1.8 Some intermediate Info commands

The introductory course is almost over; please continue a little longer to learn some intermediate-level commands.

Most Info files have an index, which is actually a large node containing little but a menu. The menu has one menu item for each topic listed in the index. (As a special feature, menus for indices may also include the line number within the node of the index entry. This allows Info readers to go to the exact line of an entry, not just the start of the containing node.)

You can get to the index from the main menu of the file with the m command; then you can use the m command again in the index node to go to the node that describes the topic you want.

There is also a short-cut Info command, i, which does all of that for you. It searches the index for a given topic (a string) and goes to the node which is listed in the index for that topic. See Info Search, for a full explanation.

If you have been moving around to different nodes and wish to retrace your steps, the l command (l for last) will do that, one node-step at a time. As you move from node to node, Info records the nodes where you have been in a special history list. The l command revisits nodes in the history list; each successive l command moves one step back through the history.

In Emacs, l runs the command Info-last.

>> Try typing p p n and then three l's, pausing in between
to see what each l does.  You should wind up right back here.

Note the difference between l and p: l moves to where you last were, whereas p always moves to the node which the header says is the `Previous' node (from this node, the `Prev' link leads to `Help-Xref').

The d command (Info-directory in Emacs) gets you instantly to the Directory node. This node, which is the first one you saw when you entered Info, has a menu which leads (directly or indirectly, through other menus), to all the nodes that exist. The Directory node lists all the manuals and other Info documents that are, or could be, installed on your system.

>> Try doing a d, then do an l to return here (yes,
   do return).

The t command moves to the `Top' node of the manual. This is useful if you want to browse the manual's main menu, or select some specific top-level menu item. The Emacs command run by t is Info-top-node.

Clicking Mouse-2 on or near a cross reference also follows the reference. You can see that the cross reference is mouse-sensitive by moving the mouse pointer to the reference and watching how the underlying text and the mouse pointer change in response.

>> Now type n to see the last node of the course.

See Expert Info, for more advanced Info features.