Re: Texinfo 7.0 changed the name of HTML output directory

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2024 22:17:33 +0200
> From: Patrice Dumas <pertusus@free.fr>
> 
> +The defaults for the @var{host} and @var{dir} correspond with 
> cross-references
> +links for a collection of manuals located side by side on a single host.  
> This
> +is different from the usual case of HTML manuals published on the World Wide
> +Web served from different hosts in directories chosen by the publisher, for
> +which the @var{host} and @var{dir} must be specially defined to have working
> +cross-references.  However this requires external information and is detailed
> +later on (@pxref{HTML Xref Configuration}).

This part is unclear, I could not understand what it means and how
that affects me as the user of Texinfo.

> +If you want to generate cross-references to HTML manuals published on
> +the World Wide Web, the @var{host} and @var{dir} parts of
> +the cross-reference need to be known by Texinfo converters to be able
> +to generate cross-references.  More generally you may want to specify
> +the location of other manuals for cross-references.

This is written from the wrong POV, IMO.  The correct POV is that of a
manual author/maintainer who wants cross-references from _other_
manual to his/her one to be correct.  So I suggest the following
rewording.:

  For other manuals published on the World Wide Web to be able to have
  correct cross-references to your manual, the @var{host} and
  @var{dir} parts of the cross-reference need to be known by Texinfo
  converters when they produce HTML for those other manuals.
  Similarly, for your manual in HTML format to have correct
  cross-references to other manuals, @command{texi2any} needs to know
  how to construct the URLs for other manuals.  This information is
  provided by @file{htmlxref.cnf}.

> +Right now, the @file{htmlxref.cnf} file distributed with GNU Texinfo serves
> +as the main resource to locate Texinfo HTML manuals in the World Wide Web.
> +Since it is installed in a location used by @command{texi2any}, HTML manuals
> +information found in this file will be used for cross-references by default.
> +
>  If you have additions or corrections to the @file{htmlxref.cnf}
>  distributed with Texinfo, please email @email{bug-texinfo@@gnu.org} as
> -usual.  You can get the latest version from
> +usual.  If you publish a Texinfo HTML manual on the World Wide Web,
> +having an up-to-date location listed in @file{htmlxref.cnf} should ensure 
> that
> +all HTML manuals generated by @command{texi2any} use this location for
> +cross-references in the default case.  You can get the latest version from
>  @url{http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/@/texinfo/@/htmlxref.cnf}.

I suggest to tell here explicitly that having a local htmlxref.cnf
file with the correct information is the solution for outdated or
missing data in the file as distributed by Texinfo.

Thanks.