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(info)Info Search

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How to search Info documents for specific subjects
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   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 indices or its text.

   Since most subjects related to what the manual describes should be
indexed, you should try the index search first.  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.

   The `i' command finds 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 Emacs
shows in the echo are 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 `icomplet<RET>'.

   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-f' key does, type `iC-f<RET>'.
Here `C-f' are 3 literal characters `C', `-', and `f', not the
"Control-f" command key you type inside Emacs to run the command bound
to `C-f'.

   In Emacs, `i' runs the command `Info-index'.

   The `s' command allows you to search a whole 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 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 do a `b' 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'.