Info Files (GNU Texinfo 7.3)
Next:
Printed Books
Previous:
Output Formats
Up:
Overview of Texinfo
Contents
Index
1.3 Info Files
As mentioned above, Info format is mostly a plain text transliteration
of the Texinfo source, with the addition of a few control characters
to separate nodes and provide navigational information, so that
Info-reading programs can operate on it.
Info files are nearly always created by processing a Texinfo source
document.
texi2any
, also known as
makeinfo
, is
the principal command that converts a Texinfo file into an Info file;
see
texi2any
: The Translator for Texinfo
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
Info
).
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
in
Info
.)
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 via a URI, you can use the
(unofficial) syntax exemplified by the following. This works with
Emacs/W3, for example:
info:emacs#Dissociated%20Press
info:///usr/info/emacs#Dissociated%20Press
info://localhost/usr/info/emacs#Dissociated%20Press
The
info
program itself does not follow URIs of any kind.
Next:
Printed Books
Previous:
Output Formats
Up:
Overview of Texinfo
Contents
Index