, indicates repeated text.
More specifics on the general syntax of different @-commands are given in the section below.
@whitespace@ followed by a space, tab, or newline produces a normal,
stretchable, interword space. See Multiple Spaces.
@!@"@'@*@,{c}@-@.@/@:@=@?@@@\@math.
See math.
@^@`@{@}@~@AA{}@aa{}@abbr{abbreviation}abbr.
@acronym{acronym}acronym.
@AE{}@ae{}@afivepaper@afourlatex@afourpaper@afourwide@alias new=existing@anchor{name}@anchor.
@appendix title@unnumbered and @appendix Commands.
@appendixsec title@appendixsection title@appendixsection is a longer
spelling of the @appendixsec command. See Section Commands.
@appendixsubsec title@appendixsubsubsec title@arrow{}@click. See Click Sequences.
@asis@table, @ftable, and @vtable to
print the table's first column without highlighting (“as is”).
See Two-column Tables.
@author author@title and @author Commands.
@b{text}@bullet{}@bullet.
@bye@bye command. See Ending a File.
@c comment@comment. See Comments.
@caption@float. See caption shortcaption.
@cartouche@end cartouche. No effect in
Info. See Drawing Cartouches Around Examples.)
@center line-of-text@center.
@centerchap line-of-text@chapter, but centers the chapter title. See @chapter.
@chapheading title@majorheading and @chapheading.
@chapter title@chapter.
@cindex entry@cite{reference}@cite.
@click{}@clicksequence. See Click Sequences.
@clicksequence{action @click{} action}@clickstyle @cmd@click; the default is
@arrow. The usual following empty braces on @cmd are
omitted. See Click Sequences.
@clear flag@ifset flag
and @end ifset commands, and preventing
@value{flag} from expanding to the value to which
flag is set.
See @set @clear @value.
@code{sample-code}@code.
@comma{}@command{command-name}@command.
@comment comment@c.
See Comments.
@contents@copyright{}@copyright{}.
@defcodeindex index-name@code font. See Defining New Indices.
@defcv category class name@defcvx category class name@deffn category name arguments...@deffnx category name arguments...@deffn takes as arguments the
category of entity being described, the name of this particular
entity, and its arguments, if any. See Definition Commands.
@defindex index-name@definfoenclose newcmd, before, after,@defivar class instance-variable-name@defivarx class instance-variable-name@defmac macroname arguments...@defmacx macroname arguments...@defmethod class method-name arguments...@defmethodx class method-name arguments...@defop category class name arguments...@defopx category class name arguments...@defop takes as arguments the overall name of the category of
operation, the name of the class of the operation, the name of the
operation, and its arguments, if any. See Definition Commands, and Abstract Objects.
@defopt option-name@defoptx option-name@defspec special-form-name arguments...@defspecx special-form-name arguments...@deftp category name-of-type attributes...@deftpx category name-of-type attributes...@deftp takes as arguments
the category, the name of the type (which is a word like ‘int’ or
‘float’), and then the names of attributes of objects of that type.
See Definition Commands, and Data Types.
@deftypecv category class data-type name@deftypecvx category class data-type name@deftypefn classification data-type name arguments...@deftypefnx classification data-type name arguments...@deftypefn takes as arguments the
classification of entity being described, the type, the name of the
entity, and its arguments, if any. See Definition Commands, and
Def Cmds in Detail.
@deftypefun data-type function-name arguments...@deftypefunx data-type function-name arguments...@deftypeivar class data-type variable-name@deftypeivarx class data-type variable-name@deftypemethod class data-type method-name arguments...@deftypemethodx class data-type method-name arguments...@deftypeop category class data-type name arguments...@deftypeopx category class data-type name arguments...@deftypevar data-type variable-name@deftypevarx data-type variable-name@deftypevr classification data-type name@deftypevrx classification data-type name@defun function-name arguments...@defunx function-name arguments...@defvar variable-name@defvarx variable-name@defvr category name@defvrx category name@defvr takes
as arguments the category of the entity and the name of the entity.
See Definition Commands,
and Def Cmds in Detail.
@detailmenumakeinfo confusion stemming from the detailed node listing
in a master menu. See Master Menu Parts.
@dfn{term}@dfn.
@dircategory dirpart@direntry@end direntry. See Installing Dir Entries.
@display@example (indent text, do not
fill), but do not select a new font. Pair with @end display.
See @display.
@dmn{dimension}@dmn.
@docbook@end docbook. See Raw Formatter Commands.
@documentdescription@end documentdescription. See @documentdescription.
@documentencoding enc@documentencoding.
@documentlanguage CC@documentlanguage.
@dotaccent{c}@dots{}@dots.
@email{address[, displayed-text]}@email.
@emph{text}@end environment@env{environment-variable}@env.
@enddots{}@dots{}.
@enumerate [number-or-letter]@item for each entry.
Optionally, start list with number-or-letter. Pair with
@end enumerate. See @enumerate.
@equiv{}@euro{}@euro{}.
@error{}@evenfooting [left] @| [center] @| [right]@evenheading [left] @| [center] @| [right]@everyfooting [left] @| [center] @| [right]@everyheading [left] @| [center] @| [right]@example@end example. See @example.
@exampleindent indent@exclamdown{}@exdent line-of-text@expansion{}@file{filename}@file.
@finalout@findex entry@float@end float.
See Floats.
@flushleft@flushright@end flushleft.
@flushright analogous.
See @flushleft and @flushright.
@footnote{text-of-footnote}@footnotestyle style@format@display, but do not narrow the
margins. Pair with @end format. See @example.
@ftable formatting-command@item for each entry.
Automatically enter each of the items in the first column into the
index of functions. Pair with @end ftable. The same as
@table, except for indexing. See @ftable and @vtable.
@geq{}@group@end group. Not relevant to Info. See @group.
@H{c}@heading title@headings on-off-single-double@headings Command.
@html@end html. See Raw Formatter Commands.
@hyphenation{hy-phen-a-ted words}@- and @hyphenation.
@i{text}@ifclear flag@ifclear flag and the following @end
ifclear command.
See @set @clear @value.
@ifdocbook@ifhtml@ifinfo@ifinfo output appears in both Info and (for historical
compatibility) plain text output. Pair with @end ifdocbook
resp. @end ifhtml resp. @end ifinfo.
See Conditionals.
@ifnotdocbook@ifnothtml@ifnotinfo@ifnotplaintext@ifnottex@ifnotxml@ifnothtml text is omitted from HTML output, etc. The exception
is @ifnotinfo text, which is omitted from plain text output as
well as Info output. Pair with the corresponding @end
ifnotformat. See Conditionals.
@ifplaintext@end ifplaintext. See Conditionals.
@ifset flag@ifset flag and the following @end ifset
command.
See @set @clear @value.
@iftex@end iftex.
See Conditionally Visible Text.
@ifxml@end ifxml. See Conditionals.
@ignore@end
ignore. See Comments and Ignored Text.
@image{filename, [width], [height], [alt], [ext]}@include filename@indicateurl{indicateurl}@indicateurl.
@inforef{node-name, [entry-name], info-file-name}@inforef.
\input macro-definitions-file\input
is used instead of an @ because TeX does not
recognize @ until after it has read the definitions file.
See Texinfo File Header.
@item@itemize and
@enumerate; indicate the beginning of the text of a first column
entry for @table, @ftable, and @vtable.
See Lists and Tables.
@itemize mark-generating-character-or-command@end
itemize. See @itemize.
@itemx@item but do not generate extra vertical space above the
item text. See @itemx.
@kbd{keyboard-characters}@kbd.
@kbdinputstyle style@kbd should use a font distinct from @code.
See @kbd.
@key{key-name}@key.
@kindex entry@L{}@l{}@LaTeX{}@leq{}@lisp@end lisp. See @lisp.
@listoffloats@floats.
See listoffloats.
@lowersections@raisesections and @lowersections.
@macro macroname {params}@macroname{params}.
Only supported by makeinfo and texi2dvi. See Defining Macros.
@majorheading title@chapheading command. See @majorheading and @chapheading.
@math{mathematical-expression}@math: Inserting Mathematical Expressions.
@menu@end menu. See Menus.
@minus{}@minus.
@multitable column-width-spec@end multitable.
See Multitable Column Widths.
@need n@need.
@node name, next, previous, up@node.
@noindent@noindent.
@novalidate@setfilename. See Pointer Validation.
@O{}@o{}@oddfooting [left] @| [center] @| [right]@oddheading [left] @| [center] @| [right]@OE{}@oe{}@option{option-name}@option.
@page@page.
@pagesizes [width][, height]@paragraphindent indentasis.
See Paragraph Indenting.
@pindex entry@point{}@pounds{}@pounds{}.
@print{}@printindex index-name@pxref{node-name, [entry], [topic-or-title], [info-file], [manual]}@pxref.
@questiondown{}@quotation@end quotation. See @quotation.
@r{text}@raisesections@raisesections and @lowersections.
@ref{node-name, [entry], [topic-or-title], [info-file], [manual]}@ref.
@refill@registeredsymbol{}@registeredsymbol{}.
@result{}@result.
@ringaccent{c}@samp{text}@samp.
@sansserif{text}@sc{text}@section title@section.
@set flag [string]@ifset flag and
@end ifset commands. Optionally, set value of flag to
string.
See @set @clear @value.
@setchapternewpage on-off-odd@setchapternewpage.
@setcontentsaftertitlepage@contents command is not there. See Contents.
@setfilename info-file-name@setfilename.
@setshortcontentsaftertitlepage@shortcontents command is not there.
See Contents.
@settitle title@settitle.
@shortcaption@float. See caption shortcaption.
@shortcontents@summarycontents. See Generating a Table of Contents.
@shorttitlepage title@titlepage.
@slanted{text}@smallbook@smalldisplay@smallexample (narrow margins, no
filling), but do not select the fixed-width font. Pair with @end
smalldisplay. See small.
@smallexample@example. Pair with @end smallexample.
See small.
@smallformat@smalldisplay, but do not narrow
the margins. Pair with @end smallformat. See small.
@smalllisp@smallexample. Pair
with @end smalllisp. See small.
@sp n@sp.
@ss{}@strong {text}@subheading title@unnumberedsubsec @appendixsubsec @subheading.
@subsection title@subsection.
@subsubheading title@subsubsection title@subtitle title@title @subtitle and @author Commands.
@summarycontents@shortcontents. See Generating a Table of Contents.
@syncodeindex from-index into-index@code font. See Combining Indices.
@synindex from-index into-index@t{text}@tab@table formatting-command@item for each entry. Write
each first column entry on the same line as @item. First
column entries are printed in the font resulting from
formatting-command. Pair with @end table.
See Making a Two-column Table.
Also see @ftable and @vtable,
and @itemx.
@TeX{}@tex@end tex. See Raw Formatter Commands.
@thischapter@thischaptername@thischapternum@thisfile@thispage@thistitle@tie{}@tie{}.
@tieaccent{cc}@tindex entry@title title@title @subtitle and @author Commands.
@titlefont{text}@titlefont @center and @sp Commands.
@titlepage@end titlepage. Nothing between
@titlepage and @end titlepage appears in Info.
See @titlepage.
@today{}@top titlemakeinfo, identify the
topmost @node in the file, which must be written on the line
immediately preceding the @top command. Used for
makeinfo's node pointer insertion feature. The title is
underlined with asterisks. Both the @node line and the @top
line normally should be enclosed by @ifnottex and @end
ifnottex. In TeX and texinfo-format-buffer, the @top
command is merely a synonym for @unnumbered. See Creating Pointers with makeinfo.
@u{c}@ubaraccent{c}@udotaccent{c}@unnumbered title@unnumbered and @appendix.
@unnumberedsec title@unnumberedsubsec title@unnumberedsubsec @appendixsubsec @subheading.
@unnumberedsubsubsec title@uref{url[, displayed-text][, replacement}@url{url[, displayed-text][, replacement}@uref.
@v{c}@value{flag}@set
flag.
See @set @clear @value.
@var{metasyntactic-variable}@verb{delim literal delim}verb.
@verbatim@end verbatim. See verbatim.
@verbatiminclude filenameverbatiminclude.
@vindex entry@vskip amount@vskip may be used
only in contexts ignored for Info. See Copyright.
@vtable formatting-command@item for each entry.
Automatically enter each of the items in the first column into the
index of variables. Pair with @end vtable. The same as
@table, except for indexing. See @ftable and @vtable.
@w{text}@w.
@xml@end xml. See Raw Formatter Commands.
@xref{node-name, [entry], [topic-or-title], [info-file], [manual]}@xref.
The character ‘@’ is used to start special Texinfo commands. (It has the same meaning that ‘\’ has in plain TeX.) Texinfo has four types of @-command:
@@, @{, @},
@., @SPACE, most of the accent commands, and
many more.
@dots{} ⇒ ‘...’, @equiv{}
⇒ ‘==’, @TeX{} ⇒ `TeX',
and @bullet{} ⇒ ‘•’.
@dfn indicates
the introductory or defining use of a term; it is used as follows: ‘In
Texinfo, @@-commands are @dfn{mark-up} commands.’
@center
or @cindex. If no argument is needed, the word is followed by
the end of the line. If there is an argument, it is separated from
the command name by a space. Braces are not used.
Thus, the alphabetic commands fall into classes that have different argument syntaxes. You cannot tell to which class a command belongs by the appearance of its name, but you can tell by the command's meaning: if the command stands for a glyph, it is in class 2 and does not require an argument; if it makes sense to use the command together with other text as part of a paragraph, the command is in class 3 and must be followed by an argument in braces; otherwise, it is in class 4 and uses the rest of the line as its argument.
The purpose of having a different syntax for commands of classes 3 and
4 is to make Texinfo files easier to read, and also to help the GNU
Emacs paragraph and filling commands work properly. There is only one
exception to this rule: the command @refill, which is always
used at the end of a paragraph immediately following the final period
or other punctuation character. @refill takes no argument and
does not require braces. @refill never confuses the
Emacs paragraph commands because it cannot appear at the beginning of
a line. It is also no longer needed, since all formatters now refill
paragraphs automatically.
Here are some tips for writing Texinfo documentation:
Write many index entries, in different ways. Readers like indices; they are helpful and convenient.
Although it is easiest to write index entries as you write the body of the text, some people prefer to write entries afterwards. In either case, write an entry before the paragraph to which it applies. This way, an index entry points to the first page of a paragraph that is split across pages.
Here are more hints we have found valuable:
In the example that follows, a blank line comes after the index entry for “Leaping”:
@section The Dog and the Fox
@cindex Jumping, in general
@cindex Leaping
@cindex Dog, lazy, jumped over
@cindex Lazy dog jumped over
@cindex Fox, jumps over dog
@cindex Quick fox jumps over dog
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
(Note that the example shows entries for the same concept that are written in different ways—‘Lazy dog’, and ‘Dog, lazy’—so readers can look up the concept in different ways.)
@table command and after an
@end table command; but never insert a blank line after an
@table command or before an @end table command.
For example,
Types of fox:
@table @samp
@item Quick
Jump over lazy dogs.
@item Brown
Also jump over lazy dogs.
@end table
@noindent
On the other hand, ...
Insert blank lines before and after @itemize ... @end
itemize and @enumerate ... @end enumerate in the
same way.
Complete phrases are easier to read than ...
Include edition numbers, version numbers, and dates in the
@copying text (for people reading the Texinfo file, and for the
legal copyright in the output files). Then use @insertcopying
in the @titlepage section (for people reading the printed
output) and the Top node (for people reading the online output).
It is easiest to do this using @set and @value.
See @value Example, and GNU Sample Texts.
Definition commands are @deffn, @defun,
@defmac, and the like, and enable you to write descriptions in
a uniform format.
@table ... @end table in an appendix that
contains a summary of functions, not @deffn or other definition
commands.
@TeX{} command. Note the uppercase
‘T’ and ‘X’. This command causes the formatters to
typeset the name according to the wishes of Donald Knuth, who wrote
TeX.
Do not use spaces to format a Texinfo file, except inside of
@example ... @end example and other literal
environments and commands.
For example, TeX fills the following:
@kbd{C-x v}
@kbd{M-x vc-next-action}
Perform the next logical operation
on the version-controlled file
corresponding to the current buffer.
so it looks like this:
`C-x v' `M-x vc-next-action' Perform the next logical operation on the version-controlled file corresponding to the current buffer.
In this case, the text should be formatted with
@table, @item, and @itemx, to create a table.
@code around Lisp symbols, including command names.
For example,
The main function is @code{vc-next-action}, ...
@var around meta-variables. Do not write angle brackets
around them.
Place periods and other punctuation marks outside of quotations, unless the punctuation is part of the quotation. This practice goes against publishing conventions in the United States, but enables the reader to distinguish between the contents of the quotation and the whole passage.
For example, you should write the following sentence with the period outside the end quotation marks:
Evidently, ‘au’ is an abbreviation for ``author''.
since ‘au’ does not serve as an abbreviation for ‘author.’ (with a period following the word).
For example, in the following, the terms “check in”, “register” and “delta” are all appearing for the first time; the example sentence should be rewritten so they are understandable.
The major function assists you in checking in a file to your version control system and registering successive sets of changes to it as deltas.
@dfn command around a word being introduced, to indicate
that the reader should not expect to know the meaning already, and
should expect to learn the meaning from this passage.
Absolutely never use @pxref except in the special context for
which it is designed: inside parentheses, with the closing parenthesis
following immediately after the closing brace. One formatter
automatically inserts closing punctuation and the other does not. This
means that the output looks right both in printed output and in an Info
file, but only when the command is used inside parentheses.
You can invoke programs such as Emacs, GCC, and gawk from a
shell. The documentation for each program should contain a section that
describes this. Unfortunately, if the node names and titles for these
sections are all different, they are difficult for users to find.
So, there is a convention to name such sections with a phrase beginning with the word `Invoking', as in `Invoking Emacs'; this way, users can find the section easily.
When you use @example to describe a C function's calling
conventions, use the ANSI C syntax, like this:
void dld_init (char *@var{path});
And in the subsequent discussion, refer to the argument values by
writing the same argument names, again highlighted with
@var.
Avoid the obsolete style that looks like this:
#include <dld.h>
dld_init (path)
char *path;
Also, it is best to avoid writing #include above the
declaration just to indicate that the function is declared in a
header file. The practice may give the misimpression that the
#include belongs near the declaration of the function. Either
state explicitly which header file holds the declaration or, better
yet, name the header file used for a group of functions at the
beginning of the section that describes the functions.
Here are several examples of bad writing to avoid:
In this example, say, “ ... you must @dfn{check
in} the new version.” That flows better.
When you are done editing the file, you must perform a
@dfn{check in}.
In the following example, say, “... makes a unified interface such as VC mode possible.”
SCCS, RCS and other version-control systems all perform similar functions in broadly similar ways (it is this resemblance which makes a unified control mode like this possible).
And in this example, you should specify what `it' refers to:
If you are working with other people, it assists in coordinating everyone's changes so they do not step on each other.
@bye. None of the formatters process text after the
@bye; it is as if the text were within @ignore ...
@end ignore.
The first example is from the first chapter (see Short Sample), given here in its entirety, without commentary. The second includes the full texts to be used in GNU manuals.
Here is a complete, short sample Texinfo file, without any commentary. You can see this file, with comments, in the first chapter. See Short Sample.
In a nutshell: The makeinfo program transforms a Texinfo source file such as this into an Info file or HTML; and TeX typesets it for a printed manual.
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename sample.info
@settitle Sample Manual 1.0
@c %**end of header
@copying
This is a short example of a complete Texinfo file.
Copyright © 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@end copying
@titlepage
@title Sample Title
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
@end titlepage
@c Output the table of the contents at the beginning.
@contents
@ifnottex
@node Top
@top GNU Sample
@insertcopying
@end ifnottex
@menu
* First Chapter:: The first chapter is the
only chapter in this sample.
* Index:: Complete index.
@end menu
@node First Chapter
@chapter First Chapter
@cindex chapter, first
This is the first chapter.
@cindex index entry, another
Here is a numbered list.
@enumerate
@item
This is the first item.
@item
This is the second item.
@end enumerate
@node Index
@unnumbered Index
@printindex cp
@bye
Following is a sample Texinfo document with the full texts that should be used in GNU manuals.
As well as the legal texts, it also serves as a practical example of how many elements in a GNU system can affect the manual. If you're not familiar with all these different elements, don't worry. They're not required and a perfectly good manual can be written without them. They're included here nonetheless because many manuals do (or could) benefit from them.
See Short Sample, for a minimal example of a Texinfo file. See Beginning a File, for a full explanation of that minimal example.
Here are some notes on the example:
$Id: texinfo.txi,v 1.220 2008/04/09 17:07:31 karl Exp $
(This is useful in all sources that use version control, not just manuals.)
You may wish to include the ‘$Id:’ comment in the @copying
text, if you want a completely unambiguous reference to the
documentation version.
If you want to literally write $Id$, use @w:
@w{$}Id$.
@include command is maintained
automatically by Automake (see Introduction). It sets the ‘VERSION’ and ‘UPDATED’ values used
elsewhere. If your distribution doesn't use Automake, but you do use
Emacs, you may find the time-stamp.el package helpful (see Time Stamps).
@syncodeindex command reflects the recommendation to use
only one index where possible, to make it easier for readers to look up
index entries.
@dircategory is for constructing the Info directory.
See Installing Dir Entries, which includes a variety of recommended
category names.
The FDL provides for omitting itself under certain conditions, but in that case the sample texts given here have to be modified. See GNU Free Documentation License.
Here is the sample document:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@comment $Id: texinfo.txi,v 1.220 2008/04/09 17:07:31 karl Exp $
@comment %**start of header
@setfilename sample.info
@include version.texi
@settitle GNU Sample @value{VERSION}
@syncodeindex pg cp
@comment %**end of header
@copying
This manual is for GNU Sample (version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}),
which is an example in the Texinfo documentation.
Copyright @copyright{} 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@quotation
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being ``A GNU Manual,''
and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
License.''
(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have the freedom to
copy and modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF
supports it in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.''
@end quotation
@end copying
@dircategory Texinfo documentation system
@direntry
* sample: (sample)Invoking sample.
@end direntry
@titlepage
@title GNU Sample
@subtitle for version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
@author A.U. Thor (@email{bug-texinfo@@gnu.org})
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
@end titlepage
@contents
@ifnottex
@node Top
@top GNU Sample
This manual is for GNU Sample (version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}).
@end ifnottex
@menu
* Invoking sample::
* Copying This Manual::
* Index::
@end menu
@node Invoking sample
@chapter Invoking sample
@pindex sample
@cindex invoking @command{sample}
This is a sample manual. There is no sample program to
invoke, but if there was, you could see its basic usage
and command line options here.
@node GNU Free Documentation License
@appendix GNU Free Documentation License
@include fdl.texi
@node Index
@unnumbered Index
@printindex cp
@bye
For software manuals and other documentation, it is important to use a license permitting free redistribution and updating, so that when a free program is changed, the documentation can be updated as well.
On the other hand, for documents that express your personal views, feelings or experiences, it is more appropriate to use a license permitting only verbatim copying.
Here is sample text for such a license permitting verbatim copying only. This is just the license text itself. For a complete sample document, see the previous sections.
@copying
This document is a sample for allowing verbatim copying only.
Copyright @copyright{} 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@quotation
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies
of this entire document without royalty provided the
copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved.
@end quotation
@end copying
For software manuals and other documentation, it is important to use a license permitting free redistribution and updating, so that when a free program is changed, the documentation can be updated as well.
On the other hand, for small supporting files, short manuals (under 300 lines long) and rough documentation (README files, INSTALL files, etc.), the full FDL would be overkill. They can use a simple all-permissive license.
Here is sample text for such an all-permissive license. This is just the license text itself. For a complete sample document, see the previous sections.
Copyright © 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved.
When TeX or an Info formatting command sees an @include
command in a Texinfo file, it processes the contents of the file named
by the command and incorporates them into the DVI or Info file being
created. Index entries from the included file are incorporated into
the indices of the output file.
Include files let you keep a single large document as a collection of conveniently small parts.
To include another file within a Texinfo file, write the
@include command at the beginning of a line and follow it on
the same line by the name of a file to be included. For example:
@include buffers.texi
The name of the file is taken literally, with a single exception:
@value{var} references are expanded. This makes it
possible to reliably include files in other directories in a
distribution. See @verbatiminclude, for
an example.
An included file should simply be a segment of text that you expect to
be included as is into the overall or outer Texinfo file; it
should not contain the standard beginning and end parts of a Texinfo
file. In particular, you should not start an included file with a
line saying ‘\input texinfo’; if you do, that phrase is inserted
into the output file as is. Likewise, you should not end an included
file with an @bye command; nothing after @bye is
formatted.
In the past, you were required to write an @setfilename line at the
beginning of an included file, but no longer. Now, it does not matter
whether you write such a line. If an @setfilename line exists
in an included file, it is ignored.
Conventionally, an included file begins with an @node line that
is followed by an @chapter line. Each included file is one
chapter. This makes it easy to use the regular node and menu creating
and updating commands to create the node pointers and menus within the
included file. However, the simple Emacs node and menu creating and
updating commands do not work with multiple Texinfo files. Thus you
cannot use these commands to fill in the `Next', `Previous', and `Up'
pointers of the @node line that begins the included file. Also,
you cannot use the regular commands to create a master menu for the
whole file. Either you must insert the menus and the `Next',
`Previous', and `Up' pointers by hand, or you must use the GNU Emacs
Texinfo mode command, texinfo-multiple-files-update, that is
designed for @include files.
When an included file does not have any node lines in it, the multiple files update command does not try to create a menu entry for it. Consequently, you can include any file, such as a version or an update file without node lines, not just files that are chapters. Small includable files like this are created by Automake (see GNU Sample Texts).
texinfo-multiple-files-update
GNU Emacs Texinfo mode provides the texinfo-multiple-files-update
command. This command creates or updates `Next', `Previous', and `Up'
pointers of included files as well as those in the outer or overall
Texinfo file, and it creates or updates a main menu in the outer file.
Depending whether you call it with optional arguments, the command
updates only the pointers in the first @node line of the
included files or all of them:
@node line in each file included in an outer or overall
Texinfo file.
@node line in each
included file.
texinfo-master-menu with an argument when you are
working with just one file.
Note the use of the prefix argument in interactive use: with a regular
prefix argument, just C-u, the
texinfo-multiple-files-update command inserts a master menu;
with a numeric prefix argument, such as C-u 8, the command
updates every pointer and menu in all the files and then inserts a
master menu.
If you plan to use the texinfo-multiple-files-update command,
the outer Texinfo file that lists included files within it should
contain nothing but the beginning and end parts of a Texinfo file, and
a number of @include commands listing the included files. It
should not even include indices, which should be listed in an included
file of their own.
Moreover, each of the included files must contain exactly one highest
level node (conventionally, @chapter or equivalent),
and this node must be the first node in the included file.
Furthermore, each of these highest level nodes in each included file
must be at the same hierarchical level in the file structure.
Usually, each is an @chapter, an @appendix, or an
@unnumbered node. Thus, normally, each included file contains
one, and only one, chapter or equivalent-level node.
The outer file should contain only one node, the `Top' node. It
should not contain any nodes besides the single `Top' node. The
texinfo-multiple-files-update command will not process
them.
@include
Here is an example of an outer Texinfo file with @include files
within it before running texinfo-multiple-files-update, which
would insert a main or master menu:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@setfilename include-example.info
@settitle Include Example
... See Sample Texinfo Files, for
examples of the rest of the frontmatter ...
@ifnottex
@node Top
@top Include Example
@end ifnottex
@include foo.texinfo
@include bar.texinfo
@include concept-index.texinfo
@bye
An included file, such as foo.texinfo, might look like this:
@node First
@chapter First Chapter
Contents of first chapter ...
The full contents of concept-index.texinfo might be as simple as this:
@node Concept Index
@unnumbered Concept Index
@printindex cp
The outer Texinfo source file for The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference
Manual is named elisp.texi. This outer file contains a master
menu with 417 entries and a list of 41 @include
files.
When Info was first created, it was customary to create many small Info files on one subject. Each Info file was formatted from its own Texinfo source file. This custom meant that Emacs did not need to make a large buffer to hold the whole of a large Info file when someone wanted information; instead, Emacs allocated just enough memory for the small Info file that contained the particular information sought. This way, Emacs could avoid wasting memory.
References from one file to another were made by referring to the file
name as well as the node name. (See Referring to Other Info Files. Also, see @xref with Four and Five Arguments.)
Include files were designed primarily as a way to create a single,
large printed manual out of several smaller Info files. In a printed
manual, all the references were within the same document, so TeX
could automatically determine the references' page numbers. The Info
formatting commands used include files only for creating joint
indices; each of the individual Texinfo files had to be formatted for
Info individually. (Each, therefore, required its own
@setfilename line.)
However, because large Info files are now split automatically, it is no longer necessary to keep them small.
Nowadays, multiple Texinfo files are used mostly for large documents, such as The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, and for projects in which several different people write different sections of a document simultaneously.
In addition, the Info formatting commands have been extended to work
with the @include command so as to create a single large Info
file that is split into smaller files if necessary. This means that
you can write menus and cross references without naming the different
Texinfo files.
Most printed manuals contain headings along the top of every page except the title and copyright pages. Some manuals also contain footings. (Headings and footings have no meaning to Info, which is not paginated.)
Texinfo provides standard page heading formats for manuals that are printed on one side of each sheet of paper and for manuals that are printed on both sides of the paper. Typically, you will use these formats, but you can specify your own format if you wish.
In addition, you can specify whether chapters should begin on a new page, or merely continue the same page as the previous chapter; and if chapters begin on new pages, you can specify whether they must be odd-numbered pages.
By convention, a book is printed on both sides of each sheet of paper. When you open a book, the right-hand page is odd-numbered, and chapters begin on right-hand pages—a preceding left-hand page is left blank if necessary. Reports, however, are often printed on just one side of paper, and chapters begin on a fresh page immediately following the end of the preceding chapter. In short or informal reports, chapters often do not begin on a new page at all, but are separated from the preceding text by a small amount of whitespace.
The @setchapternewpage command controls whether chapters begin
on new pages, and whether one of the standard heading formats is used.
In addition, Texinfo has several heading and footing commands that you
can use to generate your own heading and footing formats.
In Texinfo, headings and footings are single lines at the tops and bottoms of pages; you cannot create multiline headings or footings. Each header or footer line is divided into three parts: a left part, a middle part, and a right part. Any part, or a whole line, may be left blank. Text for the left part of a header or footer line is set flushleft; text for the middle part is centered; and, text for the right part is set flushright.
Texinfo provides two standard heading formats, one for manuals printed on one side of each sheet of paper, and the other for manuals printed on both sides of the paper.
By default, nothing is specified for the footing of a Texinfo file, so the footing remains blank.
The standard format for single-sided printing consists of a header line in which the left-hand part contains the name of the chapter, the central part is blank, and the right-hand part contains the page number.
A single-sided page looks like this:
_______________________
| |
| chapter page number |
| |
| Start of text ... |
| ... |
| |
The standard format for two-sided printing depends on whether the page number is even or odd. By convention, even-numbered pages are on the left- and odd-numbered pages are on the right. (TeX will adjust the widths of the left- and right-hand margins. Usually, widths are correct, but during double-sided printing, it is wise to check that pages will bind properly—sometimes a printer will produce output in which the even-numbered pages have a larger right-hand margin than the odd-numbered pages.)
In the standard double-sided format, the left part of the left-hand
(even-numbered) page contains the page number, the central part is
blank, and the right part contains the title (specified by the
@settitle command). The left part of the right-hand
(odd-numbered) page contains the name of the chapter, the central part
is blank, and the right part contains the page number.
Two pages, side by side as in an open book, look like this:
_______________________ _______________________
| | | |
| page number title | | chapter page number |
| | | |
| Start of text ... | | More text ... |
| ... | | ... |
| | | |
The chapter name is preceded by the word “Chapter”, the chapter number and a colon. This makes it easier to keep track of where you are in the manual.
TeX does not begin to generate page headings for a standard Texinfo
file until it reaches the @end titlepage command. Thus, the
title and copyright pages are not numbered. The @end
titlepage command causes TeX to begin to generate page headings
according to a standard format specified by the
@setchapternewpage command that precedes the
@titlepage section.
There are four possibilities:
@setchapternewpage command@setchapternewpage on.
@setchapternewpage on@setchapternewpage off@headings double command; see
The @headings Command.)
@setchapternewpage oddTexinfo lacks an @setchapternewpage even command.
You can use the standard headings provided with Texinfo or specify your own. By default, Texinfo has no footers, so if you specify them, the available page size for the main text will be slightly reduced.
Texinfo provides six commands for specifying headings and footings:
@everyheading @everyfooting generate page headers and
footers that are the same for both even- and odd-numbered pages.
@evenheading and @evenfooting command generate headers
and footers for even-numbered (left-hand) pages.
@oddheading and @oddfooting generate headers and footers
for odd-numbered (right-hand) pages.
Write custom heading specifications in the Texinfo file immediately
after the @end titlepage command.
You must cancel the predefined heading commands with the
@headings off command before defining your own
specifications.
Here is how to tell TeX to place the chapter name at the left, the page number in the center, and the date at the right of every header for both even- and odd-numbered pages:
@headings off
@everyheading @thischapter @| @thispage @| @today{}
You need to divide the left part from the central part and the central part from the right part by inserting ‘@|’ between parts. Otherwise, the specification command will not be able to tell where the text for one part ends and the next part begins.
Each part can contain text or @-commands. The text is printed as if the part were within an ordinary paragraph in the body of the page. The @-commands replace themselves with the page number, date, chapter name, or whatever.
Here are the six heading and footing commands:
@everyheading left @| center @| right@everyfooting left @| center @| right@evenheading left @| center @| right@oddheading left @| center @| right@evenfooting left @| center @| right@oddfooting left @| center @| rightUse the ‘@this...’ series of @-commands to
provide the names of chapters
and sections and the page number. You can use the
‘@this...’ commands in the left, center, or right portions
of headers and footers, or anywhere else in a Texinfo file so long as
they are between @iftex and @end iftex commands.
Here are the ‘@this...’ commands:
@thispage@thissectionname@thissectionnum@thissection@thischaptername@thischapternum@thischapter@thistitle@settitle command.
@thisfile@include files only: expands to the name of the current
@include file. If the current Texinfo source file is not an
@include file, this command has no effect. This command does
not provide the name of the current Texinfo source file unless
it is an @include file. (See Include Files, for more
information about @include files.)
You can also use the @today{} command, which expands to the
current date, in `1 Jan 1900' format.
Other @-commands and text are printed in a header or footer just as
if they were in the body of a page. It is useful to incorporate text,
particularly when you are writing drafts:
@headings off
@everyheading @emph{Draft!} @| @thispage @| @thischapter
@everyfooting @| @| Version: 0.27: @today{}
Beware of overlong titles: they may overlap another part of the header or footer and blot it out.
If you have very short chapters and/or sections, several of them can
appear on a single page. You can specify which chapters and sections
you want @thischapter, @thissection and other such
macros to refer to on such pages as follows:
@everyheadingmarks ref@everyfootingmarks reftop (the @this...
commands will refer to the chapter/section at the top of a page) or
bottom (the commands will reflect the situation at the bottom
of a page). These ‘@every...’ commands specify what to do on
both even- and odd-numbered pages.
@evenheadingmarks ref@oddheadingmarks ref@evenfootingmarks ref@oddfootingmarks refWrite these commands immediately after the @...contents
commands, or after the @end titlepage command if you don't
have a table of contents or if it is printed at the end of your
manual.
By default the @this... commands reflect the situation at the
bottom of a page both in headings and in footings.
Besides mistakes in the content of your documentation, there are two kinds of mistake you can make with Texinfo: you can make mistakes with @-commands, and you can make mistakes with the structure of the nodes and chapters.
Emacs has two tools for catching the @-command mistakes and two for catching structuring mistakes.
For finding problems with @-commands, you can run TeX or a region formatting command on the region that has a problem; indeed, you can run these commands on each region as you write it.
For finding problems with the structure of nodes and chapters, you can use
C-c C-s (texinfo-show-structure) and the related occur
command and you can use the M-x Info-validate command.
makeinfo Find ErrorsThe makeinfo program does an excellent job of catching errors
and reporting them—far better than texinfo-format-region or
texinfo-format-buffer. In addition, the various functions for
automatically creating and updating node pointers and menus remove
many opportunities for human error.
If you can, use the updating commands to create and insert pointers
and menus. These prevent many errors. Then use makeinfo (or
its Texinfo mode manifestations, makeinfo-region and
makeinfo-buffer) to format your file and check for other
errors. This is the best way to work with Texinfo. But if you
cannot use makeinfo, or your problem is very puzzling, then you
may want to use the tools described in this appendix.
After you have written part of a Texinfo file, you can use the
texinfo-format-region or the makeinfo-region command to
see whether the region formats properly.
Most likely, however, you are reading this section because for some
reason you cannot use the makeinfo-region command; therefore, the
rest of this section presumes that you are using
texinfo-format-region.
If you have made a mistake with an @-command,
texinfo-format-region will stop processing at or after the
error and display an error message. To see where in the buffer the
error occurred, switch to the ‘*Info Region*’ buffer; the cursor
will be in a position that is after the location of the error. Also,
the text will not be formatted after the place where the error
occurred (or more precisely, where it was detected).
For example, if you accidentally end a menu with the command @end
menus with an `s' on the end, instead of with @end menu, you
will see an error message that says:
@end menus is not handled by texinfo
The cursor will stop at the point in the buffer where the error occurs, or not long after it. The buffer will look like this:
---------- Buffer: *Info Region* ----------
* Menu:
* Using texinfo-show-structure:: How to use
`texinfo-show-structure'
to catch mistakes.
* Running Info-Validate:: How to check for
unreferenced nodes.
@end menus
-!-
---------- Buffer: *Info Region* ----------
The texinfo-format-region command sometimes provides slightly
odd error messages. For example, the following cross reference fails to format:
(@xref{Catching Mistakes, for more info.)
In this case, texinfo-format-region detects the missing closing
brace but displays a message that says ‘Unbalanced parentheses’
rather than ‘Unbalanced braces’. This is because the formatting
command looks for mismatches between braces as if they were
parentheses.
Sometimes texinfo-format-region fails to detect mistakes. For
example, in the following, the closing brace is swapped with the
closing parenthesis:
(@xref{Catching Mistakes), for more info.}
Formatting produces:
(*Note for more info.: Catching Mistakes)
The only way for you to detect this error is to realize that the reference should have looked like this:
(*Note Catching Mistakes::, for more info.)
Incidentally, if you are reading this node in Info and type f
<RET> (Info-follow-reference), you will generate an error
message that says:
No such node: "Catching Mistakes) The only way ...
This is because Info perceives the example of the error as the first
cross reference in this node and if you type a <RET> immediately
after typing the Info f command, Info will attempt to go to the
referenced node. If you type f catch <TAB> <RET>, Info
will complete the node name of the correctly written example and take
you to the `Catching Mistakes' node. (If you try this, you can return
from the `Catching Mistakes' node by typing l
(Info-last).)
You can also catch mistakes when you format a file with TeX.
Usually, you will want to do this after you have run
texinfo-format-buffer (or, better, makeinfo-buffer) on
the same file, because texinfo-format-buffer sometimes displays
error messages that make more sense than TeX. (See Debugging with Info, for more information.)
For example, TeX was run on a Texinfo file, part of which is shown here:
---------- Buffer: texinfo.texi ----------
name of the Texinfo file as an extension. The
@samp{??} are `wildcards' that cause the shell to
substitute all the raw index files. (@xref{sorting
indices, for more information about sorting
indices.)@refill
---------- Buffer: texinfo.texi ----------
(The cross reference lacks a closing brace.) TeX produced the following output, after which it stopped:
---------- Buffer: *tex-shell* ----------
Runaway argument?
{sorting indices, for more information about sorting
indices.) @refill @ETC.
! Paragraph ended before @xref was complete.
<to be read again>
@par
l.27
?
---------- Buffer: *tex-shell* ----------
In this case, TeX produced an accurate and understandable error message:
Paragraph ended before @xref was complete.
‘@par’ is an internal TeX command of no relevance to Texinfo. ‘l.27’ means that TeX detected the problem on line 27 of the Texinfo file. The ‘?’ is the prompt TeX uses in this circumstance.
Unfortunately, TeX is not always so helpful, and sometimes you must truly be a Sherlock Holmes to discover what went wrong.
In any case, if you run into a problem like this, you can do one of three things.
This is often the best thing to do. However, beware: the one error may produce a cascade of additional error messages as its consequences are felt through the rest of the file. To stop TeX when it is producing such an avalanche of error messages, type C-c (or C-c C-c, if you are running a shell inside Emacs).
If you are running TeX inside Emacs, you need to switch to the shell buffer and line at which TeX offers the ‘?’ prompt.
Sometimes TeX will format a file without producing error messages even
though there is a problem. This usually occurs if a command is not ended
but TeX is able to continue processing anyhow. For example, if you fail
to end an itemized list with the @end itemize command, TeX will
write a DVI file that you can print out. The only error message that
TeX will give you is the somewhat mysterious comment that
(@end occurred inside a group at level 1)
However, if you print the DVI file, you will find that the text
of the file that follows the itemized list is entirely indented as if
it were part of the last item in the itemized list. The error message
is the way TeX says that it expected to find an @end
command somewhere in the file; but that it could not determine where
it was needed.
Another source of notoriously hard-to-find errors is a missing
@end group command. If you ever are stumped by
incomprehensible errors, look for a missing @end group command
first.
If the Texinfo file lacks header lines, TeX may stop in the beginning of its run and display output that looks like the following. The ‘*’ indicates that TeX is waiting for input.
This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2c 7.0)
(test.texinfo [1])
*
In this case, simply type \end <RET> after the asterisk. Then write the header lines in the Texinfo file and run the TeX command again. (Note the use of the backslash, ‘\’. TeX uses ‘\’ instead of ‘@’; and in this circumstance, you are working directly with TeX, not with Texinfo.)
texinfo-show-structureIt is not always easy to keep track of the nodes, chapters, sections, and subsections of a Texinfo file. This is especially true if you are revising or adding to a Texinfo file that someone else has written.
In GNU Emacs, in Texinfo mode, the texinfo-show-structure
command lists all the lines that begin with the @-commands that
specify the structure: @chapter, @section,
@appendix, and so on. With an argument (C-u
as prefix argument, if interactive),
the command also shows the @node lines. The
texinfo-show-structure command is bound to C-c C-s in
Texinfo mode, by default.
The lines are displayed in a buffer called the ‘*Occur*’ buffer,
indented by hierarchical level. For example, here is a part of what was
produced by running texinfo-show-structure on this manual:
Lines matching "^@\\(chapter \\|sect\\|subs\\|subh\\|
unnum\\|major\\|chapheading \\|heading \\|appendix\\)"
in buffer texinfo.texi.
...
4177:@chapter Nodes
4198: @heading Two Paths
4231: @section Node and Menu Illustration
4337: @section The @code{@@node} Command
4393: @subheading Choosing Node and Pointer Names
4417: @subsection How to Write an @code{@@node} Line
4469: @subsection @code{@@node} Line Tips
...
This says that lines 4337, 4393, and 4417 of texinfo.texi begin
with the @section, @subheading, and @subsection
commands respectively. If you move your cursor into the ‘*Occur*’
window, you can position the cursor over one of the lines and use the
C-c C-c command (occur-mode-goto-occurrence), to jump to
the corresponding spot in the Texinfo file. See Using Occur, for more
information about occur-mode-goto-occurrence.
The first line in the ‘*Occur*’ window describes the regular
expression specified by texinfo-heading-pattern. This regular
expression is the pattern that texinfo-show-structure looks for.
See Using Regular Expressions,
for more information.
When you invoke the texinfo-show-structure command, Emacs will
display the structure of the whole buffer. If you want to see the
structure of just a part of the buffer, of one chapter, for example,
use the C-x n n (narrow-to-region) command to mark the
region. (See Narrowing.) This is
how the example used above was generated. (To see the whole buffer
again, use C-x n w (widen).)
If you call texinfo-show-structure with a prefix argument by
typing C-u C-c C-s, it will list lines beginning with
@node as well as the lines beginning with the @-sign commands
for @chapter, @section, and the like.
You can remind yourself of the structure of a Texinfo file by looking at the list in the ‘*Occur*’ window; and if you have mis-named a node or left out a section, you can correct the mistake.
occur
Sometimes the texinfo-show-structure command produces too much
information. Perhaps you want to remind yourself of the overall structure
of a Texinfo file, and are overwhelmed by the detailed list produced by
texinfo-show-structure. In this case, you can use the occur
command directly. To do this, type
M-x occur
and then, when prompted, type a regexp, a regular expression for
the pattern you want to match. (See Regular Expressions.) The occur command works from
the current location of the cursor in the buffer to the end of the
buffer. If you want to run occur on the whole buffer, place
the cursor at the beginning of the buffer.
For example, to see all the lines that contain the word ‘@chapter’ in them, just type ‘@chapter’. This will produce a list of the chapters. It will also list all the sentences with ‘@chapter’ in the middle of the line.
If you want to see only those lines that start with the word
‘@chapter’, type ‘^@chapter’ when prompted by
occur. If you want to see all the lines that end with a word
or phrase, end the last word with a ‘$’; for example,
‘catching mistakes$’. This can be helpful when you want to see
all the nodes that are part of the same chapter or section and
therefore have the same `Up' pointer.
See Using Occur, for more information.
You can use the Info-validate command to check whether any of
the `Next', `Previous', `Up' or other node pointers fail to point to a
node. This command checks that every node pointer points to an
existing node. The Info-validate command works only on Info
files, not on Texinfo files.
The makeinfo program validates pointers automatically, so you
do not need to use the Info-validate command if you are using
makeinfo. You only may need to use Info-validate if you
are unable to run makeinfo and instead must create an Info file
using texinfo-format-region or texinfo-format-buffer, or
if you write an Info file from scratch.
Info-validate
To use Info-validate, visit the Info file you wish to check and
type:
M-x Info-validate
Note that the Info-validate command requires an upper case
`I'. You may also need to create a tag table before running
Info-validate. See Tagifying.
If your file is valid, you will receive a message that says “File appears valid”. However, if you have a pointer that does not point to a node, error messages will be displayed in a buffer called ‘*problems in info file*’.
For example, Info-validate was run on a test file that contained
only the first node of this manual. One of the messages said:
In node "Overview", invalid Next: Texinfo Mode
This meant that the node called ‘Overview’ had a `Next' pointer that did not point to anything (which was true in this case, since the test file had only one node in it).
Now suppose we add a node named ‘Texinfo Mode’ to our test case but we do not specify a `Previous' for this node. Then we will get the following error message:
In node "Texinfo Mode", should have Previous: Overview
This is because every `Next' pointer should be matched by a `Previous' (in the node where the `Next' points) which points back.
Info-validate also checks that all menu entries and cross references
point to actual nodes.
Info-validate requires a tag table and does not work with files
that have been split. (The texinfo-format-buffer command
automatically splits large files.) In order to use Info-validate
on a large file, you must run texinfo-format-buffer with an
argument so that it does not split the Info file; and you must create a
tag table for the unsplit file.
You can run Info-validate only on a single Info file that has a
tag table. The command will not work on the indirect subfiles that
are generated when a master file is split. If you have a large file
(longer than 300,000 bytes or so), you need to run the
texinfo-format-buffer or makeinfo-buffer command in such
a way that it does not create indirect subfiles. You will also need
to create a tag table for the Info file. After you have done this,
you can run Info-validate and look for badly referenced
nodes.
The first step is to create an unsplit Info file. To prevent
texinfo-format-buffer from splitting a Texinfo file into
smaller Info files, give a prefix to the M-x
texinfo-format-buffer command:
C-u M-x texinfo-format-buffer
or else
C-u C-c C-e C-b
When you do this, Texinfo will not split the file and will not create a tag table for it.
After creating an unsplit Info file, you must create a tag table for it. Visit the Info file you wish to tagify and type:
M-x Info-tagify
(Note the upper case ‘I’ in Info-tagify.) This creates an
Info file with a tag table that you can validate.
The third step is to validate the Info file:
M-x Info-validate
(Note the upper case ‘I’ in Info-validate.)
In brief, the steps are:
C-u M-x texinfo-format-buffer
M-x Info-tagify
M-x Info-validate
After you have validated the node structure, you can rerun
texinfo-format-buffer in the normal way so it will construct a
tag table and split the file automatically, or you can make the tag
table and split the file manually.
You should split a large file or else let the
texinfo-format-buffer or makeinfo-buffer command do it
for you automatically. (Generally you will let one of the formatting
commands do this job for you. See Creating an Info File.)
The split-off files are called the indirect subfiles.
Info files are split to save memory. With smaller files, Emacs does not have make such a large buffer to hold the information.
If an Info file has more than 30 nodes, you should also make a tag
table for it. See Using Info-validate, for information
about creating a tag table. (Again, tag tables are usually created
automatically by the formatting command; you only need to create a tag
table yourself if you are doing the job manually. Most likely, you
will do this for a large, unsplit file on which you have run
Info-validate.)
Visit the Info file you wish to tagify and split and type the two commands:
M-x Info-tagify
M-x Info-split
(Note that the ‘I’ in ‘Info’ is upper case.)
When you use the Info-split command, the buffer is modified into a
(small) Info file which lists the indirect subfiles. This file should be
saved in place of the original visited file. The indirect subfiles are
written in the same directory the original file is in, with names generated
by appending ‘-’ and a number to the original file name.
The primary file still functions as an Info file, but it contains just the tag table and a directory of subfiles.
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The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.
The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.
A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”.
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This is an alphabetical list of all the @-commands, assorted Emacs Lisp functions, and several variables. To make the list easier to use, the commands are listed without their preceding ‘@’.
! (end of sentence): Ending a Sentence" (umlaut accent): Inserting Accents' (umlaut accent): Inserting Accents* (force line break): Line Breaks, (cedilla accent): Inserting Accents- (discretionary hyphen): - and hyphenation- (in image alt string): Image Syntax. (end of sentence): Ending a Sentence/ (allow line break): Line Breaks<colon> (suppress end-of-sentence space): Not Ending a Sentence<newline>: Multiple Spaces<space>: Multiple Spaces<tab>: Multiple Spaces= (macron accent): Inserting Accents? (end of sentence): Ending a Sentence@ (literal ‘@’): Inserting an Atsign\ (literal \ in @math): math\emergencystretch: Overfull hboxes\gdef within @tex: Raw Formatter Commands\input (raw TeX startup): Minimum\mag (raw TeX magnification): Cropmarks and Magnification^ (circumflex accent): Inserting Accents` (grave accent): Inserting AccentsAA: Inserting Accentsaa: Inserting Accentsabbr: abbracronym: acronymAE: Inserting Accentsae: Inserting Accentsafourlatex: A4 Paperafourpaper: A4 Paperafourwide: A4 Paperalias: aliasallowcodebreaks: allowcodebreaksanchor: anchorappendix: unnumbered & appendixappendixsec: unnumberedsec appendixsec headingappendixsection: unnumberedsec appendixsec headingappendixsubsec: unnumberedsubsec appendixsubsec subheadingappendixsubsubsec: subsubsectionapply: Sample Function Definitionarrow: Click Sequencesasis: tableauthor: title subtitle authorb (bold font): Fontsbullet: bulletbye: File Endbye: Ending a Filec (comment): Commentscaption: caption shortcaptioncartouche: cartouchecenter: titlefont center spcenterchap: chapterchapheading: majorheading & chapheadingchapter: chaptercite: citeclear: set valueclick: Click Sequencesclicksequence: Click Sequencesclickstyle: Click Sequencescode: codecolumnfractions: Multitable Column Widthscomma: Inserting a Commacommand: commandcomment: Commentscontents: Contentscopying: copyingcopyright: copyright symbolcopyright: copyingcropmarks: Cropmarks and Magnificationdefcodeindex: New Indicesdefcv: Object-Oriented Variablesdeffn: Functions Commandsdeffnx: deffnxdefindex: New Indicesdefinfoenclose: definfoenclosedefivar: Object-Oriented Variablesdefmac: Functions Commandsdefmethod: Object-Oriented Methodsdefop: Object-Oriented Methodsdefopt: Variables Commandsdefspec: Functions Commandsdeftp: Data Typesdeftypecv: Object-Oriented Variablesdeftypefn: Typed Functionsdeftypefun: Typed Functionsdeftypeivar: Object-Oriented Variablesdeftypeop: Object-Oriented Methodsdeftypevar: Typed Variablesdeftypevr: Typed Variablesdefun: Functions Commandsdefvar: Variables Commandsdefvr: Variables Commandsdetailmenu: makeinfo Pointer Creationdetailmenu: Master Menu Partsdfn: dfndircategory: Installing Dir Entriesdirentry: Installing Dir Entriesdisplay: displaydmn: dmndocbook: Raw Formatter Commandsdocumentdescription: documentdescriptiondocumentencoding: documentencodingdocumentencoding: Inserting Quotation Marksdocumentencoding: Inserting Accentsdocumentlanguage: documentlanguagedotaccent: Inserting Accentsdotless: Inserting Accentsdots: dotsemail: emailemph: emph & strongend: Introducing Listsend: Quotations and Examplesend titlepage: end titlepageenddots: dotsenumerate: enumerateenv: envequiv: Equivalenceerror: Error Glypheuro: euroevenfooting: Custom Headingsevenfootingmarks: Custom Headingsevenheading: Custom Headingsevenheadingmarks: Custom Headingseveryfooting: Custom Headingseveryfootingmarks: Custom Headingseveryheading: Custom Headingseveryheadingmarks: Custom Headingsexample: exampleexampleindent: exampleindentexclamdown: Inserting Accentsexdent: exdentexpansion: expansionfile: filefilll TeX dimension: Copyrightfinalout: Overfull hboxesfirstparagraphindent: firstparagraphindentfloat: floatflushleft: flushleft & flushrightflushright: flushleft & flushrightfn-name: Def Cmd Continuation Linesfonttextsize: Fontsfoobar: Optional Argumentsfootnote: Footnotesfootnotestyle: Footnote Stylesformat: formatforward-word: Def Cmd Templatefrenchspacing: frenchspacingftable: ftable vtablegeq: geq leqgroup: groupguillemetleft: Inserting Quotation Marksguillemetright: Inserting Quotation Marksguillemotleft: Inserting Quotation Marksguillemotright: Inserting Quotation Marksguilsinglleft: Inserting Quotation Marksguilsinglright: Inserting Quotation MarksH (Hungarian umlaut accent): Inserting Accentshbox: Overfull hboxesheading: unnumberedsec appendixsec headingheadings: headings on offheaditem: Multitable Rowsheadword: definfoenclosehtml: Raw Formatter Commandshyphenation: - and hyphenationi (italic font): Fontsifclear: ifset ifclearifdocbook: Raw Formatter Commandsifdocbook: Conditional Commandsifhtml: Raw Formatter Commandsifhtml: Conditional Commandsifinfo: Conditional Commandsifnotdocbook: Conditional Not Commandsifnothtml: Conditional Not Commandsifnotinfo: Conditional Not Commandsifnotplaintext: Conditional Not Commandsifnottex: Conditional Not Commandsifnotxml: Conditional Not Commandsifplaintext: Conditional Commandsifset: ifset ifcleariftex: Conditional Commandsifxml: Raw Formatter Commandsifxml: Conditional Commandsignore: Commentsimage: Imagesinclude: Using Include Filesindent: indentindicateurl: indicateurlInfo-validate: Running Info-Validateinforef: inforefinsertcopying: insertcopyingisearch-backward: deffnxisearch-forward: deffnxitem: Multitable Rowsitem: tableitem: itemizeitemize: itemizeitemx: itemxkbd: kbdkbdinputstyle: kbdkey: keyL: Inserting Accentsl: Inserting AccentsLaTeX: texleq: geq leqlisp: lisplistoffloats: listoffloatslowersections: Raise/lower sectionsmacro: Defining Macrosmajorheading: majorheading & chapheadingmakeinfo-buffer: makeinfo in Emacsmakeinfo-kill-job: makeinfo in Emacsmakeinfo-recenter-output-buffer: makeinfo in Emacsmakeinfo-region: makeinfo in Emacsmath: mathmenu: Menusminus: minusmultitable: Multi-column Tablesneed: neednext-error: makeinfo in Emacsnode: nodenoindent: noindentnovalidate: Format with tex/texindexO: Inserting Accentso: Inserting Accentsoccur: Using occuroccur-mode-goto-occurrence: Showing the Structureoddfooting: Custom Headingsoddfootingmarks: Custom Headingsoddheading: Custom Headingsoddheadingmarks: Custom HeadingsOE: Inserting Accentsoe: Inserting Accentsoption: optionordf: Inserting Accentsordm: Inserting Accentspage: pagepage, within @titlepage: titlepagepagesizes: pagesizesparagraphindent: paragraphindentphoo: definfoenclosepoint: Point Glyphpounds: poundsprint: Print Glyphprintindex: Printing Indices & Menuspxref: pxrefquestiondown: Inserting Accentsquotation: quotationquotedblbase: Inserting Quotation Marksquotedblleft: Inserting Quotation Marksquotedblright: Inserting Quotation Marksquoteleft: Inserting Quotation Marksquoteright: Inserting Quotation Marksquotesinglbase: Inserting Quotation Marksr (roman font): Fontsraisesections: Raise/lower sectionsref: refregisteredsymbol: registered symbolresult: resultringaccent: Inserting Accentsrmacro: Defining Macrossamp: sampsansserif (sans serif font): Fontssc (small caps font): Smallcapssection: sectionset: set valuesetchapternewpage: setchapternewpagesetcontentsaftertitlepage: Contentssetfilename: setfilenamesetshortcontentsaftertitlepage: Contentssettitle: settitleshortcaption: caption shortcaptionshortcontents: Contentsshorttitlepage: titlepageslanted (slanted font): Fontssmallbook: smallbooksmalldisplay: displaysmalldisplay: smallsmallexample: smallsmallformat: formatsmallformat: smallsmalllisp: smallsp (line spacing): spsp (titlepage line spacing): titlefont center spss: Inserting Accentsstrong: emph & strongsubheading: unnumberedsubsec appendixsubsec subheadingsubsection: subsectionsubsubheading: subsubsectionsubsubsection: subsubsectionsubtitle: title subtitle authorsummarycontents: Contentssyncodeindex: syncodeindexsynindex: synindext (typewriter font): Fontstab: Multitable Rowstable: Two-column Tablestex: Raw Formatter CommandsTeX: textexinfo-all-menus-update: Updating Commandstexinfo-every-node-update: Updating Commandstexinfo-format-buffer: texinfo-format commandstexinfo-format-buffer: Info Formattingtexinfo-format-region: texinfo-format commandstexinfo-format-region: Info Formattingtexinfo-indent-menu-description: Other Updating Commandstexinfo-insert-@code: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@dfn: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@end: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@example: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@item: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@kbd: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@node: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@noindent: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@samp: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@table: Insertingtexinfo-insert-@var: Insertingtexinfo-insert-braces: Insertingtexinfo-insert-node-lines: Other Updating Commandstexinfo-make-menu: Updating Commandstexinfo-master-menu: Updating Commandstexinfo-multiple-files-update: texinfo-multiple-files-updatetexinfo-multiple-files-update (in brief): Other Updating Commandstexinfo-sequential-node-update: Other Updating Commandstexinfo-show-structure: Using texinfo-show-structuretexinfo-show-structure: Showing the Structuretexinfo-start-menu-description: Insertingtexinfo-tex-buffer: Printingtexinfo-tex-print: Printingtexinfo-tex-region: Printingtexinfo-update-node: Updating Commandstextdegree: textdegreethischapter: Custom Headingsthischaptername: Custom Headingsthischapternum: Custom Headingsthisfile: Custom Headingsthispage: Custom Headingsthissection: Custom Headingsthissectionname: Custom Headingsthissectionnum: Custom Headingsthistitle: Custom Headingstie (unbreakable interword space): tietieaccent: Inserting Accentstitle: title subtitle authortitlefont: titlefont center sptitlepage: titlepagetoday: Custom Headingstop: The Top Nodetop (@-command): makeinfo top commandu (breve accent): Inserting Accentsubaraccent: Inserting Accentsudotaccent: Inserting Accentsunmacro: Defining Macrosunnumbered: unnumbered & appendixunnumberedsec: unnumberedsec appendixsec headingunnumberedsubsec: unnumberedsubsec appendixsubsec subheadingunnumberedsubsubsec: subsubsectionup-list: Insertinguref: urefv (check accent): Inserting Accentsvalue: set valuevar: varverb: verbverbatim: verbatimverbatiminclude: verbatimincludevskip TeX vertical skip: Copyrightvtable: ftable vtablew (prevent line break): wxml: Raw Formatter Commandsxref: xref{ (literal ‘{’): Inserting Braces} (literal ‘}’): Inserting Braces~ (tilde accent): Inserting Accents@code: allowcodebreaks--align=column: Invoking install-info--calign=column: Invoking install-info--command (texi2dvi): Format with texi2dvi--commands-in-node-names: makeinfo options--css-include: makeinfo options--css-ref: makeinfo options--debug: Invoking install-info--delete: Invoking install-info--description=text: Invoking install-info--dir-file=name: Invoking install-info--disable-encoding: makeinfo options--docbook: makeinfo options--document-language: makeinfo options--dry-run: Invoking install-info--enable-encoding: makeinfo options--enable-encoding: documentencoding--entry=text: Invoking install-info--error-limit=limit: makeinfo options--fill-column=width: makeinfo options--footnote-style, ignored in HTML output: HTML Translation--footnote-style=style: makeinfo options--force: makeinfo options--help: Invoking install-info--help: makeinfo options--html: makeinfo options--ifdocbook: makeinfo options--ifhtml: makeinfo options--ifinfo: makeinfo options--ifplaintext: makeinfo options--iftex: makeinfo options--ifxml: makeinfo options--info-dir=dir: Invoking install-info--info-file=file: Invoking install-info--infodir=dir: Invoking install-info--item=text: Invoking install-info--keep-old: Invoking install-info--language (texi2dvi): Format with texi2dvi--macro-expand=file: makeinfo options--max-width=column: Invoking install-info--maxwidth=column: Invoking install-info--menuentry=text: Invoking install-info--name=text: Invoking install-info--no-headers: makeinfo options--no-ifdocbook: makeinfo options--no-ifhtml: makeinfo options--no-ifinfo: makeinfo options--no-ifplaintext: makeinfo options--no-iftex: makeinfo options--no-ifxml: makeinfo options--no-indent: Invoking install-info--no-number-footnotes: makeinfo options--no-number-sections: makeinfo options--no-pointer-validate: makeinfo options--no-split: makeinfo options--no-validate: makeinfo options--no-warn: makeinfo options--number-sections: makeinfo options--output=file: makeinfo options--paragraph-indent=indent: makeinfo options--pdf (texi2dvi): Format with texi2dvi--plaintext: makeinfo options--quiet: Invoking install-info--recode (texi2dvi): Format with texi2dvi--recode-from (texi2dvi): Format with texi2dvi--regex=regex: Invoking install-info--remove: Invoking install-info--remove-exactly: Invoking install-info--section regex sec: Invoking install-info--section=sec: Invoking install-info--silent: Invoking install-info--split-size=num: makeinfo options--test: Invoking install-info--translate-file (texi2dvi): Format with texi2dvi--transliterate-file-names: makeinfo options--verbose: makeinfo options--version: Invoking install-info--version: makeinfo options--xml: makeinfo options-D var: makeinfo options-E file: makeinfo options-e limit: makeinfo options-F: makeinfo options-f width: makeinfo options-h: makeinfo options-I dir: makeinfo options-o file: makeinfo options-P dir: makeinfo options-p indent: makeinfo options-s style: makeinfo options-V: makeinfo options<meta> HTML tag, and charset specification: documentencoding@include file sample: Sample Include File@menu parts: Menu Parts@node line writing: Writing a Node@w, for blank items: itemize@code: allowcodebreaksaccesskey, in HTML output: Writing a Menuaccesskey, in HTML output: nodeautoexec.bat: Other Info Directoriesautomake, and version info: GNU Sample Textsmakeinfo: makeinfo Pointer Creationborder-pattern: Object-Oriented Variablesborder-pattern of Window: Object-Oriented Variables@code: allowcodebreaks@code: codecode, value for @kbdinputstyle: kbdcp (concept) index: Predefined Indicesmakeinfo: makeinfo Pointer Creation@inforef: inforef@pxref: pxref@ref: ref@xref: xref@code: allowcodebreaksinstall-info: Invoking install-infodistinct, value for @kbdinputstyle: kbddvips: Output FormatsINFOPATH: Other Info DirectoriesTEXINFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT: makeinfo optionsTEXINPUTS: Preparing for TeXeps image format: Image Syntaxepsf.tex: Image Scalingepsf.tex, installing: Preparing for TeXexample, value for @kbdinputstyle: kbdfeymr10: eurofeymr10, installing: Preparing for TeXfn (function) index: Predefined Indicestex and texindex: Format with tex/texindexhelp2man: Output Formatshref, producing HTML: urefhttp-equiv, and charset specification: documentencoding@code: allowcodebreaks@setfilename: setfilenameInfo-directory-list: Other Info DirectoriesINFOPATH: Other Info Directoriesinstall-info: Invoking install-infojpeg image format: Image Syntaxky (keystroke) index: Predefined IndicesLANG: makeinfo optionslpr (DVI print command): Print with lprlpr-d, replacements on MS-DOS/MS-Windows: Print with lprmakeinfo: Invoking makeinfomakeinfo inside Emacs: makeinfo in Emacsmakeinfo options: makeinfo options@occur: Using occurmakeinfo: makeinfo optionspage-delimiter: Showing the Structurepdf image inclusions: Image Syntaxpdftex: PDF Outputpdftex: Output Formatspdftex, and images: Image Syntaxpg (program) index: Predefined Indicespng image format: Image Syntaxmakeinfo: makeinfo Pointer Creationmakeinfo: Pointer Validation@inforef: inforef@pxref: pxref@ref: ref@xref: xrefridt.eps: Image ScalingInfo-validate: Using Info-validatemakeinfo in Emacs: makeinfo in Emacs@include file: Sample Include Filetex and texindex: Format with tex/texindexmakeinfo in: makeinfo in Emacs@kbd: kbdtexi2dvi: Format with tex/texindextexi2dvi (shell script): Format with texi2dvitexi2roff, unsupported software: Footnotestexindex: Format with tex/texindextexindex: Hardcopy@setfilename: setfilenametexinfo.cnf: setfilenametexinfo.cnf installation: Preparing for TeXtexinfo.dtd: Output Formatstexinfo.tex, installing: Preparing for TeXTEXINFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT: makeinfo optionsTEXINPUTS: Preparing for TeXtime-stamp.el: GNU Sample Textstp (data type) index: Predefined Indices@deffn: deffnx@table: itemx@code: allowcodebreaksUPDATED Automake variable: GNU Sample TextsVERSION Automake variable: GNU Sample Textsvr (variable) index: Predefined Indices@node line: Writing a Nodexdvi: Output FormatsXPM image format: Image Syntax[1] The first syllable of “Texinfo” is pronounced like “speck”, not “hex”. This odd pronunciation is derived from, but is not the same as, the pronunciation of TeX. In the word TeX, the ‘X’ is actually the Greek letter “chi” rather than the English letter “ex”. Pronounce TeX as if the ‘X’ were the last sound in the name `Bach'; but pronounce Texinfo as if the ‘x’ were a `k'. Spell “Texinfo” with a capital “T” and the other letters in lower case.
[2] In some documents, the first child has no `Previous' pointer. Occasionally, the last child has the node name of the next following higher level node as its `Next' pointer.
[3] You can also use the
texi2roff program if you
do not have TeX; since Texinfo is designed for use with TeX,
texi2roff is not described here. texi2roff is not part of
the standard GNU distribution and is not maintained or up-to-date with
all the Texinfo features described in this manual.
[4] The word argument comes from the way it is used in mathematics and does not refer to a dispute between two people; it refers to the information presented to the command. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word derives from the Latin for to make clear, prove; thus it came to mean `the evidence offered as proof', which is to say, `the information offered', which led to its mathematical meaning. In its other thread of derivation, the word came to mean `to assert in a manner against which others may make counter assertions', which led to the meaning of `argument' as a dispute.
[5] We have found that it is helpful to refer to versions of independent manuals as `editions' and versions of programs as `versions'; otherwise, we find we are liable to confuse each other in conversation by referring to both the documentation and the software with the same words.
[6] It would be straightforward to extend Texinfo to work in a similar fashion for C, Fortran, or other languages.
[7] A footnote should complement or expand upon the primary text, but a reader should not need to read a footnote to understand the primary text. For a thorough discussion of footnotes, see The Chicago Manual of Style, which is published by the University of Chicago Press.
[8] Here is the sample footnote.
[9] Note the use of the ‘;’ character, instead of ‘:’, as directory separator on these systems.
[10] On MS-DOS/MS-Windows systems, Info will try the .inf extension as well.
[11] Note the use of ‘;’ as the directory separator, and a different syntax for using values of other environment variables.
[12] On MS-DOS/MS-Windows systems, use semi-colon instead.