texinfo: Command Contexts

Command List

Command Syntax

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A.2 @-Command Contexts
======================

Here we describe approximately which @-commands can be used in which
contexts.  It merely gives the general idea and is not exhaustive or
meant to be a complete reference.  Discrepancies between the information
here and the 'makeinfo' or TeX implementations are most likely to be
resolved in favor of the implementation.

  By "general text" below, we mean anything except sectioning and other
such outer-level document commands, such as '@section', '@node', and
'@setfilename'.

  '@c', '@comment' and '@if ... @end if' conditional commands may appear
anywhere (except the conditionals must still be on lines by themselves).
'@caption' may only appear in '@float' but may contain general text.
'@footnote' content likewise.

  @-commands with braces marking text (such as '@strong', '@sc',
'@asis') may contain raw formatter commands such as '@html' but no other
block commands (other commands terminated by '@end') and may not be
split across paragraphs, but may otherwise contain general text.

  In addition to the block command restriction, on '@center', '@exdent'
and '@item' in '@table' lines, @-commands that makes only sense in a
paragraph are not accepted, such as '@indent'.

  In addition to the above, sectioning commands cannot contain
'@anchor', '@footnote' or '@verb'.

  In addition to the above, remaining commands ('@node', '@anchor',
'@printindex', '@ref', '@math', '@cindex', '@url', '@image', and so on)
cannot contain cross reference commands ('@ref', '@xref', '@pxref' and
'@inforef').  In one last addition, '@shortcaption' may only appear
inside '@float'.

  For precise and complete information, we suggest looking into the
extensive test suite in the sources, which exhaustively try
combinations.