Unlike man -- which displays all information on a topic at once, usually routed through some form of paging system such as cat -- info is based on a hypertext like linkage between topic components. You connect to each of the subtopics using character-based commands and typing part or all of the subtopic title -- at least enough to distinguish one subtopic from another.

To use info, you type the command info followed by the Unix command about which you're trying to find information. For instance, to find out more about info itself, you would use the following command line:

info info

This will return the main info introduction page and a menu of subtopics such as:

Getting Started
Advanced Info
Creating an Info File

To access the subtopic, you type the letter m for menu, and then in the prompt that opens at the bottom of the screen, type enough of the letters to distinguish the subtopic menu item from any other. You don't have to complete the command: you can just type enough of the letters followed by a TAB to fill in the rest. Once the subtopic menu item has been filled in, hitting ENTER sends you to the information.

Table 2-1. info commands

Note that the letter commands are case insensitive: U works the same as u.

Use the d command to pull up the Directory node, the menu of info major topics. In fact, this is a good way to become familiar with info and its contained subtopics -- type d and then use the menu commands to explore each of the major subtopic areas.

For instance, from the Directory Node, typing m followed by typing strings into the command buffer pulls up the strings info node.

When using the info command, if the information doesn't fit within a page, header and footer information will provide you some details about the subtopic, such as the info file, node, and the next nodes within the hierarchy. For instance, when accessing information about man, depending on your system the header reads as follows:

File: *manpages*, Node:man, Up: (dir)

This translates to the info file manpages and the node for man. Typing the u will move you up to the dir info page. Within Emacs, use mouse button two to click on and access a subtopic.

The footer provides a summary of the header information and also provides the number of lines for the topic if the topic page extends past the current screen. To see more information, type the space to page through the topic, just as you do with man.

Much of the help information within info is pulled over as is from manpages and hasn't been converted to the hypertext format of info. Because of this, the use of the m command won't pull up any subtopic. You'll need to use the space key to access the additional information.

-- SP

2.8. Who's On?		II. Customizing Your Environment