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GNU Info File | 1995-09-01 | 23.2 KB | 587 lines

This is Info file ../info/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: Parts of an Xref, Next: Selecting Xrefs, Up: Xref Commands Parts of an Xref ---------------- Cross references have two major parts: the first part is called the "label"; it is the name that you can use to refer to the cross reference, and the second is the "target"; it is the full name of the node that the cross reference points to. The target is separated from the label by a colon `:'; first the label appears, and then the target. For example, in the sample menu cross reference below, the single colon separates the label from the target. * Foo Label: Foo Target. More information about Foo. Note the `.' which ends the name of the target. The `.' is not part of the target; it serves only to let Info know where the target name ends. A shorthand way of specifying references allows two adjacent colons to stand for a target name which is the same as the label name: * Foo Commands:: Commands pertaining to Foo. In the above example, the name of the target is the same as the name of the label, in this case `Foo Commands'. You will normally see two types of cross references while viewing nodes: "menu" references, and "note" references. Menu references appear within a node's menu; they begin with a `*' at the beginning of a line, and continue with a label, a target, and a comment which describes what the contents of the node pointed to contains. Note references appear within the body of the node text; they begin with `*Note', and continue with a label and a target. Like `Next', `Prev' and `Up' pointers, cross references can point to any valid node. They are used to refer you to a place where more detailed information can be found on a particular subject. Here is a cross reference which points to a node within the Texinfo documentation: *Note Writing an Xref: (texinfo)xref, for more information on creating your own texinfo cross references. File: info.info, Node: Selecting Xrefs, Prev: Parts of an Xref, Up: Xref Commands Selecting Xrefs --------------- The following table lists the Info commands which operate on menu items. `1' (`menu-digit') `2' ... `9' Within an Info window, pressing a single digit, (such as `1'), selects that menu item, and places its node in the current window. For convenience, there is one exception; pressing `0' selects the *last* item in the node's menu. `0' (`last-menu-item') Select the last item in the current node's menu. `m' (`menu-item') Reads the name of a menu item in the echo area and selects its node. Completion is available while reading the menu label. `M-x find-menu' Moves the cursor to the start of this node's menu. This table lists the Info commands which operate on note cross references. `f' (`xref-item') `r' Reads the name of a note cross reference in the echo area and selects its node. Completion is available while reading the cross reference label. Finally, the next few commands operate on menu or note references alike: `TAB' (`move-to-next-xref') Moves the cursor to the start of the next nearest menu item or note reference in this node. You can then use RET (`select-reference-this-line' to select the menu or note reference. `M-TAB' (`move-to-prev-xref') Moves the cursor the start of the nearest previous menu item or note reference in this node. `RET' (`select-reference-this-line') Selects the menu item or note reference appearing on this line. File: info.info, Node: Window Commands, Next: Printing Nodes, Prev: Xref Commands, Up: Using Stand-alone Info Manipulating Multiple Windows ============================= A "window" is a place to show the text of a node. Windows have a view area where the text of the node is displayed, and an associated "mode line", which briefly describes the node being viewed. GNU Info supports multiple windows appearing in a single screen; each window is separated from the next by its modeline. At any time, there is only one "active" window, that is, the window in which the cursor appears. There are commands available for creating windows, changing the size of windows, selecting which window is active, and for deleting windows. * Menu: * The Mode Line:: What appears in the mode line? * Basic Windows:: Manipulating windows in Info. * The Echo Area:: Used for displaying errors and reading input. File: info.info, Node: The Mode Line, Next: Basic Windows, Up: Window Commands The Mode Line ------------- A "mode line" is a line of inverse video which appears at the bottom of an info window. It describes the contents of the window just above it; this information includes the name of the file and node appearing in that window, the number of screen lines it takes to display the node, and the percentage of text that is above the top of the window. It can also tell you if the indirect tags table for this info file needs to be updated, and whether or not the info file was compressed when stored on disk. Here is a sample mode line for a window containing an uncompressed file named `dir', showing the node `Top'. -----Info: (dir)Top, 40 lines --Top--------------------------------------- ^^ ^ ^^^ ^^ (file)Node #lines where When a node comes from a file which is compressed on disk, this is indicated in the mode line with two small `z''s. In addition, if the info file containing the node has been split into subfiles, the name of the subfile containing the node appears in the modeline as well: --zz-Info: (emacs)Top, 291 lines --Top-- Subfile: emacs-1.Z--------------- When Info makes a node internally, such that there is no corresponding info file on disk, the name of the node is surrounded by asterisks (`*'). The name itself tells you what the contents of the window are; the sample mode line below shows an internally constructed node showing possible completions: -----Info: *Completions*, 7 lines --All----------------------------------- File: info.info, Node: Basic Windows, Next: The Echo Area, Prev: The Mode Line, Up: Window Commands Window Commands --------------- It can be convenient to view more than one node at a time. To allow this, Info can display more than one "window". Each window has its own mode line (*note The Mode Line::.) and history of nodes viewed in that window (*note `history-node': Node Commands.). `C-x o' (`next-window') Selects the next window on the screen. Note that the echo area can only be selected if it is already in use, and you have left it temporarily. Normally, `C-x o' simply moves the cursor into the next window on the screen, or if you are already within the last window, into the first window on the screen. Given a numeric argument, `C-x o' moves over that many windows. A negative argument causes `C-x o' to select the previous window on the screen. `M-x prev-window' Selects the previous window on the screen. This is identical to `C-x o' with a negative argument. `C-x 2' (`split-window') Splits the current window into two windows, both showing the same node. Each window is one half the size of the original window, and the cursor remains in the original window. The variable `automatic-tiling' can cause all of the windows on the screen to be resized for you automatically, please *note automatic-tiling: Variables. for more information. `C-x 0' (`delete-window') Deletes the current window from the screen. If you have made too many windows and your screen appears cluttered, this is the way to get rid of some of them. `C-x 1' (`keep-one-window') Deletes all of the windows excepting the current one. `ESC C-v' (`scroll-other-window') Scrolls the other window, in the same fashion that `C-v' might scroll the current window. Given a negative argument, the "other" window is scrolled backward. `C-x ^' (`grow-window') Grows (or shrinks) the current window. Given a numeric argument, grows the current window that many lines; with a negative numeric argument, the window is shrunk instead. `C-x t' (`tile-windows') Divides the available screen space among all of the visible windows. Each window is given an equal portion of the screen in which to display its contents. The variable `automatic-tiling' can cause `tile-windows' to be called when a window is created or deleted. *Note `automatic-tiling': Variables. File: info.info, Node: The Echo Area, Prev: Basic Windows, Up: Window Commands The Echo Area ------------- The "echo area" is a one line window which appears at the bottom of the screen. It is used to display informative or error messages, and to read lines of input from you when that is necessary. Almost all of the commands available in the echo area are identical to their Emacs counterparts, so please refer to that documentation for greater depth of discussion on the concepts of editing a line of text. The following table briefly lists the commands that are available while input is being read in the echo area: `C-f' (`echo-area-forward') Moves forward a character. `C-b' (`echo-area-backward') Moves backward a character. `C-a' (`echo-area-beg-of-line') Moves to the start of the input line. `C-e' (`echo-area-end-of-line') Moves to the end of the input line. `M-f' (`echo-area-forward-word') Moves forward a word. `M-b' (`echo-area-backward-word') Moves backward a word. `C-d' (`echo-area-delete') Deletes the character under the cursor. `DEL' (`echo-area-rubout') Deletes the character behind the cursor. `C-g' (`echo-area-abort') Cancels or quits the current operation. If completion is being read, `C-g' discards the text of the input line which does not match any completion. If the input line is empty, `C-g' aborts the calling function. `RET' (`echo-area-newline') Accepts (or forces completion of) the current input line. `C-q' (`echo-area-quoted-insert') Inserts the next character verbatim. This is how you can insert control characters into a search string, for example. PRINTING CHARACTER (`echo-area-insert') Inserts the character. `M-TAB' (`echo-area-tab-insert') Inserts a TAB character. `C-t' (`echo-area-transpose-chars') Transposes the characters at the cursor. The next group of commands deal with "killing", and "yanking" text. For an in depth discussion of killing and yanking, *note Killing and Deleting: (emacs)Killing. `M-d' (`echo-area-kill-word') Kills the word following the cursor. `M-DEL' (`echo-area-backward-kill-word') Kills the word preceding the cursor. `C-k' (`echo-area-kill-line') Kills the text from the cursor to the end of the line. `C-x DEL' (`echo-area-backward-kill-line') Kills the text from the cursor to the beginning of the line. `C-y' (`echo-area-yank') Yanks back the contents of the last kill. `M-y' (`echo-area-yank-pop') Yanks back a previous kill, removing the last yanked text first. Sometimes when reading input in the echo area, the command that needed input will only accept one of a list of several choices. The choices represent the "possible completions", and you must respond with one of them. Since there are a limited number of responses you can make, Info allows you to abbreviate what you type, only typing as much of the response as is necessary to uniquely identify it. In addition, you can request Info to fill in as much of the response as is possible; this is called "completion". The following commands are available when completing in the echo area: `TAB' (`echo-area-complete') `SPC' Inserts as much of a completion as is possible. `?' (`echo-area-possible-completions') Displays a window containing a list of the possible completions of what you have typed so far. For example, if the available choices are: bar foliate food forget and you have typed an `f', followed by `?', the possible completions would contain: foliate food forget i.e., all of the choices which begin with `f'. Pressing SPC or TAB would result in `fo' appearing in the echo area, since all of the choices which begin with `f' continue with `o'. Now, typing `l' followed by `TAB' results in `foliate' appearing in the echo area, since that is the only choice which begins with `fol'. `ESC C-v' (`echo-area-scroll-completions-window') Scrolls the completions window, if that is visible, or the "other" window if not. File: info.info, Node: Printing Nodes, Next: Miscellaneous Commands, Prev: Window Commands, Up: Using Stand-alone Info Printing Out Nodes ================== You may wish to print out the contents of a node as a quick reference document for later use. Info provides you with a command for doing this. In general, we recommend that you use TeX to format the document and print sections of it, by running `tex' on the texinfo source file. `M-x print-node' Pipes the contents of the current node through the command in the environment variable `INFO_PRINT_COMMAND'. If the variable doesn't exist, the node is simply piped to `lpr'. File: info.info, Node: Miscellaneous Commands, Next: Variables, Prev: Printing Nodes, Up: Using Stand-alone Info Miscellaneous Commands ====================== GNU Info contains several commands which self-document GNU Info: `M-x describe-command' Reads the name of an Info command in the echo area and then displays a brief description of what that command does. `M-x describe-key' Reads a key sequence in the echo area, and then displays the name and documentation of the Info command that the key sequence invokes. `M-x describe-variable' Reads the name of a variable in the echo area and then displays a brief description of what the variable affects. `M-x where-is' Reads the name of an Info command in the echo area, and then displays a key sequence which can be typed in order to invoke that command. `C-h' (`get-help-window') `?' Creates (or moves into) the window displaying `*Help*', and places a node containing a quick reference card into it. This window displays the most concise information about GNU Info available. `h' (`get-info-help-node') Tries hard to visit the node `(info)Help'. The info file `info.texi' distributed with GNU Info contains this node. Of course, the file must first be processed with `makeinfo', and then placed into the location of your info directory. Here are the commands for creating a numeric argument: `C-u' (`universal-argument') Starts (or multiplies by 4) the current numeric argument. `C-u' is a good way to give a small numeric argument to cursor movement or scrolling commands; `C-u C-v' scrolls the screen 4 lines, while `C-u C-u C-n' moves the cursor down 16 lines. `M-1' (`add-digit-to-numeric-arg') `M-2' ... `M-9' Adds the digit value of the invoking key to the current numeric argument. Once Info is reading a numeric argument, you may just type the digits of the argument, without the Meta prefix. For example, you might give `C-l' a numeric argument of 32 by typing: `C-u 3 2 C-l' or `M-3 2 C-l' `C-g' is used to abort the reading of a multi-character key sequence, to cancel lengthy operations (such as multi-file searches) and to cancel reading input in the echo area. `C-g' (`abort-key') Cancels current operation. The `q' command of Info simply quits running Info. `q' (`quit') Exits GNU Info. If the operating system tells GNU Info that the screen is 60 lines tall, and it is actually only 40 lines tall, here is a way to tell Info that the operating system is correct. `M-x set-screen-height' Reads a height value in the echo area and sets the height of the displayed screen to that value. Finally, Info provides a convenient way to display footnotes which might be associated with the current node that you are viewing: `ESC C-f' (`show-footnotes') Shows the footnotes (if any) associated with the current node in another window. You can have Info automatically display the footnotes associated with a node when the node is selected by setting the variable `automatic-footnotes'. *Note `automatic-footnotes': Variables. File: info.info, Node: Variables, Prev: Miscellaneous Commands, Up: Using Stand-alone Info Manipulating Variables ====================== GNU Info contains several "variables" whose values are looked at by various Info commands. You can change the values of these variables, and thus change the behaviour of Info to more closely match your environment and info file reading manner. `M-x set-variable' Reads the name of a variable, and the value for it, in the echo area and then sets the variable to that value. Completion is available when reading the variable name; often, completion is available when reading the value to give to the variable, but that depends on the variable itself. If a variable does *not* supply multiple choices to complete over, it expects a numeric value. `M-x describe-variable' Reads the name of a variable in the echo area and then displays a brief description of what the variable affects. Here is a list of the variables that you can set in Info. `automatic-footnotes' When set to `On', footnotes appear and disappear automatically. This variable is `On' by default. When a node is selected, a window containing the footnotes which appear in that node is created, and the footnotes are displayed within the new window. The window that Info creates to contain the footnotes is called `*Footnotes*'. If a node is selected which contains no footnotes, and a `*Footnotes*' window is on the screen, the `*Footnotes*' window is deleted. Footnote windows created in this fashion are not automatically tiled so that they can use as little of the display as is possible. `automatic-tiling' When set to `On', creating or deleting a window resizes other windows. This variable is `Off' by default. Normally, typing `C-x 2' divides the current window into two equal parts. When `automatic-tiling' is set to `On', all of the windows are resized automatically, keeping an equal number of lines visible in each window. There are exceptions to the automatic tiling; specifically, the windows `*Completions*' and `*Footnotes*' are *not* resized through automatic tiling; they remain their original size. `visible-bell' When set to `On', GNU Info attempts to flash the screen instead of ringing the bell. This variable is `Off' by default. Of course, Info can only flash the screen if the terminal allows it; in the case that the terminal does not allow it, the setting of this variable has no effect. However, you can make Info perform quietly by setting the `errors-ring-bell' variable to `Off'. `errors-ring-bell' When set to `On', errors cause the bell to ring. The default setting of this variable is `On'. `gc-compressed-files' When set to `On', Info garbage collects files which had to be uncompressed. The default value of this variable is `Off'. Whenever a node is visited in Info, the info file containing that node is read into core, and Info reads information about the tags and nodes contained in that file. Once the tags information is read by Info, it is never forgotten. However, the actual text of the nodes does not need to remain in core unless a particular info window needs it. For non-compressed files, the text of the nodes does not remain in core when it is no longer in use. But de-compressing a file can be a time consuming operation, and so Info tries hard not to do it twice. `gc-compressed-files' tells Info it is okay to garbage collect the text of the nodes of a file which was compressed on disk. `show-index-match' When set to `On', the portion of the matched search string is highlighted in the message which explains where the matched search string was found. The default value of this variable is `On'. When Info displays the location where an index match was found, (*note `next-index-match': Searching Commands.), the portion of the string that you had typed is highlighted by displaying it in the inverse case from its surrounding characters. `scroll-behaviour' Controls what happens when forward scrolling is requested at the end of a node, or when backward scrolling is requested at the beginning of a node. The default value for this variable is `Continuous'. There are three possible values for this variable: `Continuous' Tries to get the first item in this node's menu, or failing that, the `Next' node, or failing that, the `Next' of the `Up'. This behaviour is identical to using the `]' (`global-next-node') and `[' (`global-prev-node') commands. `Next Only' Only tries to get the `Next' node. `Page Only' Simply gives up, changing nothing. If `scroll-behaviour' is `Page Only', no scrolling command can change the node that is being viewed. `scroll-step' The number of lines to scroll when the cursor moves out of the window. Scrolling happens automatically if the cursor has moved out of the visible portion of the node text when it is time to display. Usually the scrolling is done so as to put the cursor on the center line of the current window. However, if the variable `scroll-step' has a nonzero value, Info attempts to scroll the node text by that many lines; if that is enough to bring the cursor back into the window, that is what is done. The default value of this variable is 0, thus placing the cursor (and the text it is attached to) in the center of the window. Setting this variable to 1 causes a kind of "smooth scrolling" which some people prefer. `ISO-Latin' When set to `On', Info accepts and displays ISO Latin-1 characters. By default, Info assumes an ASCII character set. `ISO-Latin' tells Info that it is running in an environment where the European standard character set is in use, and allows you to input such characters to Info, as well as display them.