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| <div class="subsection-level-extent" id="Directory-File"> |
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| <p> |
| Next: <a href="New-Info-File.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Listing a New Info File</a>, Up: <a href="Installing-an-Info-File.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Installing an Info File</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> |
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| <h4 class="subsection" id="The-Directory-File-dir">20.2.1 The Directory File <samp class="file">dir</samp></h4> |
| |
| <p>For Info to work, the <samp class="file">info</samp> directory must contain a file that |
| serves as a top-level directory for the Info system. By convention, |
| this file is called <samp class="file">dir</samp>. (You can find the location of this file |
| within Emacs by typing <kbd class="kbd">C-h i</kbd> to enter Info and then typing |
| <kbd class="kbd">C-x C-f</kbd> to see the location of the <samp class="file">info</samp> directory.) |
| </p> |
| <p>The <samp class="file">dir</samp> file is itself an Info file. It contains the top-level |
| menu for all the Info files in the system. The menu looks like |
| this: |
| </p> |
| <div class="example"> |
| <div class="group"><pre class="example-preformatted">* Menu: |
| * Info: (info). Documentation browsing system. |
| * Emacs: (emacs). The extensible, self-documenting |
| text editor. |
| * Texinfo: (texinfo). With one source file, make |
| either a printed manual using |
| @TeX{} or an Info file. |
| … |
| </pre></div></div> |
| |
| <p>Each of these menu entries points to the ‘Top’ node of the Info file |
| that is named in parentheses. (The menu entry does not need to |
| specify the ‘Top’ node, since Info goes to the ‘Top’ node if no node |
| name is mentioned. See <a class="xref" href="Other-Info-Files.html">Nodes in Other Info |
| Files</a>.) |
| </p> |
| <p>Thus, the ‘<samp class="samp">Info</samp>’ entry points to the ‘Top’ node of the |
| <samp class="file">info</samp> file and the ‘<samp class="samp">Emacs</samp>’ entry points to the ‘Top’ node |
| of the <samp class="file">emacs</samp> file. |
| </p> |
| <p>In each of the Info files, the ‘Up’ pointer of the ‘Top’ node refers |
| back to the <code class="code">dir</code> file. For example, the line for the ‘Top’ |
| node of the Emacs manual looks like this in Info: |
| </p> |
| <div class="example"> |
| <pre class="example-preformatted">File: emacs Node: Top, Up: (DIR), Next: Distrib |
| </pre></div> |
| |
| <p>In this case, the <samp class="file">dir</samp> file name is written in uppercase |
| letters—it can be written in either upper- or lowercase. This is not |
| true in general, it is a special case for <samp class="file">dir</samp>. |
| </p> |
| <p>See the <samp class="file">util/dir-example</samp> file in the Texinfo distribution for |
| a large sample <code class="code">dir</code> file. |
| </p> |
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| Next: <a href="New-Info-File.html">Listing a New Info File</a>, Up: <a href="Installing-an-Info-File.html">Installing an Info File</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> |
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