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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.8, https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <!-- This manual is for GNU Texinfo (version 6.8, 8 June 2021), a documentation system that can produce both online information and a printed manual from a single source using semantic markup. Copyright (C) 1988, 1990-1993, 1995-1999, 2001-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". --> <title>Defining New Texinfo Commands (GNU Texinfo 6.8)</title> <meta name="description" content="Defining New Texinfo Commands (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="keywords" content="Defining New Texinfo Commands (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="texi2any"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"> <link href="index.html" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" rel="index" title="Command and Variable Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="index.html" rel="up" title="Top"> <link href="Include-Files.html" rel="next" title="Include Files"> <link href="Conditionals.html" rel="prev" title="Conditionals"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.copiable-anchor {visibility: hidden; text-decoration: none; line-height: 0em} a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} span:hover a.copiable-anchor {visibility: visible} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> </head> <body lang="en"> <div class="chapter" id="Defining-New-Texinfo-Commands"> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Include-Files.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Include Files</a>, Previous: <a href="Conditionals.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Conditionally Visible Text</a>, Up: <a href="index.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Texinfo</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> </div> <hr> <span id="Defining-New-Texinfo-Commands-1"></span><h2 class="chapter">16 Defining New Texinfo Commands</h2> <span id="index-Macros"></span> <span id="index-Defining-new-Texinfo-commands"></span> <span id="index-New-Texinfo-commands_002c-defining"></span> <span id="index-Texinfo-commands_002c-defining-new"></span> <span id="index-User_002ddefined-Texinfo-commands"></span> <p>Texinfo provides several ways to define new commands (in all cases, it’s not recommended to try redefining existing commands): </p> <ul> <li> A Texinfo <em>macro</em> allows you to define a new Texinfo command as any sequence of text and/or existing commands (including other macros). The macro can have any number of <em>parameters</em>—text you supply each time you use the macro. <p>Incidentally, these macros have nothing to do with the <code>@defmac</code> command, which is for documenting macros in the subject area of the manual (see <a href="Def-Cmd-Template.html">The Template for a Definition</a>). </p> </li><li> ‘<samp>@alias</samp>’ is a convenient way to define a new name for an existing command. </li><li> ‘<samp>@definfoenclose</samp>’ allows you to define new commands with customized output for all non-TeX output formats. </li></ul> <p>Most generally of all (not just for defining new commands), it is possible to invoke any external macro processor and have Texinfo recognize so-called <code>#line</code> directives for error reporting. </p> <p>If you want to do simple text substitution, <code>@set</code> and <code>@value</code> is the simplest approach (see <a href="_0040set-_0040clear-_0040value.html">Flags: <code>@set</code>, <code>@clear</code>, conditionals, and <code>@value</code></a>). </p> <ul class="section-toc"> <li><a href="Defining-Macros.html" accesskey="1">Defining Macros</a></li> <li><a href="Invoking-Macros.html" accesskey="2">Invoking Macros</a></li> <li><a href="Macro-Details.html" accesskey="3">Macro Details and Caveats</a></li> <li><a href="_0040alias.html" accesskey="4">‘<samp>@alias <var>new</var>=<var>existing</var></samp>’</a></li> <li><a href="_0040definfoenclose.html" accesskey="5"><code>@definfoenclose</code>: Customized Highlighting</a></li> <li><a href="External-Macro-Processors.html" accesskey="6">External Macro Processors: Line Directives</a></li> </ul> </div> </body> </html>