@code{sample-code}
@kbd{keyboard-characters}
@key{key-name}
@samp{text}
@var{metasyntactic-variable}
@env{environment-variable}
@file{file-name}
@command{command-name}
@option{option-name}
@dfn{term}
@cite{reference}
@acronym{acronym}
@url{uniform-resource-locator}
@email{email-address[, displayed-text]}
tex and texindex
texi2dvi
lpr -d
@pagesizes [width][, height]: Custom page sizes
The programs currently being distributed that relate to Texinfo include
portions of GNU Emacs, plus other separate programs (including
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.
Texinfo(1) 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 or suggestions for the Texinfo system, both programs and documentation. 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 section `Overview' in Comparing and Merging Files) and include `ChangeLog' entries (see section `Change Log' in The GNU Emacs Manual).
When sending email, please do not encode or split the messages in any way if possible; it's much easier to deal with one plain text message, however large, than many small ones. GNU shar is a convenient way of packaging multiple and/or binary files for email.
Using Texinfo, you can create a printed document with the normal features of a book, including chapters, sections, cross references, and indices. From the same Texinfo source file, you can create a menu-driven, online Info file with nodes, menus, cross references, and indices. You can also create from that same source file an HTML output file suitable for use with a web browser. The GNU Emacs Manual is a good example of a Texinfo file, as is this manual.
To make a printed document, you process a Texinfo source file with the TeX typesetting program (but the Texinfo language is very different from TeX's usual language, plain TeX). This creates a DVI file that you can typeset and print as a book or report (see section Formatting and Printing Hardcopy).
To output an Info file, process your Texinfo source with the
makeinfo utility or Emacs's texinfo-format-buffer command.
You can install the result in your Info tree (see section Installing an Info File).
To output an HTML file, process your Texinfo source with makeinfo
using the `--html' option. You can (for example) install the
result on your web site.
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, as it does now for
Info and HTML.
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 and @-commands (words preceded by an `@') that tell the typesetting and formatting programs what to do. You may 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 section Using Texinfo Mode.)
Before writing a Texinfo source file, you should learn about nodes, menus, cross references, and the rest, for example by reading this manual.
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.
From time to time, proposals are made to generate traditional Unix man pages from Texinfo source. This is not likely to ever be supported, because man pages have a very strict conventional format. Merely enhancing @command{makeinfo} to output troff format would be insufficient. Generating a good man page therefore requires a completely different source than the typical Texinfo applications of generating a good user manual 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.
If you wish to support man pages, the program @command{help2man} may 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 Texinfo programs themselves. It is free software written by Brendan O'Dea, available from http://www.ozemail.com.au/~bod/help2man.tar.gz.
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.
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 section `Top' in 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 Info file `info', node `Expert'.)
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 @command{info} program itself does not follow URI's 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 ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo.tex.
Most often, documents are 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 European A4 size paper
(@afourpaper). (See section Printing "Small" Books.
Also, see section 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 section `TeX Mode' in The GNU Emacs Manual, 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 section 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.
Please note: All the @-commands, with the exception of the
@TeX{}command, must be written entirely in 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 arguments(4) they take, you need to write @-commands on lines of their own or as part of sentences:
@noindent at the beginning of a line as
the only text on the line. (@noindent prevents the beginning of
the next line from being indented as the beginning of a
paragraph.)
@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 dots ...)
@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, at the 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 make it easier to write and read Texinfo files than if all commands followed exactly the same syntax. (For details about @-command syntax, see section @-Command Syntax.)
This section describes the general conventions used in all Texinfo documents.
@noindent on a line by itself before the
paragraph.
@iftex
and @end iftex commands, that region will appear only in
the printed copy; in that region, you can use certain commands
borrowed from plain TeX that you cannot use in Info. Likewise, if
you mark off a region with the @ifinfo and @end ifinfo
commands, that region will appear only in the Info file; in that
region, you can use Info commands that you cannot use in TeX.
Similarly for @ifhtml ... @end ifhtml,
@ifnothtml ... @end ifnothtml,
@ifnotinfo ... @end ifnotinfo,
@ifnottex ... @end ifnottex.
See section Conditionally Visible Text.
Caution: Do not use tabs in a Texinfo file! TeX uses variable-width fonts, which means that it cannot predefine a tab to work in all circumstances. Consequently, TeX treats tabs like single spaces, and that is not what they look like. Furthermore,
makeinfodoes nothing special with tabs, and thus a tab character in your input file may appear differently in the output.To avoid this problem, Texinfo mode causes GNU Emacs to insert multiple spaces when you press the TAB key.
Also, you can run
untabifyin Emacs to convert tabs in a region to multiple spaces.
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. Often, @ignore and @end ignore is used
to enclose a part of the copying permissions that applies to the
Texinfo source file of a document, but not to the Info or printed
version of the document.
By convention, the names of Texinfo files end with one of the extensions `.texinfo', `.texi', `.txi', or `.tex'. The longer extension is preferred since it describes 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
The `\input texinfo' line tells TeX to use the `texinfo.tex' file, which tells TeX how to translate the Texinfo @-commands into TeX typesetting commands. (Note the use of the backslash, `\'; this is correct for TeX.) The `@setfilename' line provides a name for the Info file and tells TeX to open auxiliary files. The `@settitle' line specifies a title for the page headers (or footers) of the printed manual.
The @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.
Usually, 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 section Start of Header,
for more information.)
Furthermore, you will usually provide a Texinfo file with a title page, indices, and the like. 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--it usually contains six parts:
@ifinfo and
@end ifinfo commands so that the formatters place it only in the Info
file.
@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 complete but very short Texinfo file, in six parts. 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 you write a manual, simply insert the names for your own manual in this segment. (See section Beginning a Texinfo File.)
In the following, the sample text is indented; comments on it are not. The complete file, without any comments, is shown in section A 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 Document @setchapternewpage odd @c %**end of header
The summary description and copyright segment does not appear in the printed document.
@ifinfo
This is a short example of a complete Texinfo file.
Copyright @copyright{} 1990 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@end ifinfo
The titlepage segment does not appear in the Info file.
@titlepage
@sp 10
@comment The title is printed in a large font.
@center @titlefont{Sample Title}
@c The following two commands start the copyright page.
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
Copyright @copyright{} 1990 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@end titlepage
The `Top' node contains the master menu for the Info file. Since a printed manual uses a table of contents rather than a menu, the master menu appears only in the Info file.
@node Top, First Chapter, , (dir) @comment node-name, next, previous, up
@menu
* First Chapter:: The first chapter is the
only chapter in this sample.
* Concept Index:: This index has two entries.
@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, Concept Index, Top, Top
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
@chapter First Chapter
@cindex Sample index entry
This is the contents of the first chapter.
@cindex Another sample index entry
Here is a numbered list.
@enumerate
@item
This is the first item.
@item
This is the second item.
@end enumerate
The @code{makeinfo} and @code{texinfo-format-buffer}
commands transform a Texinfo file such as this into
an Info file; and @TeX{} typesets it for a printed
manual.
The end segment contains commands for generating an index in a node and
unnumbered chapter of its own, (usually) for generating the table of
contents, and the @bye command that marks the end of the
document.
@node Concept Index, , First Chapter, Top @unnumbered Concept Index @printindex cp @contents @bye
Here is what the contents of the first chapter of the sample look like:
This is the contents of the first chapter.
Here is a numbered list.
- This is the first item.
- This is the second item.
The
makeinfoandtexinfo-format-buffercommands transform a Texinfo file such as this into an Info file; and TeX typesets it for a printed manual.
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 @command{makeinfo} and @command{info}. Karl Berry has made the updates since Texinfo 3.8 and subsequent releases, starting with Edition 2.22 of the manual.
Our thanks go out to all who helped improve this work, particularly to Fran@,{c}ois Pinard and David D. Zuhn, who tirelessly recorded and reported mistakes and obscurities; our special thanks go to Melissa Weisshaus for her frequent and often tedious reviews of nearly similar editions. The indefatigable Eli Zaretskii and Andreas Schwab have provided patches beyond counting. Zack Weinberg did the impossible by implementing the macro syntax in `texinfo.tex'. 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 and strived to
describe document contents rather than formatting.
Meanwhile, people at MIT developed another, not too dissimilar format called Bolio. This then was converted to using TeX as its typesetting language: BoTeX.
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 on line 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. 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 p (narrow-to-page) command. (See section `Pages' in The GNU Emacs Manual, 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 section 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 section `Narrowing' in The GNU Emacs Manual, 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 p (narrow-to-page) command to narrow to a chapter.
See section `Pages' in The GNU Emacs Manual, 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:
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 mThis 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).
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.
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-updateThis 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 is often useful to reduce it to as low as 24. You
can set the variable with the M-x edit-options command
(see section `Editing Variable Values' in The GNU Emacs Manual) or with the M-x set-variable command (see section `Examining and Setting Variables' in The GNU Emacs Manual).
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 section 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
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 section 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-linesThis command inserts titles as node names in
@node lines; the
texinfo-start-menu-description command (see section 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 section 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 section 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 section 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 section Formatting and Printing 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 C-c { Insert braces.
C-c C-c ]
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 of the file and the title of the document.
Generally, the beginning of a Texinfo file has four parts:
@ifinfo and
@end ifinfo commands so that the formatters place it only
in the Info file.
@titlepage and
@end titlepage commands. The title and copyright page appear
only in the printed manual.
Also, optionally, you may include the copying conditions for a program and a warranty disclaimer. The copying section will be followed by an introduction or else by the first chapter of the manual.
Since the copyright notice and copying permissions for the Texinfo document (in contrast to the copying permissions for a program) are in parts that appear only in the Info file or only in the printed manual, this information must be given twice.
The following sample shows what is needed.
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename name-of-info-file
@settitle name-of-manual
@setchapternewpage odd
@c %**end of header
@ifinfo
This file documents ...
Copyright year copyright-owner
Permission is granted to ...
@end ifinfo
@c This title page illustrates only one of the
@c two methods of forming a title page.
@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
Copyright @copyright{} year copyright-owner
Published by ...
Permission is granted to ...
@end titlepage
@node Top, Overview, , (dir)
@ifinfo
This document describes ...
This document applies to version ...
of the program named ...
@end ifinfo
@menu
* Copying:: Your rights and freedoms.
* First Chapter:: Getting started ...
* Second Chapter:: ...
...
...
@end menu
@node First Chapter, Second Chapter, top, top
@comment node-name, next, previous, up
@chapter First Chapter
@cindex Index entry for First Chapter
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. If you want to run TeX on just a part
of the Texinfo File, you must write the @settitle
and @setfilename lines between start-of-header and end-of-header
lines.
Thus, the beginning of a Texinfo file looks like this:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*- @setfilename sample.info @settitle Sample Document
or else like this:
\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*- @c %**start of header @setfilename sample.info @settitle Sample Document @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:
Write a 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 command lines, such
as @smallbook or @footnotestyle; and then by an
end-of-header line (see section End of Header).
With these lines, you can format part of a Texinfo file for Info or typeset part for printing.
A start-of-header line looks like this:
@c %**start of header
The odd string of characters, `%**', is to ensure that no other comment is accidentally taken for a start-of-header line.
@setfilename
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 @setfilename line specifies the name of the output file to
be generated. This name should 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') from the input file
name, or replace it with the `.info' extension. When producing
HTML output, makeinfo will replace any extension with
`html', or add `.html' if the given name has no extension.
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 section Tag Files and Split Files.)
The subfile name `texinfo.info-10', for example, is too long for
some systems; 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 grave limits on file
names, it will sometimes 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.
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 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 section Preparing for TeX).
@settitleIn 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 a comment.
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.) Page footers are not
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.
The @settitle command should precede everything that generates
actual output in TeX.
Although the title in the @settitle command is usually the
same as the title on the title page, it does not affect the title as
it appears on the title page. Thus, the two do not need not match
exactly; and the title in the @settitle command can be a
shortened or expanded version of the title as it appears on the title
page. (See section @titlepage.)
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 section The @headings Command, for more
information.)
You may, if you wish, create your own, customized headings and footings. See section Page Headings, for a detailed discussion of this process.
@setchapternewpageIn 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
@headings double command; see
section The @headings Command.)
@setchapternewpage on
@setchapternewpage odd
Texinfo does not have an @setchapternewpage even command.
You can countermand or modify the effect on headers of an
@setchapternewpage command with an @headings command.
See section 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 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. Instead, if you don't want the default option (no blank
pages, same headers on all pages) use the @option{--texinfo} option to
@command{texi2dvi} to specify the output you want.
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:
asis
The default value of indent is `asis'.
@paragraphindent is ignored for HTML output.
Write the @paragraphindent command before or shortly after the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file. (If you write
the command between the start-of-header and end-of-header lines, the
region formatting commands indent paragraphs as specified.)
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.
See section Refilling Paragraphs, for further information.
@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
The indentation is according to the value of indent:
asis
The default value of indent is 5. @exampleindent is
ignored for HTML output.
Write the @exampleindent command before or shortly after the
end-of-header line at the beginning of a Texinfo file. (If you write
the command between the start-of-header and end-of-header lines, the
region formatting commands indent examples as specified.)
Follow the header lines with an end-of-header line. An end-of-header line looks like this:
@c %**end of header
If you include the @setchapternewpage command between the
start-of-header and end-of-header lines, TeX will typeset a region as
that command specifies. Similarly, if you include an @smallbook
command between the start-of-header and end-of-header lines, TeX will
typeset a region in the "small" book format.
See section Start of Header.
The title page and the copyright page appear only in the printed copy of the manual; therefore, the same information must be inserted in a section that appears only in the Info file. This section usually contains a brief description of the contents of the Info file, a copyright notice, and copying permissions.
The copyright notice should read:
Copyright year copyright-owner
and be put on a line by itself.
Standard text for the copyright permissions is contained in an appendix to this manual; see section `ifinfo' Copying Permissions, for the complete text.
The permissions text appears in an Info file before the first node. This mean that a reader does not see this text when reading the file using Info, except when using the advanced Info command g *.
A manual's name and author are usually printed on a title page. Sometimes copyright information is printed on the title page as well; more often, copyright information is 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 will appear in the printed manual.
You may wish to include titlepage-like information for plain text
output. Simply place any such leading material between @ifinfo
and @end ifinfo; @command{makeinfo} includes this in its plain
text output. It will not show up in the Info readers.
See section Titlepage Copying Permissions, for the standard text for the copyright permissions.
@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 section 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 section Generating a Table of 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 number(5) 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
section @top.)
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 applications, and for the bastard title page in
traditional book front matter, Texinfo also provides a command
@shorttitlepage which takes a single argument 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 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 section @sp n: Insert Blank Lines, 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.
@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.
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{edition} for Release @value{cd-edition}
@author by Daniel Hagerty, Melissa Weisshaus
@author and Eli Zaretskii
(The use of @value here is explained in section @value Example.)
By international treaty, the copyright notice for a book should be either on the title page or on the back of the title page. The copyright notice should include the year followed by the name of the organization or person who owns the copyright.
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, you can write a somewhat mysterious line after the
@page command that reads like this:
@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 the correct usage in
TeX.
In a printed manual, the @copyright{} command generates a
`c' inside a circle. (In Info, it generates `(C)'.) The
copyright notice itself has the following legally defined sequence:
Copyright © year copyright-owner
It is customary to put information on how to get a manual after the copyright notice, followed by the copying permissions for the manual.
Permissions must be given here as well as in the summary segment within
@ifinfo and @end ifinfo that immediately follows the
header since this text appears only in the printed manual and the
`ifinfo' text appears only in the Info file.
See section Sample Permissions, for the standard text.
An @end titlepage command on a line by itself 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).
(See section @setchapternewpage.)
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 section @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 section 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 pre-defined 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 on
@headings on and @headings double, are
synonymous.
@headings singleafter
@headings doubleafter
single or double headings, respectively, after the
current page is output.
@headings on
single 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 section Page Headings, for more information.
The `Top' node is the node from which you enter an Info file.
A `Top' node should contain a brief description of the Info file and an extensive, master menu for the whole Info file. This helps the reader understand what the Info file is about. Also, you should write the version number of the program to which the Info file applies; or, at least, the edition number.
The contents of the `Top' node should appear only in the Info file; none
of it should appear in printed output, so enclose it between
@ifinfo and @end ifinfo 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
@ifinfo and @end ifinfo, but it is simplest to do so.
See section Conditionally Visible Text.)
Sometimes, you will want to place an @top sectioning command
line containing the title of the document immediately after the
@node Top line (see section The @top Sectioning Command, for more information).
For example, the beginning of the Top node of this manual contains an
@top sectioning command, a short description, and edition and
version information. It looks like this:
...
@end titlepage
@ifnottex
@node Top, Copying, , (dir)
@top Texinfo
Texinfo is a documentation system...
This is edition...
...
@end ifnottex
@menu
* Copying:: Texinfo is freely
redistributable.
* Overview:: What is Texinfo?
...
@end menu
In a `Top' node, the `Previous', and `Up' nodes usually refer to the top level directory of the whole Info system, which is called `(dir)'. The `Next' node refers to the first node that follows the main or master menu, which is usually the copying permissions, introduction, or first chapter.
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 la