Info

The online, hyper-text GNU documentation system

Brian Fox
and the GNU Texinfo community
This file describes how to use Info, the on-line, menu-driven GNU documentation system.
Copyright c 1989, 1992, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections,
with the Front-Cover texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover
Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
“GNU Free Documentation License” in the Emacs manual.
(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have freedom to copy and modify this
GNU Manual, like GNU software. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the
FSF in developing GNU and promoting software freedom.”
This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free Docu-
mentation License. If you want to distribute this document separately from the
collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the license to the document, as
described in section 6 of the license.
 i

Table of Contents

1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Starting Info on a Small Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 How to use Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Returning to the Previous node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.4 The Space, DEL, B and ^L commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.5 Invisible text in Emacs Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.5.1 The ] and [ commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.6 Menus and the m command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.6.1 The u command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.7 Following Cross-References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.8 Some intermediate Info commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.9 Quitting Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2 Advanced Info Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.1 s searches Info documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 i searches the indices for specific subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 g goes to a node by name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 1–9 choose a menu subtopic by its number. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 M-n creates a new independent Info buffer in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.6 Emacs Info-mode Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3 Info for Experts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.1 Adding a new node to Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 How to Create Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.3 Creating Cross References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3.1 The node reached by the cross reference in Info . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4 Tags Tables for Info Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.5 Checking an Info File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Chapter 1: Getting Started 1

1 Getting Started
This first part of this Info manual describes how to get around inside of Info. The second
part of the manual describes various advanced Info commands. The third part briefly
explains how to generate Info files from Texinfo files, and describes how to write an Info file
by hand.
This manual is primarily designed for browsing with an Info reader program on a com-
puter, so that you can try Info commands while reading about them. Reading it on paper or
with an HTML browser is less effective, since you must take it on faith that the commands
described really do what the manual says. By all means go through this manual now that
you have it; but please try going through the on-line version as well.
There are two ways of looking at the online version of this manual:
1. Type info at your shell’s command line. This approach uses a stand-alone program
designed just to read Info files.
2. Type emacs at the command line; then type C-h i (Control-h, followed by i). This
approach uses the Info mode of the Emacs editor.
In either case, then type mInfo (just the letters), followed by RET—the “Return” or
“Enter” key. At this point, you should be ready to follow the instructions in this manual
as you read them on the screen.

1.1 Starting Info on a Small Screen

(In Info, you only see this section if your terminal has a small number of lines; most readers
pass by it without seeing it.)
Since your terminal has a relatively small number of lines on its screen, it is necessary
to give you special advice at the beginning.
If the entire text you are looking at fits on the screen, the text ‘All’ will be displayed at
the bottom of the screen. In the stand-alone Info reader, it is displayed at the bottom right
corner of the screen; in Emacs, it is displayed on the modeline. If you see the text ‘Top’
instead, it means that there is more text below that does not fit. To move forward through
the text and see another screen full, press SPC, the Space bar. To move back up, press the
key labeled ‘Backspace’ or ‘DEL’ (on some keyboards, this key might be labeled ‘Delete’).

1.2 How to use Info

You are talking to the program Info, for reading documentation.
There are two ways to use Info: from within Emacs or as a stand-alone reader that you
can invoke from a shell using the command info.
Right now you are looking at one Node of Information. A node contains text describing
a specific topic at a specific level of detail. This node’s topic is “how to use Info”. The
mode line says that this is node ‘Help’ in the file ‘info’.
The top line of a node is its header. This node’s header (look at it now) says that the
‘Next’ node after this one is the node called ‘Help-P’. An advanced Info command lets you
go to any node whose name you know. In the stand-alone Info reader program, the header
line shows the names of this node and the Info file as well. In Emacs, the header line is
Chapter 1: Getting Started 2

displayed with a special typeface, and remains at the top of the window all the time even
if you scroll through the node.
Besides a ‘Next’, a node can have a ‘Previous’ link, or an ‘Up’ link, or both. As you can
see, this node has all of these links.
Now it is time to move on to the ‘Next’ node, named ‘Help-P’.
>> Type n to move there. Type just one character;
do not type the quotes and do not type a RET afterward.
‘>>’ in the margin means it is really time to try a command.
>> If you are in Emacs and have a mouse, and if you already practiced
typing n to get to the next node, click now with the left
mouse button on the ‘Next’ link to do the same “the mouse way”.

1.3 Returning to the Previous node

This node is called ‘Help-P’. The ‘Previous’ node, as you see, is ‘Help’, which is the one
you just came from using the n command. Another n command now would take you to the
next node, ‘Help-^L’.
>> But do not type n yet. First, try the p command, or
(in Emacs) click on the ‘Prev’ link. That takes you to
the ‘Previous’ node. Then use n to return here.
If you read this in Emacs, you will see an ‘Info’ item in the menu bar, close to its right
edge. Clicking the mouse on the ‘Info’ menu-bar item opens a menu of commands which
include ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ (and also some others which you didn’t yet learn about).
This all probably seems insultingly simple so far, but please don’t start skimming. Things
will get complicated soon enough! Also, please do not try a new command until you are
told it is time to. You could make Info skip past an important warning that was coming
up.
>> Now do an n, or (in Emacs) click the middle mouse button on
the ‘Next’ link, to get to the node ‘Help-^L’ and learn more.

1.4 The Space, DEL, B and ^L commands

This node’s mode line tells you that you are now at node ‘Help-^L’, and the header line
tells you that p would get you back to ‘Help-P’. The node’s title is highlighted and may be
underlined as well; it says what the node is about.
This is a big node and it does not all fit on your display screen. You can tell that there
is more that is not visible because you can see the text ‘Top’ rather than ‘All’ near the
bottom of the screen.
The SPC, BACKSPACE (or DEL)1 and b commands exist to allow you to “move around”
in a node that does not all fit on the screen at once. SPC moves forward, to show what was
below the bottom of the screen. DEL or BACKSPACE moves backward, to show what was
1
The key which we call “Backspace or DEL” in this manual is labeled differently on different keyboards.
Look for a key which is a little ways above the ENTER or RET key and which you normally use outside
Emacs to erase the character before the cursor, i.e. the character you typed last. It might be labeled
‘Backspace’ or ‘<-’ or ‘DEL’, or sometimes ‘Delete’.
Chapter 1: Getting Started 3

above the top of the screen (there is not anything above the top until you have typed some
spaces).
>> Now try typing a SPC (afterward, type a BACKSPACE to
return here).
When you type the SPC, the two lines that were at the bottom of the screen appear at
the top, followed by more lines. DEL or BACKSPACE takes the two lines from the top and
moves them to the bottom, usually, but if there are not a full screen’s worth of lines above
them they may not make it all the way to the bottom.
If you are reading this in Emacs, note that the header line is always visible, never scrolling
off the display. That way, you can always see the ‘Next’, ‘Prev’, and ‘Up’ links, and you can
conveniently go to one of these links at any time by clicking the middle mouse button on
the link.
SPC and DEL not only move forward and backward through the current node. They
also move between nodes. SPC at the end of a node moves to the next node; DEL (or
BACKSPACE) at the beginning of a node moves to the previous node. In effect, these
commands scroll through all the nodes in an Info file as a single logical sequence. You can
read an entire manual top to bottom by just typing SPC, and move backward through the
entire manual from bottom to top by typing DEL (or BACKSPACE).
In this sequence, a node’s subnodes appear following their parent. If a node has a menu,
SPC takes you into the subnodes listed in the menu, one by one. Once you reach the end of
a node, and have seen all of its subnodes, SPC takes you to the next node or to the parent’s
next node.
Many keyboards nowadays have two scroll keys labeled ‘PageUp’ and ‘PageDown’ (or
maybe ‘Prior’ and ‘Next’). If your keyboard has these keys, you can use them to move
forward and backward through the text of one node, like SPC and BACKSPACE (or DEL).
However, PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN keys never scroll beyond the beginning or the end
of the current node.
If your screen is ever garbaged, you can tell Info to display it again by typing C-l
(Control-L—that is, hold down CTRL and type L or l).
>> Type C-l now.
To move back to the beginning of the node you are on, you can type the BACKSPACE
key (or DEL) many times. You can also type b just once. b stands for “beginning.”
>> Try that now. (We have put in enough verbiage to push this past
the first screenful, but screens are so big nowadays that perhaps it
isn’t enough. You may need to shrink your Emacs or Info window.)
Then come back, by typing SPC one or more times.
You have just learned a considerable number of commands. If you want to use one but
have trouble remembering which, you should type ?, which displays a brief list of commands.
When you are finished looking at the list, make it go away by typing SPC repeatedly.
>> Type a ? now. Press SPC to see consecutive screenfuls of
the list until finished. Then type SPC several times. If
you are using Emacs, the help will then go away automatically.
(If you are using the stand-alone Info reader, type C-x 0 to return here, that is—press
and hold CTRL, type an x, then release CTRL and x, and press 0; that’s a zero, not the
letter “o”.)
Chapter 1: Getting Started 4

From now on, you will encounter large nodes without warning, and will be expected to
know how to use SPC and BACKSPACE to move around in them without being told. Since
not all terminals have the same size screen, it would be impossible to warn you anyway.
>> Now type n, or click the middle mouse button on the ‘Next’ link,
to visit the next node.

1.5 Invisible text in Emacs Info

Before discussing menus, we need to make some remarks that are only relevant to users
reading Info using Emacs. Users of the stand-alone version can skip this node by typing ]
now.
In Emacs, certain text that appears in the stand-alone version is normally hidden, tech-
nically because it has the ‘invisibility’ property. Invisible text is really a part of the
text. It becomes visible (by default) after killing and yanking, it appears in printed output,
it gets saved to file just like any other text, and so on. Thus it is useful to know it is there.
You can make invisible text visible by using the command M-x visible-mode. Visible
mode is a minor mode, so using the command a second time will make the text invisible
again. Watch the effects of the command on the “menu” below and the top line of this
node.
If you prefer to always see the invisible text, you can set Info-hide-note-references
to nil. Enabling Visible mode permanently is not a real alternative, because Emacs Info
also uses (although less extensively) another text property that can change the text being
displayed, the ‘display’ property. Only the invisibility property is affected by Visible
mode. When, in this tutorial, we refer to the ‘Emacs’ behavior, we mean the default Emacs
behavior.
Now type ], to learn about the ] and [ commands.

1.5.1 The ] and [ commands

If you type n now, you get an error message saying that this node has no next node.
Similarly, if you type p, the error message tells you that there is no previous node. (The
exact message depends on the Info reader you use.) This is because n and p carry you to
the next and previous node at the same level. The present node is contained in a menu (see
next) of the node you came from, and hence is considered to be at a lower level. It is the
only node in the previous node’s menu (even though it was listed three times). Hence it
has no next or previous node that n or p could move to.
If you systematically move through a manual by typing n, you run the risk of skipping
many nodes. You do not run this risk if you systematically use SPC, because, when you
scroll to the bottom of a node and type another SPC, then this carries you to the following
node in the manual regardless of level. If you immediately want to go to that node, without
having to scroll to the bottom of the screen first, you can type ].
Similarly, BACKSPACE carries you to the preceding node regardless of level, after you
scrolled to the beginning of the present node. If you want to go to the preceding node
immediately, you can type [.
For instance, typing this sequence will come back here in three steps: [ n [. To do the
same backward, type ] p ].
Now type ] to go to the next node and learn about menus.
Chapter 1: Getting Started 5

1.6 Menus and the m command

With only the n (next), p (previous), SPC, BACKSPACE, ] and [ commands for moving
between nodes, nodes are restricted to a linear sequence. Menus allow a branching structure.
A menu is a list of other nodes you can move to. It is actually just part of the text of the
node formatted specially so that Info can interpret it. The beginning of a menu is always
identified by a line which starts with ‘* Menu:’. A node contains a menu if and only if it
has a line in it which starts that way. The only menu you can use at any moment is the
one in the node you are in. To use a menu in any other node, you must move to that node
first.
After the start of the menu, each line that starts with a ‘*’ identifies one subtopic. The
line usually contains a brief name for the subtopic (followed by a ‘:’, normally hidden in
Emacs), the name of the node that talks about that subtopic (again, normally hidden in
Emacs), and optionally some further description of the subtopic. Lines in the menu that do
not start with a ‘*’ have no special meaning—they are only for the human reader’s benefit
and do not define additional subtopics. Here is an example:
* Foo: Node about FOO. This tells about FOO.
The subtopic name is Foo, and the node describing it is ‘Node about FOO’. The rest of
the line is just for the reader’s Information. [[ But this line is not a real menu item, simply
because there is no line above it which starts with ‘* Menu:’. Also, in a real menu item, the
‘*’ would appear at the very start of the line. This is why the “normally hidden” text in
Emacs, namely ‘: Node about FOO.’, is actually visible in this example, even when Visible
mode is off.]]
When you use a menu to go to another node (in a way that will be described soon), what
you specify is the subtopic name, the first thing in the menu line. Info uses it to find the
menu line, extracts the node name from it, and goes to that node. The reason that there is
both a subtopic name and a node name is that the node name must be meaningful to the
computer and may therefore have to be ugly looking. The subtopic name can be chosen
just to be convenient for the user to specify. Often the node name is convenient for the user
to specify and so both it and the subtopic name are the same. There is an abbreviation for
this:
* Foo:: This tells about FOO.
This means that the subtopic name and node name are the same; they are both ‘Foo’. (The
‘::’ is normally hidden in Emacs.)
>> Now use SPC to find the menu in this node, then come back to
the front with a b and some SPCs. As you see, a menu is
actually visible in its node. If you cannot find a menu in a node
by looking at it, then the node does not have a menu and the
m command is not available.
If you keep typing SPC once the menu appears on the screen, it will move to another
node (the first one in the menu). If that happens, type BACKSPACE to come back.
The command to go to one of the subnodes is m. This is very different from the commands
you have used: it is a command that prompts you for more input.
The Info commands you know do not need additional input; when you type one of them,
Info processes it instantly and then is ready for another command. The m command is
Chapter 1: Getting Started 6

different: it needs to know the name of the subtopic. Once you have typed m, Info tries to
read the subtopic name.
Now, in the stand-alone Info, look for the line containing many dashes near the bottom
of the screen. (This is the stand-alone equivalent for the mode line in Emacs.) There is one
more line beneath that one, but usually it is blank. (In Emacs, this is the echo area.) When
it is blank, Info is ready for a command, such as n or b or SPC or m. If that line contains
text ending in a colon, it means Info is reading more input for the last command. You can’t
type an Info command then, because Info is trying to read input, not commands. You must
either give the input and finish the command you started, or type Control-g to cancel the
command. When you have done one of those things, the input entry line becomes blank
again. Then you can type Info commands again.
The command to go to a subnode via a menu is m. After you type the m, the line at the
bottom of the screen says ‘Menu item: ’. You must then type the name of the subtopic you
want, and end it with a RET.
You can abbreviate the subtopic name. If the abbreviation is not unique, the first
matching subtopic is chosen. Some menus put the shortest possible abbreviation for each
subtopic name in capital letters, so you can see how much you need to type. It does not
matter whether you use upper case or lower case when you type the subtopic. You should
not put any spaces at the end, or inside of the item name, except for one space where a
space appears in the item in the menu.
You can also use the completion feature to help enter the subtopic name. If you type
the TAB key after entering part of a name, it will fill in more of the name—as much as Info
can deduce from the part you have entered.
If you move the cursor to one of the menu subtopic lines, then you do not need to type
the argument: you just type a RET, and it stands for the subtopic of the line you are on.
You can also click the middle mouse button directly on the subtopic line to go there.
Here is a menu to give you a chance to practice. This menu gives you three ways of
going to one place, Help-FOO:
(Turn Visible mode on if you are using Emacs.)
>> Now type just an m and see what happens:
Now you are “inside” an m command. Commands cannot be used now; the next thing
you will type must be the name of a subtopic.
You can change your mind about doing the m by typing Control-g.
>> Try that now; notice the bottom line clear.
>> Then type another m.
>> Now type BAR, the item name. Do not type RET yet.
While you are typing the item name, you can use the DEL (or BACKSPACE) key to
cancel one character at a time if you make a mistake.
>> Press DEL to cancel the ‘R’. You could type another R
to replace it. But you do not have to, since ‘BA’ is a valid
abbreviation.
>> Now you are ready to go. Type a RET.
After visiting ‘Help-FOO’, you should return here.
Chapter 1: Getting Started 7

Another way to move to the menu subtopic lines and between them is to type TAB.
Each time you type a TAB, you move to the next subtopic line. To move to a previous
subtopic line in the stand-alone reader, type M-TAB—that is, press and hold the META key
and then press TAB. (On some keyboards, the META key might be labeled ‘Alt’.) In
Emacs Info, type S-TAB to move to a previous subtopic line (press and hold the SHIFT key
and then press TAB).
Once you move cursor to a subtopic line, press RET to go to that subtopic’s node.
If your terminal supports a mouse, you have yet another way of going to a subtopic.
Move your mouse pointer to the subtopic line, somewhere between the beginning ‘*’ and
the colon ‘:’ which ends the subtopic’s brief name. You will see the subtopic’s name change
its appearance (usually, its background color will change), and the shape of the mouse
pointer will change if your platform supports that. After a while, if you leave the mouse
on that spot, a small window will pop up, saying “Mouse-2: go to that node,” or the same
message may appear at the bottom of the screen.
Mouse-2 is the second button of your mouse counting from the left—the middle button
on a 3-button mouse. (On a 2-button mouse, you may have to press both buttons together
to “press the middle button”.) The message tells you pressing Mouse-2 with the current
position of the mouse pointer (on subtopic in the menu) will go to that subtopic.
More generally, Mouse-2 in an Info buffer finds the nearest link to another node and
goes there. For example, near a cross reference it acts like f, in a menu it acts like m, on
the node’s header line it acts like n, p, or u, etc. At end of the node’s text Mouse-2 moves
to the next node, or up if there’s no next node.
>> Type n to see more commands.

1.6.1 The u command

Congratulations! This is the node ‘Help-FOO’. It has an ‘Up’ pointer ‘Help-M’, the node
you just came from via the m command. This is the usual convention—the nodes you reach
from a menu have ‘Up’ nodes that lead back to the menu. Menus move Down in the tree,
and ‘Up’ moves Up. ‘Previous’, on the other hand, is usually used to “stay on the same
level but go backwards”.
You can go back to the node ‘Help-M’ by typing the command u for “Up”. This puts
you at the menu subtopic line pointing to the subnode that the u command brought you
from. (Some Info readers may put you at the front of the node instead—to get back to
where you were reading, you have to type some SPCs.)
Another way to go Up is to click Mouse-2 on the ‘Up’ pointer shown in the header line
(provided that you have a mouse).
>> Now type u to move back up to ‘Help-M’.

1.7 Following Cross-References

In Info documentation, you will see many cross references. Cross references look like this:
See Section 3.3.1 [Help-Cross], page 17. That text is a real, live cross reference, whose name
is ‘Cross’ and which points to the node named ‘Help-Cross’. (The node name is hidden
in Emacs. Do M-x visible-mode to show or hide it.)
You can follow a cross reference by moving the cursor to it and press RET, just as in a
menu. In Emacs, you can also click Mouse-1 on a cross reference to follow it; you can see
Chapter 1: Getting Started 8

that the cross reference is mouse-sensitive by moving the mouse pointer to the reference
and watching how the underlying text and the mouse pointer change in response.
Another way to follow a cross reference is to type f and then specify the name of the
cross reference (in this case, ‘Cross’) as an argument. For this command, it does not matter
where the cursor was. If the cursor is on or near a cross reference, f suggests that reference
name in parentheses as the default; typing RET will follow that reference. However, if you
type a different reference name, f will follow the other reference which has that name.
>> Type f, followed by Cross, and then RET.
As you enter the reference name, you can use the DEL (or BACKSPACE) key to edit
your input. If you change your mind about following any reference, you can use Control-
g to cancel the command. Completion is available in the f command; you can complete
among all the cross reference names in the current node by typing a TAB.
To get a list of all the cross references in the current node, you can type ? after an f.
The f continues to await a cross reference name even after displaying the list, so if you
don’t actually want to follow a reference, you should type a Control-g to cancel the f.
>> Type f? to get a list of the cross references in this node. Then
type a Control-g and see how the ‘f’ gives up.
The TAB, M-TAB and S-TAB keys, which move between menu items in a menu, also move
between cross references outside of menus.
Sometimes a cross reference (or a node) can lead to another file (in other words another
“manual”), or, on occasion, even a file on a remote machine (although Info files distributed
with Emacs or the stand-alone Info avoid using remote links). Such a cross reference looks
like this: See Section “Overview of Texinfo” in Texinfo: The GNU Documentation Format.
(After following this link, type l to get back to this node.) Here the name ‘texinfo’
between parentheses refers to the file name. This file name appears in cross references and
node names if it differs from the current file, so you can always know that you are going to
be switching to another manual and which one.
However, Emacs normally hides some other text in cross-references. If you put your
mouse over the cross reference, then the information appearing in a separate box (tool tip)
or in the echo area will show the full cross-reference including the file name and the node
name of the cross reference. If you have a mouse, just leave it over the cross reference
See Section “Overview of Texinfo” in Texinfo: The GNU Documentation Format, and
watch what happens. If you always like to have that information visible without having to
move your mouse over the cross reference, use M-x visible-mode, or set Info-hide-note-
references to a value other than t (see Section 2.6 [Emacs Info Variables], page 13).
>> Now type n to learn more commands.

1.8 Some intermediate Info commands

The introductory course is almost over; please continue a little longer to learn some
intermediate-level commands.
Most Info files have an index, which is actually a large node containing little but a menu.
The menu has one menu item for each topic listed in the index. (As a special feature, menus
for indices may also include the line number within the node of the index entry. This allows
Info readers to go to the exact line of an entry, not just the start of the containing node.)
Chapter 1: Getting Started 9

You can get to the index from the main menu of the file with the m command and the
name of the index node; then you can use the m command again in the index node to go to
the node that describes the topic you want.
There is also a short-cut Info command, i, which does all of that for you. It searches
the index for a given topic (a string) and goes to the node which is listed in the index for
that topic. See Section 2.2 [Search Index], page 11, for a full explanation.
If you have been moving around to different nodes and wish to retrace your steps, the
l command (l for last) will do that, one node-step at a time. As you move from node to
node, Info records the nodes where you have been in a special history list. The l command
revisits nodes in the history list; each successive l command moves one step back through
the history.
>> Try typing p p n and then three l’s, pausing in between
to see what each l does. You should wind up right back here.
Note the difference between l and p: l moves to where you last were, whereas p always
moves to the node which the header says is the ‘Previous’ node (from this node, the ‘Prev’
link leads to ‘Help-Xref’).
You can use the r command (Info-history-forward in Emacs) to revisit nodes in the
history list in the forward direction, so that r will return you to the node you came from
by typing l.
The L command (Info-history in Emacs) creates a virtual node that contains a list of
all nodes you visited. You can select a previously visited node from this menu to revisit it.
The d command (Info-directory in Emacs) gets you instantly to the Directory node.
This node, which is the first one you saw when you entered Info, has a menu which leads
(directly or indirectly, through other menus), to all the nodes that exist. The Directory
node lists all the manuals and other Info documents that are, or could be, installed on your
system.
>> Try doing a d, then do an l to return here (yes,
do return).
The t command moves to the ‘Top’ node of the manual. This is useful if you want to
browse the manual’s main menu, or select some specific top-level menu item. The Emacs
command run by t is Info-top-node.
>> Now type n to see the last node of the course.
See Chapter 2 [Advanced], page 11, for more advanced Info features.

1.9 Quitting Info

To get out of Info, back to what you were doing before, type q for Quit. This runs Info-exit
in Emacs.
This is the end of the basic course on using Info. You have learned how to move in an
Info document, and how to follow menus and cross references. This makes you ready for
reading manuals top to bottom, as new users should do when they learn a new package.
Another set of Info commands is useful when you need to find something quickly in a
manual—that is, when you need to use a manual as a reference rather than as a tutorial.
We urge you to learn these search commands as well. If you want to do that now, follow
this cross reference to Chapter 2 [Advanced], page 11.
Chapter 1: Getting Started 10

Yet another set of commands are meant for experienced users; you can find them by
looking in the Directory node for documentation on Info. Finding them will be a good
exercise in using Info in the usual manner.
>> Type d to go to the Info directory node; then type
mInfo and Return, to get to the node about Info and
see what other help is available.
Chapter 2: Advanced Info Commands 11

2 Advanced Info Commands

This chapter describes various advanced Info commands. (If you are using a stand-alone
Info reader, there are additional commands specific to it, which are documented in several
chapters of Section “GNU Info” in GNU Info.)
One advanced command useful with most of the others described here is C-q, which
“quotes” the next character so that it is entered literally (see Section “Inserting Text” in
The GNU Emacs Manual). For example, pressing ? ordinarily brings up a list of completion
possibilities. If you want to (for example) search for an actual ‘?’ character, the simplest
way is to insert it using C-q ?. This works the same in Emacs and stand-alone Info.

2.1 s searches Info documents

The commands which move between and inside nodes allow you to read the entire manual
or its large portions. But what if you need to find some information in the manual as fast
as you can, and you don’t know or don’t remember in what node to look for it? This need
arises when you use a manual as a reference, or when it is impractical to read the entire
manual before you start using the programs it describes.
Info has powerful searching facilities that let you find things quickly. You can search
either the manual text or its indices.
The s command allows you to search a whole Info file for a string. It switches to the
next node if and when that is necessary. You type s followed by the string to search for,
terminated by RET. To search for the same string again, just s followed by RET will
do. The file’s nodes are scanned in the order they are in the file, which has no necessary
relationship to the order that they may be in the tree structure of menus and ‘next’ pointers.
But normally the two orders are not very different. In any case, you can always look at
the mode line to find out what node you have reached, if the header is not visible (this can
happen, because s puts your cursor at the occurrence of the string, not at the beginning of
the node).
In Emacs, Meta-s is equivalent to s. That is for compatibility with other GNU packages
that use M-s for a similar kind of search command. Both s and M-s run in Emacs the
command Info-search.
Instead of using s in Emacs Info and in the stand-alone Info, you can use an incremental
search started with C-s or C-r. It can search through multiple Info nodes. See Section
“Incremental Search” in The GNU Emacs Manual. In Emacs, you can disable this behavior
by setting the variable Info-isearch-search to nil (see Section 2.6 [Emacs Info Variables],
page 13).

2.2 i searches the indices for specific subjects

Since most topics in the manual should be indexed, you should try the index search first
before the text search. The i command prompts you for a subject and then looks up that
subject in the indices. If it finds an index entry with the subject you typed, it goes to the
node to which that index entry points. You should browse through that node to see whether
the issue you are looking for is described there. If it isn’t, type , one or more times to go
through additional index entries which match your subject.
Chapter 2: Advanced Info Commands 12

The i command and subsequent , commands find all index entries which include the
string you typed as a substring. For each match, Info shows in the echo area the full index
entry it found. Often, the text of the full index entry already gives you enough information
to decide whether it is relevant to what you are looking for, so we recommend that you read
what Info shows in the echo area before looking at the node it displays.
Since i looks for a substring, you can search for subjects even if you are not sure how
they are spelled in the index. For example, suppose you want to find something that is
pertinent to commands which complete partial input (e.g., when you type TAB). If you
want to catch index entries that refer to “complete,” “completion,” and “completing,” you
could type icompletRET.
Info documents which describe programs should index the commands, options, and key
sequences that the program provides. If you are looking for a description of a command,
an option, or a key, just type their names when i prompts you for a topic. For example, if
you want to read the description of what the C-l key does, type iC-lRET literally.
If you aren’t sure which manual documents the topic you are looking for, try the M-x
info-apropos command in Emacs, or the M-x index-apropos command in the stand-alone
reader. It prompts for a string and then looks up that string in all the indices of all the
Info documents installed on your system.

2.3 g goes to a node by name

If you know a node’s name, you can go there by typing g, the name, and RET. Thus,
gTopRET would go to the node called ‘Top’ in this file. (This is equivalent to t, see Section 1.8
[Help-Int], page 8.) gGo to nodeRET would come back here.
Unlike m, g does not allow the use of abbreviations. But it does allow completion, so you
can type TAB to complete a partial node name.
To go to a node in another file, you can include the file name in the node name by
putting it at the front, in parentheses. Thus, g(dir)TopRET would go to the Info Directory
node, which is the node ‘Top’ in the Info file ‘dir’. Likewise, g(emacs)TopRET goes to the
top node of the Emacs manual.
The node name ‘*’ specifies the whole file. So you can look at all of the current file by
typing g*RET or all of any other file with g(filename )*RET.

2.4 1–9 choose a menu subtopic by its number

If you begrudge each character of type-in which your system requires, you might like to use
the commands 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . , 9. They are short for the m command together with a name of
a menu subtopic. 1 goes through the first item in the current node’s menu; 2 goes through
the second item, etc. In the stand-alone reader, 0 goes through the last menu item; this is
so you need not count how many entries are there.
If your display supports multiple fonts, colors or underlining, and you are using Emacs’
Info mode to read Info files, the third, sixth and ninth menu items have a ‘*’ that stands
out, either in color or in some other attribute, such as underline; this makes it easy to see
at a glance which number to use for an item.
Chapter 2: Advanced Info Commands 13

Some terminals don’t support either multiple fonts, colors or underlining. If you need
to actually count items, it is better to use m instead, and specify the name, or use TAB to
quickly move between menu items.

2.5 M-n creates a new independent Info buffer in Emacs

If you are reading Info in Emacs, you can select a new independent Info buffer in a new
Emacs window by typing M-n. The new buffer starts out as an exact copy of the old one,
but you will be able to move independently between nodes in the two buffers. (In Info
mode, M-n runs the Emacs command clone-buffer.)
In Emacs Info, you can also produce new Info buffers by giving a numeric prefix argument
to the m and g commands. C-u m and C-u g go to a new node in exactly the same way that
m and g do, but they do so in a new Info buffer which they select in another window.
Another way to produce new Info buffers in Emacs is to use a numeric prefix argument
for the C-h i command (info) which switches to the Info buffer with that number. Thus,
C-u 2 C-h i switches to the buffer ‘*info*<2>’, creating it if necessary.

2.6 Emacs Info-mode Variables

The following variables may modify the behavior of Info-mode in Emacs; you may wish to
set one or several of these variables interactively, or in your init file. See Section “Examining
and Setting Variables” in The GNU Emacs Manual. The stand-alone Info reader program
has its own set of variables, described in Section “Manipulating Variables” in GNU Info.
Info-directory-list
The list of directories to search for Info files. Each element is a string (directory
name) or nil (try default directory). If not initialized Info uses the environment
variable INFOPATH to initialize it, or Info-default-directory-list if there is
no INFOPATH variable in the environment.
If you wish to customize the Info directory search list for both Emacs Info and
stand-alone Info, it is best to set the INFOPATH environment variable, since that
applies to both programs.
Info-additional-directory-list
A list of additional directories to search for Info documentation files. These
directories are not searched for merging the ‘dir’ file.
Info-mode-hook
Hooks run when Info-mode is called. By default, it contains the hook turn-
on-font-lock which enables highlighting of Info files. You can change how the
highlighting looks by customizing the faces info-node, info-xref, info-xref-
visited, info-header-xref, info-header-node, info-menu-header, info-
menu-star, and info-title-n (where n is the level of the section, a number
between 1 and 4). To customize a face, type M-x customize-face RET face
RET, where face is one of the face names listed here.
Info-fontify-maximum-menu-size
Maximum size of menu to fontify if font-lock-mode is non-nil.
Chapter 2: Advanced Info Commands 14

Info-fontify-visited-nodes
If non-nil, menu items and cross-references pointing to visited nodes are dis-
played in the info-xref-visited face.
Info-use-header-line
If non-nil, Emacs puts in the Info buffer a header line showing the ‘Next’,
‘Prev’, and ‘Up’ links. A header line does not scroll with the rest of the buffer,
making these links always visible.
Info-hide-note-references
As explained in earlier nodes, the Emacs version of Info normally hides some
text in menus and cross-references. You can completely disable this feature, by
setting this option to nil. Setting it to a value that is neither nil nor t produces
an intermediate behavior, hiding a limited amount of text, but showing all text
that could potentially be useful.
Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes
If set to a non-nil value, SPC and BACKSPACE (or DEL) keys in a menu
visit subnodes of the current node before scrolling to its end or beginning,
respectively. For example, if the node’s menu appears on the screen, the next
SPC moves to a subnode indicated by the following menu item. Setting this
option to nil results in behavior similar to the stand-alone Info reader program,
which visits the first subnode from the menu only when you hit the end of the
current node. The default is nil.
Info-isearch-search
If non-nil, isearch in Info searches through multiple nodes.
Info-enable-active-nodes
When set to a non-nil value, allows Info to execute Lisp code associated with
nodes. The Lisp code is executed when the node is selected. The Lisp code
to be executed should follow the node delimiter (the ‘DEL’ character) and an
‘execute: ’ tag, like this:
^_execute: (message "This is an active node!")
Chapter 3: Info for Experts 15

3 Info for Experts

This chapter explains how to write an Info file by hand. However, in most cases, writing
a Texinfo file is better, since you can use it to make a printed manual or produce other
formats, such as HTML and DocBook, as well as for generating Info files.
The makeinfo command converts a Texinfo file into an Info file; texinfo-format-
region and texinfo-format-buffer are GNU Emacs functions that do the same.
See Section “Overview of Texinfo” in Texinfo: The GNU Documentation Format, for
how to write a Texinfo file.
See Section “Creating an Info File” in Texinfo: The GNU Documentation Format, for
how to create an Info file from a Texinfo file.
See Section “Installing an Info File” in Texinfo: The GNU Documentation Format, for
how to install an Info file after you have created one.
However, if you want to edit an Info file manually and install it manually, here is how.

3.1 Adding a new node to Info

To add a new topic to the list in the Info directory, you must:
1. Create some nodes, in some file, to document that topic.
2. Put that topic in the menu in the directory. See Section 3.2 [Menus], page 16.
The new node can live in an existing documentation file, or in a new one. It must have
a ‘^_’ character before it (invisible to the user; this node has one but you cannot see it),
and it ends with either a ‘^_’, a ‘^L’ (“formfeed”), or the end of file.1
The ‘^_’ starting a node must be followed by a newline or a ‘^L’ newline, after which
comes the node’s header line. The header line must give the node’s name (by which Info
finds it), and state the names of the ‘Next’, ‘Previous’, and ‘Up’ nodes (if there are any).
As you can see, this node’s ‘Up’ node is the node ‘Expert Info’. The ‘Next’ node is ‘Menus’.
The keywords Node, Next, Previous, and Up may appear in any order, anywhere in the
header line, but the recommended order is the one in this sentence. Each keyword must be
followed by a colon, spaces and tabs, and then the appropriate name. The name may be
terminated with a tab, a comma, or a newline. A space does not end it; node names may
contain spaces. The case of letters in the names is insignificant.
A node name has two forms. A node in the current file is named by what appears after
the ‘Node: ’ in that node’s first line. For example, this node’s name is ‘Add’. A node in
another file is named by ‘(filename )node-within-file ’, as in ‘(info)Add’ for this node.
If the file name starts with ‘./’, then it is relative to the current directory; otherwise,
it is relative starting from the standard directory for Info files of your site. The name
‘(filename )Top’ can be abbreviated to just ‘(filename )’. By convention, the name ‘Top’
is used for the “highest” node in any single file—the node whose ‘Up’ points out of the file.
The ‘Directory’ node is ‘(dir)’, it points to a file ‘dir’ which holds a large menu listing
1
If you put in a ‘^L’ to end a new node, be sure that there is a ‘^_’ after it to start the next one, since
‘^L’ cannot start a node. Also, a nicer way to make a node boundary be a page boundary as well is to
put a ‘^L’ right after the ‘^_’.
Chapter 3: Info for Experts 16

all the Info documents installed on your site. The ‘Top’ node of a document file listed in
the ‘Directory’ should have an ‘Up: (dir)’ in it.
The node name * is special: it refers to the entire file. Thus, g* shows you the whole
current file. The use of the node * is to make it possible to make old-fashioned, unstructured
files into nodes of the tree.
The ‘Node:’ name, in which a node states its own name, must not contain a file name,
since when Info searches for a node, it does not expect a file name to be there. The ‘Next’,
‘Previous’ and ‘Up’ names may contain them. In this node, since the ‘Up’ node is in the
same file, it was not necessary to use one.
Note that the nodes in this file have a file name in the header line. The file names are
ignored by Info, but they serve as comments to help identify the node for the user.

3.2 How to Create Menus

Any node in the Info hierarchy may have a menu—a list of subnodes. The m command
searches the current node’s menu for the topic which it reads from the terminal.
A menu begins with a line starting with ‘* Menu:’. The rest of the line is a comment.
After the starting line, every line that begins with a ‘* ’ lists a single topic. The name of
the topic—what the user must type at the m’s command prompt to select this topic—comes
right after the star and space, and is followed by a colon, spaces and tabs, and the name
of the node which discusses that topic. The node name, like node names following ‘Next’,
‘Previous’ and ‘Up’, may be terminated with a tab, comma, or newline; it may also be
terminated with a period.
If the node name and topic name are the same, then rather than giving the name twice,
the abbreviation ‘* name ::’ may be used (and should be used, whenever possible, as it
reduces the visual clutter in the menu).
It is considerate to choose the topic names so that they differ from each other very near
the beginning—this allows the user to type short abbreviations. In a long menu, it is a
good idea to capitalize the beginning of each item name which is the minimum acceptable
abbreviation for it (a long menu is more than 5 or so entries).
The nodes listed in a node’s menu are called its “subnodes,” and it is their “superior”.
They should each have an ‘Up:’ pointing at the superior. It is often useful to arrange all or
most of the subnodes in a sequence of ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ pointers so that someone who
wants to see them all need not keep revisiting the Menu.
The Info Directory is simply the menu of the node ‘(dir)Top’—that is, node ‘Top’ in
file ‘.../info/dir’. You can put new entries in that menu just like any other menu. The
Info Directory is not the same as the file directory called ‘info’. It happens that many of
Info’s files live in that file directory, but they do not have to; and files in that directory are
not automatically listed in the Info Directory node.
Also, although the Info node graph is claimed to be a “hierarchy,” in fact it can be any
directed graph. Shared structures and pointer cycles are perfectly possible, and can be used
if they are appropriate to the meaning to be expressed. There is no need for all the nodes
in a file to form a connected structure. In fact, this file has two connected components.
You are in one of them, which is under the node ‘Top’; the other contains the node ‘Help’
which the h command goes to. In fact, since there is no garbage collector on the node
Chapter 3: Info for Experts 17

graph, nothing terrible happens if a substructure is not pointed to, but such a substructure
is rather useless since nobody can ever find out that it exists.

3.3 Creating Cross References

A cross reference can be placed anywhere in the text, unlike a menu item which must go
at the front of a line. A cross reference looks like a menu item except that it has ‘*note’
instead of ‘*’. It cannot be terminated by a ‘)’, because ‘)’’s are so often part of node
names. If you wish to enclose a cross reference in parentheses, terminate it with a period
first. Here are two examples of cross references pointers:
*Note details: commands. (See *note 3: Full Proof.)
These are just examples. The places they “lead to” do not really exist!

3.3.1 The node reached by the cross reference in Info

This is the node reached by the cross reference named ‘Cross’.
While this node is specifically intended to be reached by a cross reference, most cross
references lead to nodes that “belong” someplace else far away in the structure of an Info
document. So you cannot expect this node to have a ‘Next’, ‘Previous’ or ‘Up’ links pointing
back to where you came from. In general, the l (el) command is the only way to get back
there.
>> Type l to return to the node where the cross reference was.

3.4 Tags Tables for Info Files

You can speed up the access to nodes of a large Info file by giving it a tags table. Unlike
the tags table for a program, the tags table for an Info file lives inside the file itself and is
used automatically whenever Info reads in the file.
To make a tags table, go to a node in the file using Emacs Info mode and type M-x Info-
tagify. Then you must use C-x C-s to save the file. Info files produced by the makeinfo
command that is part of the Texinfo package always have tags tables to begin with.
Once the Info file has a tags table, you must make certain it is up to date. If you edit
an Info file directly (as opposed to editing its Texinfo source), and, as a result of deletion
of text, any node moves back more than a thousand characters in the file from the position
recorded in the tags table, Info will no longer be able to find that node. To update the tags
table, use the Info-tagify command again.
An Info file tags table appears at the end of the file and looks like this:
^_^L
Tag Table:
File: info, Node: Cross-refs^?21419
File: info, Node: Tags^?22145
^_
End Tag Table
Note that it contains one line per node, and this line contains the beginning of the node’s
header (ending just after the node name), a ‘DEL’ character, and the character position in
the file of the beginning of the node.
Chapter 3: Info for Experts 18

3.5 Checking an Info File

When creating an Info file, it is easy to forget the name of a node when you are making
a pointer to it from another node. If you put in the wrong name for a node, this is not
detected until someone tries to go through the pointer using Info. Verification of the Info
file is an automatic process which checks all pointers to nodes and reports any pointers
which are invalid. Every ‘Next’, ‘Previous’, and ‘Up’ is checked, as is every menu item and
every cross reference. In addition, any ‘Next’ which does not have a ‘Previous’ pointing
back is reported. Only pointers within the file are checked, because checking pointers to
other files would be terribly slow. But those are usually few.
To check an Info file, do M-x Info-validate while looking at any node of the file with
Emacs Info mode.
Index 19

Index
This is an alphabetical listing of all the commands, variables, and topics discussed in this
document.

? going forward in Info history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

? (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
H
1 header of Info node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1 through 9 (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 history list of visited nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

A I
abbreviating Info subnodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 i (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
index-apropos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Info document as a reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
B Info documents as tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Info menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
b (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Info reader, how to invoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
BACKSPACE (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Info-additional-directory-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
info-apropos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
C Info-directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Info-directory-list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
C-l (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Info-enable-active-nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
C-q (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Info-exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
C-r (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Info-follow-reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
C-s (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Info-fontify-maximum-menu-size . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
clone-buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Info-fontify-visited-nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
completion of Info node names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Info-goto-node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
cross reference format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Info-hide-note-references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
cross references in Info documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Info-history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Info-history-back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
D Info-history-forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Info-index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
d (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Info-isearch-search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
DEL (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Info-menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Directory node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Info-mode-hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Info-mouse-follow-nearest-node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Info-nth-menu-item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
E Info-scroll-down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
entering Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Info-scroll-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Info-search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
F Info-summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
f (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Info-tagify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
format of node headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Info-top-node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Info-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Info-use-header-line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
G Info-validate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
g (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 invisible text in Emacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
go to a node by name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 isearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
go to another Info file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
go to Directory node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
go to Top node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 L
going back in Info history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 l (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Index 20

L (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 quitting Info mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

M R
m (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 r (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
M-n (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 reading Info documents top to bottom . . . . . . . . . . 3
M-s (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
menu and menu entry format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
menus in an Info document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S
mouse support in Info mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 s (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Mouse-2 (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 searching Info documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
multiple Info buffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 searching Info indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
select n’th menu item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
small screen, moving around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
N SPC (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
stale tags tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
n (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
node delimiters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
node header line format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 T
node name format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
t (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
node, in Info documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
tags tables in Info files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

P U
p (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 u (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
PAGEDOWN (Info mode). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 unstructured documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
PAGEUP (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 update Info tags table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Q V
q (Info mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 visible-mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4