texinfo: Other Info Directories

Installing an Info File

Installing Dir Entries

New Info File

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23.2.3 Info Files in Other Directories
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If an Info file is not in the 'info' directory, there are three ways to
specify its location:

  1. Write the pathname in the 'dir' file as the second part of the
     menu.

  2. Specify the Info directory name in the 'INFOPATH' environment
     variable in your '.profile' or '.cshrc' initialization file.  (Only
     you and others who set this environment variable will be able to
     find Info files whose location is specified this way.)

  3. If you are using Emacs, list the name of the file in a second 'dir'
     file, in its directory; and then add the name of that directory to
     the 'Info-directory-list' variable in your personal or site
     initialization file.

     This variable tells Emacs where to look for 'dir' files (the files
     must be named 'dir').  Emacs merges the files named 'dir' from each
     of the listed directories.  (In Emacs version 18, you can set the
     'Info-directory' variable to the name of only one directory.)

  For example, to reach a test file in the '/home/bob/info' directory,
you could add an entry like this to the menu in the standard 'dir' file:

     * Test: (/home/bob/info/info-test).  Bob's own test file.

In this case, the absolute file name of the 'info-test' file is written
as the second part of the menu entry.

  If you don't want to edit the system 'dir' file, you can tell Info
where to look by setting the 'INFOPATH' environment variable in your
shell startup file.  This works with both the Emacs and standalone Info
readers.

  Specifically, if you use a Bourne-compatible shell such as 'sh' or
'bash' for your shell command interpreter, you set the 'INFOPATH'
environment variable in the '.profile' initialization file; but if you
use 'csh' or 'tcsh', you set the variable in the '.cshrc' initialization
file.  On MS-DOS/MS-Windows systems, you must set 'INFOPATH' in your
'autoexec.bat' file or in the registry.  Each type of shell uses a
different syntax.

   * In a '.cshrc' file, you could set the 'INFOPATH' variable as
     follows:

          setenv INFOPATH .:~/info:/usr/local/emacs/info

   * In a '.profile' file, you would achieve the same effect by writing:

          INFOPATH=.:$HOME/info:/usr/local/emacs/info
          export INFOPATH

   * In a 'autoexec.bat' file, you write this command (note the use of
     ';' as the directory separator, and a different syntax for using
     values of other environment variables):

          set INFOPATH=.;%HOME%/info;c:/usr/local/emacs/info

The '.' indicates the current directory as usual.  Emacs uses the
'INFOPATH' environment variable to initialize the value of Emacs's own
'Info-directory-list' variable.  The standalone Info reader merges any
files named 'dir' in any directory listed in the 'INFOPATH' variable
into a single menu presented to you in the node called '(dir)Top'.

  However you set 'INFOPATH', if its last character is a colon (on
MS-DOS/MS-Windows systems, use a semicolon instead), this is replaced by
the default (compiled-in) path.  This gives you a way to augment the
default path with new directories without having to list all the
standard places.  For example (using 'sh' syntax):

     INFOPATH=/home/bob/info:
     export INFOPATH

will search '/home/bob/info' first, then the standard directories.
Leading or doubled colons are not treated specially.

  When you create your own 'dir' file for use with 'Info-directory-list'
or 'INFOPATH', it's easiest to start by copying an existing 'dir' file
and replace all the text after the '* Menu:' with your desired entries.
That way, the punctuation and special CTRL-_ characters that Info needs
will be present.

  As one final alternative, which works only with Emacs Info, you can
change the 'Info-directory-list' variable.  For example:

     (add-hook 'Info-mode-hook '(lambda ()
     	     (add-to-list 'Info-directory-list
     			  (expand-file-name "~/info"))))