4.8 makeinfo Pointer Creation

The makeinfo program can automatically determine node pointers for a hierarchically organized document. This implicit node pointer creation feature in makeinfo relieves you from the need to update menus and pointers manually or with Texinfo mode commands. (See Updating Nodes and Menus.) We highly recommend taking advantage of this.

To do so, write your @node lines with just the name of the node:

@node My Node

You do not need to write out the ‘Next’, ‘Previous’, and ‘Up’ pointers.

Then, you must write a sectioning command, such as @chapter or @section, on the line immediately following each truncated @node line (except that comment lines may intervene). This is where it normally goes.

Also, you must write the name of each node (except for the ‘Top’ node) in a menu that is one or more hierarchical levels above the node’s level.

Finally, you must follow the ‘Top’ @node line with a line beginning with @top to mark the top-level node in the file. See @top Command.

If you use a detailed menu in your master menu (see Master Menu Parts), mark it with the @detailmenu … @end detailmenu environment, or makeinfo will get confused, typically about the last and/or first node in the document.

In most cases, you will want to take advantage of this feature and not redundantly specify node pointers that the programs can determine. However, Texinfo documents are not required to be organized hierarchically or in fact to contain sectioning commands at all (for example, if you never intend the document to be printed), so node pointers may still be specified explicitly, in full generality.