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GNU online documentation overview
The following documentation discusses the GNU online help documentation, info.

What is info?

This documentation discusses the use of the GNU info program, version 2.9. info is online documentation which is used to view help files on an ASCII terminal. info files are the result of processing texinfo files with the program, Makeinfo, using the following Emacs editing command:
M-x texinfo-format-buffer.

Texinfo is a documentation language which allows printed and online documentation (an info file) to be produced from a single source file.

Using info

info is organized into nodes, corresponding to the chapters and sections of printed books. You can follow them in sequence just like in the printed book or, using menus, go quickly to the node having the information you need.

info has hot references; if one section refers to another, you can tell info to take you immediately to that other section. You can get back again easily to take up your reading where you left off. Naturally, you can also search for particular words and phrases.

The best way to get started with the online documentation system is to use a programmed tutorial by running info itself. You run info by just typing its name—no options or arguments are necessary—at your shell prompt (shown here as ‘#’), as in the following example.

info displays its first screen, a menu of available documentation, and waits. To request a tutorial for learning info, type h. Or, from Emacs document browsing mode, in the window’s command buffer, type C-h, i.

You can exit Info any time by typing q.

info also displays a summary of all its commands when you type ?.

Reading info files

You can read the documentation for GNU software either on paper, as with any other instruction manual, or as online info files, using an ordinary ASCII terminal.

You can browse through the online documentation with GNU Emacs. The program, info, is a small program intended just for the purpose of viewing help files. This documentation describes version 2.9 of info.

info files are generated by the program, Makeinfo, from a Texinfo source file. This documentation describes version 1.51 of Makeinfo.

Texinfo is a documentation markup language designed to allow the same source file to generate either printed or online documentation. The Texinfo language is described in a separate manual, Texinfo: The GNU Documentation Format.

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