info-stnd: Variables
1
1 12 Manipulating Variables
1 *************************
1
1 GNU Info uses several internal "variables" whose values are looked at by
1 various Info commands. You can change the values of these variables,
1 and thus change the behavior of Info, if desired.
1
1 There are three ways to set the value of a variable, listed here in
1 order of precedence:
1
1 1. interactively, using the 'set-variable' command described below;
1 2. on the command line, using the '-v' ('--variable') command line
1 option (⇒variable-assignment);
11 3. in the '#var' section of the '.infokey' file (⇒Custom Key
Bindings).
1
1 'M-x set-variable'
1 Read the name of a variable, and the value for it, in the echo area
1 and then set the variable to that value. Completion is available
1 when reading the variable name (⇒The Echo Area); completion
1 is also available when reading the value when that makes sense.
1
1 'M-x describe-variable'
1 Read the name of a variable in the echo area and display its value
1 and a brief description.
1
1 Here is a list of the variables that you can set in Info.
1
1 'automatic-footnotes'
1 When set to 'On', footnotes appear and disappear automatically;
1 else, they appear at the bottom of the node text. This variable is
1 'Off' by default. When a node is selected, a window containing the
1 footnotes which appear in that node is created, and the footnotes
1 are displayed within the new window. The window that Info creates
1 to contain the footnotes is called '*Footnotes*'. If a node is
1 selected which contains no footnotes, and a '*Footnotes*' window is
1 on the screen, the '*Footnotes*' window is deleted. Footnote
1 windows created in this fashion are not automatically tiled so that
1 they can use as little of the display as is possible.
1
1 'automatic-tiling'
1 When set to 'On', creating or deleting a window resizes other
1 windows. This variable is 'Off' by default. Normally, typing 'C-x
1 2' divides the current window into two equal parts. When
1 'automatic-tiling' is set to 'On', all of the windows are resized
1 automatically, keeping an equal number of lines visible in each
1 window. Any '*Completions*' and '*Footnotes*' windows are
1 exceptions to the automatic tiling; they retain their original
1 size.
1
1 'cursor-movement-scrolls'
1 When set to 'On', when cursor movement commands reach the top or
1 bottom of a node, another node is loaded depending on the value of
1 'scroll-behaviour' (see below). This is the default. When this
1 variable is set to 'Off', cursor movements stop at the top or
1 bottom of a node.
1
1 'errors-ring-bell'
1 When set to 'On' (the default), errors cause the bell to ring.
1
1 'follow-strategy'
1 When set to 'remain' (the default), Info tries to remain within the
1 directory containing the currently displayed Info file when
1 following a cross-reference to an external manual, before looking
1 for the referenced manual in the search path. The alternative
1 value is 'path', which means to look through the search path right
1 away.
1
1 'remain' is intended to be useful for several Texinfo manuals that
1 all reference each other and whose versions should match each
1 other. (For example, various manuals relating to a particular
1 version of Emacs.)
1
1 The alternative behaviour, with 'path', may be useful when your
1 Info file search path parallels your command shell's search path,
1 and you always want to find documentation of the version of the
1 program that the shell would execute.
1
1 'gc-compressed-files'
1 When set to 'On', Info garbage collects files which had to be
1 uncompressed. The default value of this variable is 'Off'.
1 Whenever a node is visited in Info, the Info file containing that
1 node is read into memory, and Info reads information about the tags
1 and nodes contained in that file. Once the tags information is
1 read by Info, it is never forgotten. However, the actual text of
1 the nodes does not need to be retained unless a particular Info
1 window needs it. For non-compressed files, node text is not
1 remembered when it is no longer in use. But de-compressing a file
1 can be a time-consuming operation, and so Info tries hard not to do
1 it twice. This variable tells Info it is okay to garbage collect
1 the text of the nodes of a file which was compressed on disk.
1
1 'hide-note-references'
1 By default, Info displays the contents of Info files mostly
1 verbatim, including text that is used by Info readers for
1 navigation (for example, marking the location of menus or
1 cross-references). If you set this variable to 'On', some of this
1 text is hidden, in a similar way to the 'Info-hide-note-references'
1 variable in Emacs (⇒(info)Emacs Info Variables).
1
1 'highlight-searches'
11 When set to 'On', highlight matches from searching commands (⇒
Searching Commands).
1
1 'infopath-no-defaults'
11 Used in conjunction with the 'INFOPATH' environment variable (⇒
INFOPATH). When set to 'On', the default documentation directory
1 defined when Info was built (e.g., '/usr/share/info') is not added
1 to the search path for Info files.
1
1 'ISO-Latin'
1 The default is 'On', which means that Info accepts and displays
1 characters represented by bytes with values 128 and above, such as
1 characters in the UTF-8 encoding or in various 8-bit ISO Latin
1 characters, as well as allowing you to input such characters.
1
1 The only reason to set this variable to 'Off' would be if your
1 terminal set the eighth bit of a byte to represent the Meta key
1 being pressed.
1
1 'key-time'
1 Length of time in milliseconds to wait for the next byte of a byte
1 sequence generated by a key (or key chord) on the keyboard. For
1 example, if the 'down' key generates the byte sequence '<ESC> O B',
1 and the two bytes '<ESC> O' have been received, then a 'B' byte
1 would have to be received within this length of time for a key
1 press of 'down' to be registered. You may wish to set this
1 variable to a larger value for slow terminals or network
1 connections.
1
1 If you set this variable to 0, it's unspecified whether a
1 recognized byte sequence representing a key takes precedence over
1 another recognized sequence representing a key that is an initial
1 subsequence of the first sequence. In some cases, you may be able
1 to make pressing a special key on the keyboard that Info doesn't
1 know about (for example, a function key) cause a command to be
1 executed by setting this variable to 0, and giving the byte
11 sequence the key sends in '.infokey'. (⇒Custom Key
Bindings.)
1
1 'min-search-length'
1 Minimum length of a search string (default 1). Attempts to
1 initiate a search for a string (or regular expression) shorter than
1 this value, result in an error.
1
1 'mouse'
1 What method to use to get input from a mouse device. The default
1 value is 'Off'. Set this variable to 'normal-tracking' to make
1 Info use "normal tracking mode" if it detects that the terminal
1 supports it. This enables you to scroll the contents of the active
1 window with a mouse scrollwheel.
1
1 On terminal emulators running under the X Window System, such as
1 'xterm', you can usually select text with the mouse. However,
1 mouse tracking mode may interfere with this. When this happens,
1 you may be able to select text by holding down the 'Shift' key
1 while clicking and dragging.
1
1 'nodeline'
1 How to print the node header line that appears at the top of each
1 node. By default only the pointers to neighbouring nodes are
1 displayed (the "Next", "Prev", and "Up" pointers): this corresponds
1 to the 'pointers' value for this variable. To print the entire
1 line, set 'nodeline' to the value 'print', which will include the
1 filename and name of the node. To not display the header line at
1 all, use the value 'no'.
1
1 'scroll-behavior'
1 'scroll-behaviour'
1 The two variable names are synonymous. Control what happens when
1 scrolling commands are used at the end or beginning of a node
1 (⇒Scrolling Commands). The default value for this variable
1 is 'Continuous'. Possible values:
1
1 'Continuous'
1 Try to get the first item in this node's menu, or failing
1 that, the 'Next' node, or failing that, the 'Next' of the 'Up'
1 node. This behavior is identical to using the ']'
1 ('global-next-node') and '[' ('global-prev-node') commands.
1
1 'Next Only'
1 Only try to get the 'Next' node.
1
1 'Page Only'
1 Just stop, changing nothing. With this value, no scrolling
1 command can change the node that is being viewed.
1
1 Commands::) unless the 'cursor-movement-scrolls' variable is set to
1 'Off'. ⇒cursor-movement-scrolls.
1
1 'scroll-last-node'
1 Control what happens when a scrolling command is issued at the end
1 of the last node. Possible values are:
1
1 'Stop'
1 Do not scroll. Display the 'No more nodes within this
1 document' message. This is the default.
1
1 'Top'
1 Go to the top node of the document.
1
1 This variable is in effect only if 'scroll-behaviour' is set to
1 'Continuous'.
1
1 'scroll-step'
1 The number of lines to scroll to bring the cursor back into the
1 window. The default value of this variable is 1, which causes a
1 kind of "smooth scrolling" which some people prefer. Scrolling
1 happens automatically if the cursor has moved out of the visible
1 portion of the node text.
1
1 If the variable 'scroll-step' is 0, the cursor (and the text it is
1 attached to) is placed in the centre of the window.
1
1 'search-skip-screen'
11 Set the starting point of repeated searches (⇒
repeated-search). When set to 'Off' (the default), repeated
1 searches start at the position immediately following (when
1 searching in forward direction), or immediately preceding (when
1 searching backwards) the cursor. When set to 'On', repeated
1 searches omit lines visibly displayed on the screen. In other
1 words, forward searches ('}') start at the beginning of the next
1 page, and backward searches ('{') start at the end of the previous
1 page.
1
1 'show-index-match'
1 When set to 'On' (the default), the portion of the matched search
1 string that you typed is indicated (by displaying it in the
11 "opposite" case) in the result message (⇒'next-index-match'
Searching Commands.).
1
1 'visible-bell'
1 When set to 'On', Info attempts to flash the screen instead of
1 ringing the bell. This variable is 'Off' by default. If the
1 terminal does not allow flashing, this variable has no effect.
1 (But you can still make Info perform quietly by setting the
1 'errors-ring-bell' variable to 'Off'; or using an external command
1 to mute the bell, e.g., 'xset b 0 0 0'.)
1