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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>Referring to a Manual as a Whole (GNU Texinfo 6.8)</title> <meta name="description" content="Referring to a Manual as a Whole (GNU Texinfo 6.8)"> <meta name="keywords" content="Referring to a Manual as a Whole (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="Cross-References.html" rel="up" title="Cross References"> <link href="_0040ref.html" rel="next" title="@ref"> <link href="_0040xref.html" rel="prev" title="@xref"> <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="section" id="Referring-to-a-Manual-as-a-Whole"> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="_0040ref.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@ref</code></a>, Previous: <a href="_0040xref.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev"><code>@xref</code></a>, Up: <a href="Cross-References.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Cross-references</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="Referring-to-a-Manual-as-a-Whole-1"></span><h3 class="section">5.5 Referring to a Manual as a Whole</h3> <span id="index-Manual_002c-referring-to-as-a-whole"></span> <span id="index-Referring-to-an-entire-manual"></span> <span id="Top-Node-Naming"></span> <p>Ordinarily, you must always name a node in a cross-reference. However, it’s not unusual to want to refer to another manual as a whole, rather than a particular section within it. In this case, giving any section name is an unnecessary distraction. </p> <p>So, with cross-references to other manuals (see <a href="Four-and-Five-Arguments.html"><code>@xref</code> with Four and Five Arguments</a>), if the first argument is either ‘<samp>Top</samp>’ (capitalized just that way) or omitted entirely, and the third argument is omitted, the printed output includes no node or section name. (The Info output includes ‘<samp>Top</samp>’ if it was given.) For example, </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">@xref{Top,,, make, The GNU Make Manual}. </pre></div> <p>produces </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">*Note (make)Top::. </pre></div> <p>and </p> <blockquote> <p>See <cite>The GNU Make Manual</cite>. </p></blockquote> <p>Info readers will go to the Top node of the manual whether or not the ‘Top’ node is explicitly specified. </p> <p>It’s also possible (and is historical practice) to refer to a whole manual by specifying the ‘Top’ node and an appropriate entry for the third argument to the <code>@xref</code> command. Using this idiom, to make a cross-reference to <cite>The GNU Make Manual</cite>, you would write: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">@xref{Top,, Overview, make, The GNU Make Manual}. </pre></div> <p>which produces </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">*Note Overview: (make)Top. </pre></div> <p>in Info and </p> <blockquote> <p>See section “Overview” in <cite>The GNU Make Manual</cite>. </p></blockquote> <p>in a printed manual. </p> <p>In this example, ‘<samp>Top</samp>’ is the name of the first node, and ‘<samp>Overview</samp>’ is the name of the first section of the manual. There is no widely-used convention for naming the first section in a printed manual, this is just what the Make manual happens to use. This arbitrariness of the first name is a principal reason why omitting the third argument in whole-manual cross-references is preferable. </p> </div> <hr> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="_0040ref.html"><code>@ref</code></a>, Previous: <a href="_0040xref.html"><code>@xref</code></a>, Up: <a href="Cross-References.html">Cross-references</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>