GNU Info

(info)Add

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

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.  Note: Menu.

   Usually, the way to create the nodes is with Texinfo (Note: Overview
of Texinfo.); this has the advantage that you can also
make a printed manual from them.  However, if you want to edit an Info
file, here is how.

   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 `Top', which points at all
the documentation for 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 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.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (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 `^_'.