info-stnd: Variables
12 Manipulating Variables
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GNU Info uses several internal "variables" whose values are looked at by
various Info commands. You can change the values of these variables,
and thus change the behavior of Info, if desired.
There are three ways to set the value of a variable, listed here in
order of precedence:
1. interactively, using the 'set-variable' command described below;
2. on the command line, using the '-v' ('--variable') command line
option (⇒variable-assignment);
3. in the '#var' section of the '.infokey' file (⇒Custom Key
Bindings).
'M-x set-variable'
Read the name of a variable, and the value for it, in the echo area
and then set the variable to that value. Completion is available
when reading the variable name (⇒The Echo Area); completion
is also available when reading the value when that makes sense.
'M-x describe-variable'
Read the name of a variable in the echo area and display its value
and a brief description.
Here is a list of the variables that you can set in Info.
'automatic-footnotes'
When set to 'On', footnotes appear and disappear automatically;
else, they appear at the bottom of the node text. This variable is
'Off' by default. When a node is selected, a window containing the
footnotes which appear in that node is created, and the footnotes
are displayed within the new window. The window that Info creates
to contain the footnotes is called '*Footnotes*'. If a node is
selected which contains no footnotes, and a '*Footnotes*' window is
on the screen, the '*Footnotes*' window is deleted. Footnote
windows created in this fashion are not automatically tiled so that
they can use as little of the display as is possible.
'automatic-tiling'
When set to 'On', creating or deleting a window resizes other
windows. This variable is 'Off' by default. Normally, typing 'C-x
2' divides the current window into two equal parts. When
'automatic-tiling' is set to 'On', all of the windows are resized
automatically, keeping an equal number of lines visible in each
window. Any '*Completions*' and '*Footnotes*' windows are
exceptions to the automatic tiling; they retain their original
size.
'cursor-movement-scrolls'
When set to 'On', when cursor movement commands reach the top or
bottom of a node, another node is loaded depending on the value of
'scroll-behavior' (see below). This is the default. When this
variable is set to 'Off', cursor movements stop at the top or
bottom of a node.
'errors-ring-bell'
When set to 'On' (the default), errors cause the bell to ring.
'follow-strategy'
When set to 'remain' (the default), Info tries to remain within the
directory containing the currently displayed Info file when
following a cross-reference to an external manual, before looking
for the referenced manual in the search path. The alternative
value is 'path', which means to look through the search path right
away.
'remain' is intended to be useful for several Texinfo manuals that
all reference each other and whose versions should match each
other. (For example, various manuals relating to a particular
version of Emacs.)
The alternative behavior, with 'path', may be useful when your Info
file search path parallels your command shell's search path, and
you always want to find documentation of the version of the program
that the shell would execute.
'gc-compressed-files'
When set to 'On', Info garbage collects files which had to be
uncompressed. The default value of this variable is 'Off'.
Whenever a node is visited in Info, the Info file containing that
node is read into memory, and Info reads information about the tags
and nodes contained in that file. Once the tags information is
read by Info, it is never forgotten. However, the actual text of
the nodes does not need to be retained unless a particular Info
window needs it. For non-compressed files, node text is not
remembered when it is no longer in use. But de-compressing a file
can be a time-consuming operation, and so Info tries hard not to do
it twice. This variable tells Info it is okay to garbage collect
the text of the nodes of a file which was compressed on disk.
'hide-note-references'
By default, Info displays the contents of Info files mostly
verbatim, including text that is used by Info readers for
navigation (for example, marking the location of menus or
cross-references). If you set this variable to 'On', some of this
text is hidden, in a similar way to the 'Info-hide-note-references'
variable in Emacs (⇒(info)Emacs Info Variables).
'highlight-searches'
When set to 'On', highlight matches from searching commands (⇒
Searching Commands).
'infopath-no-defaults'
Used in conjunction with the 'INFOPATH' environment variable (⇒
INFOPATH). When set to 'On', the default documentation directory
defined when Info was built (e.g., '/usr/share/info') is not added
to the search path for Info files.
'ISO-Latin'
The default is 'On', which means that Info accepts and displays
characters represented by bytes with values 128 and above, such as
characters in the UTF-8 encoding or in various 8-bit ISO Latin
characters, as well as allowing you to input such characters.
The only reason to set this variable to 'Off' would be if your
terminal set the eighth bit of a byte to represent the Meta key
being pressed.
'key-time'
Length of time in milliseconds to wait for the next byte of a byte
sequence generated by a key (or key chord) on the keyboard. For
example, if the 'down' key generates the byte sequence '<ESC> O B',
and the two bytes '<ESC> O' have been received, then a 'B' byte
would have to be received within this length of time for a key
press of 'down' to be registered. You may wish to set this
variable to a larger value for slow terminals or network
connections.
If you set this variable to 0, it's unspecified whether a
recognized byte sequence representing a key takes precedence over
another recognized sequence representing a key that is an initial
subsequence of the first sequence. In some cases, you may be able
to make pressing a special key on the keyboard that Info doesn't
know about (for example, a function key) cause a command to be
executed by setting this variable to 0, and giving the byte
sequence the key sends in '.infokey'. (⇒Custom Key
Bindings.)
'min-search-length'
Minimum length of a search string (default 1). Attempts to
initiate a search for a string (or regular expression) shorter than
this value, result in an error.
'mouse'
What method to use to get input from a mouse device. The default
value is 'Off'. Set this variable to 'normal-tracking' to make
Info use "normal tracking mode" if it detects that the terminal
supports it. This enables you to scroll the contents of the active
window with a mouse scrollwheel.
On terminal emulators running under the X Window System, such as
'xterm', you can usually select text with the mouse. However,
mouse tracking mode may interfere with this. When this happens,
you may be able to select text by holding down the 'Shift' key
while clicking and dragging.
'nodeline'
How to print the node header line that appears at the top of each
node. By default only the pointers to neighbouring nodes are
displayed (the "Next", "Prev", and "Up" pointers): this corresponds
to the 'pointers' value for this variable. To print the entire
line, set 'nodeline' to the value 'print', which will include the
filename and name of the node. To not display the header line at
all, use the value 'no'.
'scroll-behavior'
'scroll-behaviour'
The two variable names are synonymous. Control what happens when
scrolling commands are used at the end or beginning of a node
(⇒Scrolling Commands). The default value for this variable
is 'Continuous'. Possible values:
'Continuous'
Try to get the first item in this node's menu, or failing
that, the 'Next' node, or failing that, the 'Next' of the 'Up'
node. This behavior is identical to using the ']'
('global-next-node') and '[' ('global-prev-node') commands.
'Next Only'
Only try to get the 'Next' node.
'Page Only'
Just stop, changing nothing. With this value, no scrolling
command can change the node that is being viewed.
Commands::) unless the 'cursor-movement-scrolls' variable is set to
'Off'. ⇒cursor-movement-scrolls.
'scroll-last-node'
Control what happens when a scrolling command is issued at the end
of the last node. Possible values are:
'Stop'
Do not scroll. Display the 'No more nodes within this
document' message. This is the default.
'Top'
Go to the top node of the document.
This variable is in effect only if 'scroll-behavior' is set to
'Continuous'.
'scroll-step'
The number of lines to scroll to bring the cursor back into the
window. The default value of this variable is 1, which causes a
kind of "smooth scrolling" which some people prefer. Scrolling
happens automatically if the cursor has moved out of the visible
portion of the node text.
If the variable 'scroll-step' is 0, the cursor (and the text it is
attached to) is placed in the centre of the window.
'search-skip-screen'
Set the starting point of repeated searches (⇒
repeated-search). When set to 'Off' (the default), repeated
searches start at the position immediately following (when
searching in forward direction), or immediately preceding (when
searching backwards) the cursor. When set to 'On', repeated
searches omit lines visibly displayed on the screen. In other
words, forward searches ('}') start at the beginning of the next
page, and backward searches ('{') start at the end of the previous
page.
'show-index-match'
When set to 'On' (the default), the portion of the matched search
string that you typed is indicated (by displaying it in the
"opposite" case) in the result message (⇒'next-index-match'
Searching Commands.).
'visible-bell'
When set to 'On', Info attempts to flash the screen instead of
ringing the bell. This variable is 'Off' by default. If the
terminal does not allow flashing, this variable has no effect.
(But you can still make Info perform quietly by setting the
'errors-ring-bell' variable to 'Off'; or using an external command
to mute the bell, e.g., 'xset b 0 0 0'.)
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