Re: Bug#792328: info: can no longer find the Emacs manual

[Gavin Smith]

Link to discussion for reference:
https://www.mail-archive.com/address@hidden/msg1339655.html

On 21 July 2015 at 13:23, Norbert Preining <address@hidden> wrote:

>> Moreover there are many
>> Info files under the "emacs-24" subdirectory that describe various
>> Emacs modes, etc.?
>
> Right.

>> Perhaps the symlink could be to this directory, instead of to
>> individual info files  (/usr/share/info/emacs ->
>> /usr/share/info/emacs-24), and the emacs subdirectory could be
>> included in INFOPATH. This would only be used for packages like emacs
>
>Well, that helps indeed in the cross referencing.

> I see three options:
> * the current status: only a flat dir is allowed, but one can use
>   the INFOPATH variable to adjust searching.
>         In this case I am not sure how several copies of the same manual
>         would behave without any special options
> * the current status II: all files are installed into infodir, and
>   multiple copies are renamed to include the version.
>         That needs work from the packagers, since as far as I see this
>         is not normally supported by the texi2info script. One would
>         need to change manually all internal links to include the
>         version number

Even if you went to all the effort of changing internal links, links
in files you didn't control would go to the wrong place.

> * my wish list: support of sub directories and links within subdirs
>         in this case selecting a link would *first* search for the
>         respective file in the same directory as the info file
>         currently reading in info, and if that is not found,
>         in the normal INFOPATH
>         That would allow installation of various versions of the emacs
>         (and other programs) manual into infopath/emacs24/... and
>         keep the local links as is.
>

Sounds like a good idea about the link following. Maybe there could be
another command to list all the files found when following a link
instead of using the first one found. (e.g. C-x RET instead of RET).

Reference to my email on this subject:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2014-08/msg00025.html

I'm still unsure about whether subdirectories should be used in menu
entries in Info files.

I wrote
>>Perhaps the symlink could be to this directory, instead of to
individual info files  (/usr/share/info/emacs ->
/usr/share/info/emacs-24), and the emacs subdirectory could be
included in INFOPATH. This would only be used for packages like emacs
with a lot of associated files, so INFOPATH wouldn't have to be
extended for every Info file.

Assuming that all the Emacs-related Info files for a single Emacs
version are to be kept together in a subdirectory, either INFOPATH has
to be extended (with /etc/profile, for example), or there would have
to be dir entries with slashes in the file names. I don't see why
extending INFOPATH wouldn't be suitable.

> I *MIGHT* find time to look into that in the info reader and implement
> it in the c source code, but currently I am low on time due to work
> requirements (teaching, conferences, etc).
>
> Within Debian we now have enough time till the next release to work
> that out properly, but I would prefer something that goes in line with
> upstream TeX Info, as I don't want to have any special Debianitis
> again (similar to install-info odyssee over too many years).
>
> All the best
>
> Norbert
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> PREINING, Norbert                               http://www.preining.info
> JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
> GPG: 0x860CDC13   fp: F7D8 A928 26E3 16A1 9FA0  ACF0 6CAC A448 860C DC13
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------