This is Info file info.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.55 from the input file info.texi. This file describes how to use Info, the on-line, menu-driven GNU documentation system. Copyright (C) 1989, 1992 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation. File: info.info, Node: Top, Next: Getting Started, Prev: (dir), Up: (dir) Info: An Introduction ********************* Info is a program for reading documentation, which you are using now. To learn how to use Info, type the command `h'. It brings you to a programmed instruction sequence. To learn advanced Info commands, type `n' twice. This brings you to `Info for Experts', skipping over the . `Getting Started' chapter. * Menu: * Getting Started:: * Advanced Info:: * Create an Info File:: File: info.info, Node: Getting Started, Next: Advanced Info, Prev: Top, Up: Top Getting Started *************** This first part of the Info manual describes how to get around inside of Info. The second part of the manual describes various advanced Info commands, and how to write an Info as distinct from a Texinfo file. The third part is about how to generate Info files from Texinfo files. * Menu: * Help-Small-Screen:: Starting Info on a Small Screen * Help:: How to use Info * Help-P:: Returning to the Previous node * Help-^L:: The Space, Rubout, B and ^L commands. * Help-M:: Menus * Help-Adv:: Some advanced Info commands * Help-Q:: Quitting Info File: info.info, Node: Help-Small-Screen, Next: Help, Up: Getting Started Starting Info on a Small Screen =============================== Since your terminal has an unusually small number of lines on its screen, it is necessary to give you special advice at the beginning. If you see the text `--All----' at near the bottom right corner of the screen, it means the entire text you are looking at fits on the screen. If you see `--Top----' instead, it means that there is more text below that does not fit. To move forward through the text and see another screen full, press the Space bar, SPC. To move back up, press the key labeled `Rubout' or `Delete' or DEL. Here are 40 lines of junk, so you can try SPC and DEL and see what they do. At the end are instructions of what you should do next. This is line 17 This is line 18 This is line 19 This is line 20 This is line 21 This is line 22 This is line 23 This is line 24 This is line 25 This is line 26 This is line 27 This is line 28 This is line 29 This is line 30 This is line 31 This is line 32 This is line 33 This is line 34 This is line 35 This is line 36 This is line 37 This is line 38 This is line 39 This is line 40 This is line 41 This is line 42 This is line 43 This is line 44 This is line 45 This is line 46 This is line 47 This is line 48 This is line 49 This is line 50 This is line 51 This is line 52 This is line 53 This is line 54 This is line 55 This is line 56 If you have managed to get here, go back to the beginning with DEL, and come back here again, then you understand SPC and DEL. So now type an `n'--just one character; do not type the quotes and do not type the Return key, RET, afterward--to get to the normal start of the course. File: info.info, Node: Help, Next: Help-P, Prev: Help-Small-Screen, Up: Getting Started How to use Info =============== You are talking to the program Info, for reading documentation. Right now you are looking at one "Node" of Information. A node contains text describing a specific topic at a specific level of detail. This node's topic is "how to use Info". The top line of a node is its "header". This node's header (look at it now) says that it is the node named `Help' in the file `info'. It says that the `Next' node after this one is the node called `Help-P'. An advanced Info command lets you go to any node whose name you know. Besides a `Next', a node can have a `Previous' or an `Up'. This node has a `Previous' but no `Up', as you can see. Now it is time to move on to the `Next' node, named `Help-P'. >> Type `n' to move there. Type just one character; do not type the quotes and do not type a RET afterward. `>>' in the margin means it is really time to try a command. File: info.info, Node: Help-P, Next: Help-^L, Prev: Help, Up: Getting Started Returning to the Previous node ============================== This node is called `Help-P'. The `Previous' node, as you see, is `Help', which is the one you just came from using the `n' command. Another `n' command now would take you to the next node, `Help-^L'. >> But do not do that yet. First, try the `p' command, which takes you to the `Previous' node. When you get there, you can do an `n' again to return here. This all probably seems insultingly simple so far, but *do not* be led into skimming. Things will get more complicated soon. Also, do not try a new command until you are told it is time to. Otherwise, you may make Info skip past an important warning that was coming up. >> Now do an `n' to get to the node `Help-^L' and learn more. File: info.info, Node: Help-^L, Next: Help-M, Prev: Help-P, Up: Getting Started The Space, Rubout, B and ^L commands. ===================================== This node's header tells you that you are now at node `Help-^L', and that `p' would get you back to `Help-P'. The node's title is underlined; it says what the node is about (most nodes have titles). This is a big node and it does not all fit on your display screen. You can tell that there is more that is not visible because you can see the string `--Top-----' rather than `--All----' near the bottom right corner of the screen. The SPC, DEL and `b' commands exist to allow you to "move around" in a node that does not all fit on the screen at once. SPC moves forward, to show what was below the bottom of the screen. DEL moves backward, to show what was above the top of the screen (there is not anything above the top until you have typed some spaces). >> Now try typing a SPC (afterward, type a DEL to return here). When you type the SPC, the two lines that were at the bottom of the screen appear at the top, followed by more lines. DEL takes the two lines from the top and moves them to the bottom, *usually*, but if there are not a full screen's worth of lines above them they may not make it all the way to the bottom. If you type a SPC when there is no more to see, it rings the bell and otherwise does nothing. The same goes for a DEL when the header of the node is visible. If your screen is ever garbaged, you can tell Info to print it out again by typing `C-l' (`Control-L', that is--hold down "Control" and type an L or `l'). >> Type `C-l' now. To move back to the beginning of the node you are on, you can type a lot of DELs. You can also type simply `b' for beginning. >> Try that now. (I have put in enough verbiage to make sure you are not on the first screenful now). Then come back, typing SPC several times. You have just learned a considerable number of commands. If you want to use one but have trouble remembering which, you should type a ? which prints out a brief list of commands. When you are finished looking at the list, make it go away by typing a SPC. >> Type a ? now. After it finishes, type a SPC. (If you are using the standalone Info reader, type `l' to return here.) From now on, you will encounter large nodes without warning, and will be expected to know how to use SPC and DEL to move around in them without being told. Since not all terminals have the same size screen, it would be impossible to warn you anyway. >> Now type `n' to see the description of the `m' command. File: info.info, Node: Help-M, Next: Help-Adv, Prev: Help-^L, Up: Getting Started Menus ===== Menus and the `m' command With only the `n' and `p' commands for moving between nodes, nodes are restricted to a linear sequence. Menus allow a branching structure. A menu is a list of other nodes you can move to. It is actually just part of the text of the node formatted specially so that Info can interpret it. The beginning of a menu is always identified by a line which starts with `* Menu:'. A node contains a menu if and only if it has a line in it which starts that way. The only menu you can use at any moment is the one in the node you are in. To use a menu in any other node, you must move to that node first. After the start of the menu, each line that starts with a `*' identifies one subtopic. The line usually contains a brief name for the subtopic (followed by a `:'), the name of the node that talks about that subtopic, and optionally some further description of the subtopic. Lines in the menu that do not start with a `*' have no special meaning--they are only for the human reader's benefit and do not define additional subtopics. Here is an example: * Foo: FOO's Node This tells about FOO The subtopic name is Foo, and the node describing it is `FOO's Node'. The rest of the line is just for the reader's Information. [[ But this line is not a real menu item, simply because there is no line above it which starts with `* Menu:'.]] When you use a menu to go to another node (in a way that will be described soon), what you specify is the subtopic name, the first thing in the menu line. Info uses it to find the menu line, extracts the node name from it, and goes to that node. The reason that there is both a subtopic name and a node name is that the node name must be meaningful to the computer and may therefore have to be ugly looking. The subtopic name can be chosen just to be convenient for the user to specify. Often the node name is convenient for the user to specify and so both it and the subtopic name are the same. There is an abbreviation for this: * Foo:: This tells about FOO This means that the subtopic name and node name are the same; they are both `Foo'. >> Now use SPCs to find the menu in this node, then come back to the front with a `b'. As you see, a menu is actually visible in its node. If you cannot find a menu in a node by looking at it, then the node does not have a menu and the `m' command is not available. The command to go to one of the subnodes is `m'--but *do not do it yet!* Before you use `m', you must understand the difference between commands and arguments. So far, you have learned several commands that do not need arguments. When you type one, Info processes it and is instantly ready for another command. The `m' command is different: it is incomplete without the "name of the subtopic". Once you have typed `m', Info tries to read the subtopic name. Now look for the line containing many dashes near the bottom of the screen. There is one more line beneath that one, but usually it is blank If it is empty, Info is ready for a command, such as `n' or `b' or SPC or `m'. If that line contains text ending in a colon, it mean Info is trying to read the "argument" to a command. At such times, commands do not work, because Info tries to use them as the argument. You must either type the argument and finish the command you started, or type `Control-g' to cancel the command. When you have done one of those things, the line becomes blank again. The command to go to a subnode via a menu is `m'. After you type the `m', the line at the bottom of the screen says `Menu item: '. You must then type the name of the subtopic you want, and end it with a RET. You can abbreviate the subtopic name. If the abbreviation is not unique, the first matching subtopic is chosen. Some menus put the shortest possible abbreviation for each subtopic name in capital letters, so you can see how much you need to type. It does not matter whether you use upper case or lower case when you type the subtopic. You should not put any spaces at the end, or inside of the item name, except for one space where a space appears in the item in the menu. Here is a menu to give you a chance to practice. * Menu: The menu starts here. This menu givs you three ways of going to one place, Help-FOO. * Foo: Help-FOO. A node you can visit for fun. * Bar: Help-FOO. Strange! two ways to get to the same place. * Help-FOO:: And yet another! >> Now type just an `m' and see what happens: Now you are "inside" an `m' command. Commands cannot be used now; the next thing you will type must be the name of a subtopic. You can change your mind about doing the `m' by typing Control-g. >> Try that now; notice the bottom line clear. >> Then type another `m'. >> Now type `BAR' item name. Do not type RET yet. While you are typing the item name, you can use the DEL character to cancel one character at a time if you make a mistake. >> Type one to cancel the `R'. You could type another `R' to replace it. You do not have to, since `BA' is a valid abbreviation. >> Now you are ready to go. Type a RET. After visiting Help-FOO, you should return here. >> Type `n' to see more commands. Here is another way to get to Help-FOO, a menu. You can ignore this if you want, or else try it (but then please come back to here). * Menu: * Help-FOO:: File: info.info, Node: Help-FOO, Up: Help-M The `u' command --------------- Congratulations! This is the node `Help-FOO'. Unlike the other nodes you have seen, this one has an `Up': `Help-M', the node you just came from via the `m' command. This is the usual convention--the nodes you reach from a menu have `Up' nodes that lead back to the menu. Menus move Down in the tree, and `Up' moves Up. `Previous', on the other hand, is usually used to "stay on the same level but go backwards" You can go back to the node `Help-M' by typing the command `u' for "Up". That puts you at the *front* of the node--to get back to where you were reading you have to type some SPCs. >> Now type `u' to move back up to `Help-M'. File: info.info, Node: Help-Adv, Next: Help-Q, Prev: Help-M, Up: Getting Started Some advanced Info commands =========================== The course is almost over, so please stick with it to the end. If you have been moving around to different nodes and wish to retrace your steps, the `l' command (`l' for "last") will do that, one node at a time. If you have been following directions, an `l' command now will get you back to `Help-M'. Another `l' command would undo the `u' and get you back to `Help-FOO'. Another `l' would undo the `m' and get you back to `Help-M'. >> Try typing three `l''s, pausing in between to see what each `l' does. Then follow directions again and you will end up back here. Note the difference between `l' and `p': `l' moves to where *you* last were, whereas `p' always moves to the node which the header says is the `Previous' node (from this node, to `Help-M'). The `d' command gets you instantly to the Directory node. This node, which is the first one you saw when you entered Info, has a menu which leads (directly, or indirectly through other menus), to all the nodes that exist. >> Try doing a `d', then do an `l' to return here (yes, *do* return). Sometimes, in Info documentation, you will see a cross reference. Cross references look like this: *Note Cross: Help-Cross. That is a real, live cross reference which is named `Cross' and points at the node named `Help-Cross'. If you wish to follow a cross reference, you must use the `f' command. The `f' must be followed by the cross reference name (in this case, `Cross'). You can use DEL to edit the name, and if you change your mind about following any reference you can use `Control-g' to cancel the command. Completion is available in the `f' command; you can complete among all the cross reference names in the current node. >> Type `f', followed by `Cross', and a RET. To get a list of all the cross references in the current node, you can type `?' after an `f'. The `f' continues to await a cross reference name even after printing the list, so if you do not actually want to follow a reference you should type a `Control-g' to cancel the >> Type "f?" to get a list of the footnotes in this node. Then type a `Control-g' and see how the `f' gives up. >> Now type `n' to see the last node of the course. File: info.info, Node: Help-Cross, Up: Help-Adv The node reached by the cross reference in Info ----------------------------------------------- This is the node reached by the cross reference named `Cross'. While this node is specifically intended to be reached by a cross reference, most cross references lead to nodes that "belong" someplace else far away in the structure of Info. So you cannot expect the footnote to have a `Next', `Previous' or `Up' pointing back to where you came from. In general, the `l' (el) command is the only way to get back there. >> Type `l' to return to the node where the cross reference was. File: info.info, Node: Help-Q, Prev: Help-Adv, Up: Getting Started Quitting Info ============= To get out of Info, back to what you were doing before, type `q' for "Quit". This is the end of the course on using Info. There are some other commands that are not essential or are meant for experienced users; they are useful, and you can find them by looking in the directory for documentation on Info. Finding them will be a good exercise in using Info in the usual manner. >> Type `d' to go to the Info directory node; then type `mInfo' and RET, to get to the node about Info and see what other help is available. File: info.info, Node: Advanced Info, Next: Create an Info File, Prev: Getting Started, Up: Top Info for Experts **************** This chapter describes various advanced Info commands, and how to write an Info as distinct from a Texinfo file. (However, in most cases, writing a Texinfo file is better, since you can use it *both* to generate an Info file and to make a printed manual. *Note Overview of Texinfo: (texinfo)Top.) * Menu: * Expert:: Advanced Info commands: g, s, e, and 1 - 5. * Add:: Describes how to add new nodes to the hierarchy. Also tells what nodes look like. * Menus:: How to add to or create menus in Info nodes. * Cross-refs:: How to add cross-references to Info nodes. * Tags:: How to make tag tables for Info files. * Checking:: Checking an Info File File: info.info, Node: Expert, Next: Add, Up: Advanced Info Advanced Info Commands ====================== `g', `s', `1', - `5', and `e' If you know a node's name, you can go there by typing `g', the name, and RET. Thus, `gTopRET' would go to the node called `Top' in this file (its directory node). `gExpertRET' would come back here. Unlike `m', `g' does not allow the use of abbreviations. To go to a node in another file, you can include the filename in the node name by putting it at the front, in parentheses. Thus, `g(dir)TopRET' would go to the Info Directory node, which is node `Top' in the file `dir'. The node name `*' specifies the whole file. So you can look at all of the current file by typing `g*RET' or all of any other file with `g(FILENAME)RET'. The `s' command allows you to search a whole file for a string. It switches to the next node if and when that is necessary. You type `s' followed by the string to search for, terminated by RET. To search for the same string again, just `s' followed by RET will do. The file's nodes are scanned in the order they are in in the file, which has no necessary relationship to the order that they may be in in the tree structure of menus and `next' pointers. But normally the two orders are not very different. In any case, you can always do a `b' to find out what node you have reached, if the header is not visible (this can happen, because `s' puts your cursor at the occurrence of the string, not at the beginning of the node). If you grudge the system each character of type-in it requires, you might like to use the commands `1', `2', `3', `4', and `5'. They are short for the `m' command together with an argument. "1", "2", "3", "4", and "5". `1' goes through the first item in the current node's menu; `2' goes through the second item, etc. Note that numbers larger than 5 are not allowed. If the item you want is that far down, you are better off using an abbreviation for its name than counting. The Info command `e' changes from Info mode to an ordinary Emacs editing mode, so that you can edit the text of the current node. Type `C-c C-c' to switch back to Info. The `e' command is allowed only if the variable `Info-enable-edit' is non-`nil'. File: info.info, Node: Add, Next: Menus, Prev: Expert, Up: Advanced Info Adding a new node to Info ========================= To add a new topic to the list in the directory, you must: 1. Create a node, in some file, to document that topic. 2. Put that topic in the menu in the directory. *Note Menu: Menus. The new node can live in an existing documentation file, or in a new one. It must have a ^_ character before it (invisible to the user; this node has one but you cannot see it), and it ends with either a ^_, a ^L, or the end of file. Note: If you put in a ^L to end a new node, be sure that there is a ^_ after it to start the next one, since ^L cannot *start* a node. Also, a nicer way to make a node boundary be a page boundary as well is to put a ^L *right after* the ^_. The ^_ starting a node must be followed by a newline or a ^L newline, after which comes the node's header line. The header line must give the node's name (by which Info finds it), and state the names of the `Next', `Previous', and `Up' nodes (if there are any). As you can see, this node's `Up' node is the node `Top', which points at all the documentation for Info. The `Next' node is `Menus'. The keywords "Node", "Previous", "Up" and "Next", may appear in any order, anywhere in the header line, but the recommended order is the one in this sentence. Each keyword must be followed by a colon, spaces and tabs, and then the appropriate name. The name may be terminated with a tab, a comma, or a newline. A space does not end it; node names may contain spaces. The case of letters in the names is insignificant. A node name has two forms. A node in the current file is named by what appears after the `Node: ' in that node's first line. For example, this node's name is `Add'. A node in another file is named by `(FILENAME)NODE-WITHIN-FILE', as in `(info)Add' for this node. If the file name is relative, it is taken starting from the standard Info file directory of your site. The name `(FILENAME)Top' can be abbreviated to just `(FILENAME)'. By convention, the name `Top' is used for the "highest" node in any single file--the node whose `Up' points out of the file. The Directory node is `(dir)'. The `Top' node of a document file listed in the Directory should have an `Up: (dir)' in it. The node name `*' is special: it refers to the entire file. Thus, `g*' shows you the whole current file. The use of the node `*' is to make it possible to make old-fashioned, unstructured files into nodes of the tree. The `Node:' name, in which a node states its own name, must not contain a filename, since Info when searching for a node does not expect one to be there. The `Next', `Previous' and `Up' names may contain them. In this node, since the `Up' node is in the same file, it was not necessary to use one. Note that the nodes in this file have a file name in the header line. The file names are ignored by Info, but they serve as comments to help identify the node for the user. File: info.info, Node: Menus, Next: Cross-refs, Prev: Add, Up: Advanced Info How to Create Menus =================== Any node in the Info hierarchy may have a "menu"--a list of subnodes. The `m' command searches the current node's menu for the topic which it reads from the terminal. A menu begins with a line starting with `* Menu:'. The rest of the line is a comment. After the starting line, every line that begins with a `* ' lists a single topic. The name of the topic-the argument that the user must give to the `m' command to select this topic--comes right after the star and space, and is followed by a colon, spaces and tabs, and the name of the node which discusses that topic. The node name, like node names following `Next', `Previous' and `Up', may be terminated with a tab, comma, or newline; it may also be terminated with a period. If the node name and topic name are the same, than rather than giving the name twice, the abbreviation `* NAME::' may be used (and should be used, whenever possible, as it reduces the visual clutter in the menu). It is considerate to choose the topic names so that they differ from each other very near the beginning--this allows the user to type short abbreviations. In a long menu, it is a good idea to capitalize the beginning of each item name which is the minimum acceptable abbreviation for it (a long menu is more than 5 or so entries). The nodes listed in a node's menu are called its "subnodes", and it is their "superior". They should each have an `Up:' pointing at the superior. It is often useful to arrange all or most of the subnodes in a sequence of `Next' and `Previous' pointers so that someone who wants to see them all need not keep revisiting the Menu. The Info Directory is simply the menu of the node `(dir)Top'--that is, node `Top' in file `.../info/dir'. You can put new entries in that menu just like any other menu. The Info Directory is *not* the same as the file directory called `info'. It happens that many of Info's files live on that file directory, but they do not have to; and files on that directory are not automatically listed in the Info Directory node. Also, although the Info node graph is claimed to be a "hierarchy", in fact it can be *any* directed graph. Shared structures and pointer cycles are perfectly possible, and can be used if they are appropriate to the meaning to be expressed. There is no need for all the nodes in a file to form a connected structure. In fact, this file has two connected components. You are in one of them, which is under the node `Top'; the other contains the node `Help' which the `h' command goes to. In fact, since there is no garbage collector, nothing terrible happens if a substructure is not pointed to, but such a substructure is rather useless since nobody can ever find out that it exists. File: info.info, Node: Cross-refs, Next: Tags, Prev: Menus, Up: Advanced Info Creating Cross References ========================= A cross reference can be placed anywhere in the text, unlike a menu item which must go at the front of a line. A cross reference looks like a menu item except that it has `*note' instead of `*'. It *cannot* be terminated by a `)', because `)''s are so often part of node names. If you wish to enclose a cross reference in parentheses, terminate it with a period first. Here are two examples of cross references pointers: *Note details: commands. (See *note 3: Full Proof.) They are just examples. The places they "lead to" do not really exist! File: info.info, Node: Tags, Next: Checking, Prev: Cross-refs, Up: Advanced Info Tag Tables for Info Files ========================= You can speed up the access to nodes of a large Info file by giving it a tag table. Unlike the tag table for a program, the tag table for an Info file lives inside the file itself and is used automatically whenever Info reads in the file. To make a tag table, go to a node in the file using Emacs Info mode and type `M-x Info-tagify'. Then you must use `C-x C-s' to save the file. Once the Info file has a tag table, you must make certain it is up to date. If, as a result of deletion of text, any node moves back more than a thousand characters in the file from the position recorded in the tag table, Info will no longer be able to find that node. To update the tag table, use the `Info-tagify' command again. An Info file tag table appears at the end of the file and looks like this: ^_ Tag Table: File: info, Node: Cross-refs^?21419 File: info, Node: Tags^?22145 ^_ End Tag Table Note that it contains one line per node, and this line contains the beginning of the node's header (ending just after the node name), a DEL character, and the character position in the file of the beginning of the node. File: info.info, Node: Checking, Prev: Tags, Up: Advanced Info Checking an Info File ===================== When creating an Info file, it is easy to forget the name of a node when you are making a pointer to it from another node. If you put in the wrong name for a node, this is not detected until someone tries to go through the pointer using Info. Verification of the Info file is an automatic process which checks all pointers to nodes and reports any pointers which are invalid. Every `Next', `Previous', and `Up' is checked, as is every menu item and every cross reference. In addition, any `Next' which does not have a `Previous' pointing back is reported. Only pointers within the file are checked, because checking pointers to other files would be terribly slow. But those are usually few. To check an Info file, do `M-x Info-validate' while looking at any node of the file with Emacs Info mode. File: info.info, Node: Create an Info File, Prev: Advanced Info, Up: Top Creating an Info File from a Makeinfo file ****************************************** `makeinfo' is a utility that converts a Texinfo file into an Info file; `texinfo-format-region' and `texinfo-format-buffer' are GNU Emacs functions that do the same. *Note Creating an Info File: (texinfo)Create an Info File, to learn how to create an Info file from a Texinfo file. *Note Overview of Texinfo: (texinfo)Top, to learn how to write a Texinfo file. Tag Table: Node: Top Node: Getting Started Node: Help-Small-Screen Node: Help Node: Help-P Node: Help-^L Node: Help-M Node: Help-FOO 14030 Node: Help-Adv 14766 Node: Help-Cross 17148 Node: Help-Q 17794 Node: Advanced Info 18434 Node: Expert 19330 Node: Add 21601 Node: Menus 24635 Node: Cross-refs 27509 Node: Tags 28211 Node: Checking 29510 Node: Create an Info File 30434 End Tag Table