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The end of a Texinfo file should include commands to create indices and
(perhaps) to generate both the full and summary tables of contents.
Finally, it must include the @bye
command that marks the last
line to be processed.
For example:
@node Index @unnumbered Index @printindex cp @shortcontents @contents @bye
4.1 Printing Indices and Menus | How to print an index in hardcopy and generate index menus in Info. | |
4.2 Generating a Table of Contents | How to create a table of contents. | |
4.3 @bye File Ending | How to mark the end of a file. |
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To print an index means to include it as part of a manual or Info file.
This does not happen automatically just because you use @cindex
or other index-entry generating commands in the Texinfo file; those just
cause the raw data for the index to be accumulated. To generate an
index, you must include the @printindex
command at the place in
the document where you want the index to appear. Also, as part of the
process of creating a printed manual, you must run a program called
texindex
(see section Formatting and Printing Hardcopy) to sort the raw data to produce a
sorted index file. The sorted index file is what is actually used to
print the index.
Texinfo offers six separate types of predefined index, each with a two-letter abbreviation, as illustrated in the following table. However, you may merge indices (see section Combining Indices) or define your own indices (see section Defining New Indices).
Here are the predefined indices, their abbreviations, and the corresponding index entry commands:
concept index (@cindex
)
function index (@findex
)
variable index (@index
)
key index (@kindex
)
program index (@pindex
)
data type index (@tindex
)
The @printindex
command takes a two-letter index abbreviation,
reads the corresponding sorted index file and formats it appropriately
into an index.
The @printindex
command does not generate a chapter heading for
the index. Consequently, you should precede the @printindex
command with a suitable section or chapter command (usually
@appendix
or @unnumbered
) to supply the chapter heading
and put the index into the table of contents. Precede the
@unnumbered
command with an @node
line.
For example:
@node Variable Index @unnumbered Variable Index @printindex vr
@node Concept Index @unnumbered Concept Index @printindex cp
We recommend placing the concept index last, since that makes it easiest to find. We also recommend having a single index whenever possible, since then readers have only one place to look (see section Combining Indices).
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The @chapter
, @section
, and other structuring commands
supply the information to make up a table of contents, but they do not
cause an actual table to appear in the manual. To do this, you must use
the @contents
and/or @summarycontents
command(s).
@contents
Generate a table of contents in a printed manual, including all
chapters, sections, subsections, etc., as well as appendices and
unnumbered chapters. Headings generated by the @heading
series of commands do not appear in the table of contents.
@shortcontents
@summarycontents
(@summarycontents
is a synonym for @shortcontents
.)
Generate a short or summary table of contents that lists only the chapters, appendices, and unnumbered chapters. Sections, subsections and subsubsections are omitted. Only a long manual needs a short table of contents in addition to the full table of contents.
Both contents commands should be written on a line by themselves.
The contents commands automatically generate a chapter-like heading at
the top of the first table of contents page, so don’t include any
sectioning command such as @unnumbered
before them.
Since an Info file uses menus instead of tables of contents, the Info
formatting commands ignore the contents commands. But the contents are
included in plain text output (generated by makeinfo
--no-headers
), unless makeinfo
is writing its output to standard
output.
When makeinfo
writes a short table of contents while producing
html output, the links in the short table of contents point to
corresponding entries in the full table of contents rather than the text
of the document. The links in the full table of contents point to the
main text of the document.
The contents commands can be placed either at the very end of the file,
after any indices (see the previous section) and just before the
@bye
(see the next section), or near the beginning of the file,
after the @end titlepage
(see section @titlepage
). The advantage to
the former is that then the contents output is always up to date,
because it reflects the processing just done. The advantage to the
latter is that the contents are printed in the proper place, thus you do
not need to rearrange the DVI file with dviselect
or shuffle
paper.
As an author, you can put the contents commands wherever you prefer.
But if you are a user simply printing a manual, you may wish to print
the contents after the title page even if the author put the contents
commands at the end of the document (as is the case in most existing
Texinfo documents, at this writing). You can do this by specifying
@setcontentsaftertitlepage
and/or
@setshortcontentsaftertitlepage
. The first prints only the main
contents after the @end titlepage
; the second prints both the
short contents and the main contents. In either case, any subsequent
@contents
or @shortcontents
is ignored (unless no
@end titlepage
is ever encountered).
You need to include the @set…contentsaftertitlepage
commands early in the document (just after @setfilename
, for
example). We recommend using texi2dvi
(see section Format with texi2dvi
) to specify this without altering the source file at all. For
example:
texi2dvi --texinfo=@setcontentsaftertitlepage foo.texi
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@bye
File EndingAn @bye
command terminates TeX or Info formatting. None of
the formatting commands reading anything following @bye
. The
@bye
command should be on a line by itself.
If you wish, you may follow the @bye
line with notes. These
notes will not be formatted and will not appear in either Info or a
printed manual; it is as if text after @bye
were within
@ignore
… @end ignore
. Also, you may follow the
@bye
line with a local variables list for Emacs.
See section Using Local Variables and the Compile Command,
for more information.
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