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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>Directory File (GNU Texinfo 6.8)</title> <meta name="description" content="Directory File (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="keywords" content="Directory File (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="Installing-an-Info-File.html" rel="up" title="Installing an Info File"> <link href="New-Info-File.html" rel="next" title="New Info File"> <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="subsection" id="Directory-File"> <div class="header"> <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> </div> <hr> <span id="The-Directory-File-dir"></span><h4 class="subsection">20.2.1 The Directory File <samp>dir</samp></h4> <p>For Info to work, the <samp>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>dir</samp>. (You can find the location of this file within Emacs by typing <kbd>C-h i</kbd> to enter Info and then typing <kbd>C-x C-f</kbd> to see the location of the <samp>info</samp> directory.) </p> <p>The <samp>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"> <pre class="example">* 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> <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 href="Other-Info-Files.html">Nodes in Other Info Files</a>.) </p> <p>Thus, the ‘<samp>Info</samp>’ entry points to the ‘Top’ node of the <samp>info</samp> file and the ‘<samp>Emacs</samp>’ entry points to the ‘Top’ node of the <samp>emacs</samp> file. </p> <p>In each of the Info files, the ‘Up’ pointer of the ‘Top’ node refers back to the <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">File: emacs Node: Top, Up: (DIR), Next: Distrib </pre></div> <p>In this case, the <samp>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>dir</samp>. </p> </div> <hr> <div class="header"> <p> 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> </div> </body> </html>