1 Stand-alone Info

The Info program described here is a stand-alone program, part of the Texinfo distribution, which is used to view Info files on a text terminal. Info files are typically the result of processing Texinfo files with the program makeinfo (also in the Texinfo distribution).

Texinfo itself (see Texinfo) is a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce both on-line information and printed output. You can typeset and print the files that you read in Info.

GNU Emacs also provides an Info reader (just type M-x info in Emacs). Emacs Info and stand-alone Info have nearly identical user interfaces, although customization and other details are different (this manual explains the stand-alone Info reader). The Emacs Info reader supports the X Window System and other such bitmapped interfaces, not just plain ASCII, so if you want a prettier display for Info files, you should try it. You can use Emacs Info without using Emacs for anything else. (Type C-x C-c to exit; this also works in the stand-alone Info reader.) See Info for a tutorial and more background information about the Info system, as well as information about the Info reader that is part of GNU Emacs,

Please report bugs in this stand-alone Info program to [email protected]. Bugs in the Emacs Info reader should be sent to [email protected].