Options for makeinfo

The makeinfo command takes a number of options. Most often, options are used to set the value of the fill column and specify the footnote style. Each command line option is a word preceded by -- or a letter preceded by -. You can use abbreviations for the long option names as long as they are unique.

For example, you could use the following shell command to create an Info file for bison.texinfo in which each line is filled to only 68 columns:

     makeinfo --fill-column=68 bison.texinfo
     

You can write two or more options in sequence, like this:

     makeinfo --no-split --fill-column=70 ...
     

This would keep the Info file together as one possibly very long file and would also set the fill column to 70.

The options are:

-D var

Cause the variable var to be defined. This is equivalent to @set var in the Texinfo file (see set clear value).

--commands-in-node-names

Allow @-commands in node names. This is not recommended, as it can probably never be implemented in TeX. It also makes makeinfo much slower. Also, this option is ignored when --no-validate is used. See Pointer Validation, for more details.

--docbook

Generate DocBook output rather than Info.

--enable-encoding

Output accented and special characters in Info or plain text output based on @documentencoding.

--error-limit=limit

-e limit

Set the maximum number of errors that makeinfo will report before exiting (on the assumption that continuing would be useless); default 100.

--fill-column=width

-f width

Specify the maximum number of columns in a line; this is the right-hand edge of a line. Paragraphs that are filled will be filled to this width. (Filling is the process of breaking up and connecting lines so that lines are the same length as or shorter than the number specified as the fill column. Lines are broken between words.) The default value is 72. Ignored with --html.

--footnote-style=style

-s style

Set the footnote style to style, either end for the end node style (the default) or separate for the separate node style. The value set by this option overrides the value set in a Texinfo file by an @footnotestyle command (see Footnotes). When the footnote style is separate, makeinfo makes a new node containing the footnotes found in the current node. When the footnote style is end, makeinfo places the footnote references at the end of the current node. Ignored with --html.

--force

-F

Ordinarily, if the input file has errors, the output files are not created. With this option, they are preserved.

--help

-h

Print a usage message listing all available options, then exit successfully.

--html

Generate HTML output rather than Info. See Generating HTML. By default, the HTML output is split into one output file per source node, and the split output is written into a subdirectory with the name of the top-level info file.

-I dir

Append dir to the directory search list for finding files that are included using the @include command. By default, makeinfo searches only the current directory. If dir is not given, the current directory . is appended. Note that dir can actually be a list of several directories separated by the usual path separator character (: on Unix, ; on MS-DOS/MS-Windows).

--ifhtml

--ifinfo

--ifplaintext

--iftex

--ifxml

For the specified format, process @ifformat and @format commands even if not generating the given output format. For instance, if --iftex is specified, then @iftex and @tex blocks will be read. This can be useful when postprocessing the output.

--macro-expand=file

-E file

Output the Texinfo source with all the macros expanded to the named file. Normally, the results of macro expansion are used internally by makeinfo and then discarded. This option is used by texi2dvi if you are using an old version of texinfo.tex that does not support @macro.

--no-headers

For Info output, do not include menus or node separator lines in the output. This results in a simple plain text file that you can (for example) send in email without complications, or include in a distribution (as in an INSTALL file).

For HTML output, likewise omit menus. And if --no-split is also specified, do not include a navigation links at the top of each node (these are never included in the default case of split output). See Generating HTML.

In both cases, write to standard output by default (can still be overridden by -o).

--no-ifhtml

--no-ifinfo

--no-ifplaintext

--no-iftex

--no-ifxml

Do not process @ifformat and @format commands even if generating the given format. For instance, if --no-ifhtml is specified, then @ifhtml and @html blocks will not be read.

--no-split

Suppress the splitting stage of makeinfo. By default, large output files (where the size is greater than 70k bytes) are split into smaller subfiles. For Info output, each one is approximately 50k bytes. For HTML output, each file contains one node (see Generating HTML).

--no-pointer-validate

--no-validate

Suppress the pointer-validation phase of makeinfo. This can also be done with the @novalidate command (see Use TeX). Normally, after a Texinfo file is processed, some consistency checks are made to ensure that cross references can be resolved, etc. See Pointer Validation.

--no-warn

Suppress warning messages (but not error messages). You might want this if the file you are creating has examples of Texinfo cross references within it, and the nodes that are referenced do not actually exist.

--number-sections

Output chapter, section, and appendix numbers as in printed manuals.

--no-number-footnotes

Suppress automatic footnote numbering. By default, makeinfo numbers each footnote sequentially in a single node, resetting the current footnote number to 1 at the start of each node.

--output=file

-o file

Specify that the output should be directed to file and not to the file name specified in the @setfilename command found in the Texinfo source (see setfilename). If file is -, output goes to standard output and --no-split is implied. For split HTML output, file is the name for the directory into which all HTML nodes are written (see Generating HTML).

-P dir

Prepend dir to the directory search list for @include. If dir is not given, the current directory . is prepended. See -I for more details.

--paragraph-indent=indent

-p indent

Set the paragraph indentation style to indent. The value set by this option overrides the value set in a Texinfo file by an @paragraphindent command (see paragraphindent). The value of indent is interpreted as follows:

asis

Preserve any existing indentation at the starts of paragraphs.

0 or none

Delete any existing indentation.

num

Indent each paragraph by num spaces.

--reference-limit=limit

-r limit

Set the value of the number of references to a node that makeinfo will make without reporting a warning. If a node has more than this number of references in it, makeinfo will make the references but also report a warning. The default is 1000.

--split-size=num

Keep Info files to at most num characters; default is 50,000.

-U var

Cause var to be undefined. This is equivalent to @clear var in the Texinfo file (see set clear value).

--verbose

Cause makeinfo to display messages saying what it is doing. Normally, makeinfo only outputs messages if there are errors or warnings.

--version

-V

Print the version number, then exit successfully.

--xml

Generate XML output rather than Info.