@foo{\} doesn't work

[Werner LEMBERG]

[makeinfo 4.8]


There's a problem with backslashes in macros and makeinfo.  It's not
possible to say

  @Var{\}

(@Var is a macro).  The failure of this is (sort of) documented, but
an error message should be emitted, and makeinfo shouldn't stop
processing the rest of the file, as can be seen in the example below.
After

  makeinfo yyyy.texinfo

I get this very irritating message:

  /home/wl/texinfo.bug//yyyy.texinfo:9: warning: unreferenced node `foo'.

and the output is cut.

Using @Var{\\} partly works -- I see a backslash as the correct output
-- but the cryptic error message remains.

(BTW, why are there two slashes in the error message?)

It took me a looong time to find the problem in a real-world example!
Meanwhile, I've helped myself with

  @set backslash \
  ...
  @address@hidden

but this is ugly.


    Werner


== yyyy.texinfo ========================================================


\input texinfo

@setfilename yyy

@macro Var{arg}
\arg\
@end macro

@node foo,,(dir),(dir)
@chapter foo

Let's see whether @Var{\} works as expected.

@bye