Mail Archives: djgpp-workers/1999/07/27/13:52:27
Here follows a document I put together prompted by the complaints
about starting to use info. It's not intended to be complete but short
and sweet. Hopefully this can be included in the README.1ST file and
other relevant places.
I'm letting you see this first before I unleash it on c.o.m.d for
comments.
Right,
MartinS
A Crash Course in Info
======================
Introduction
------------
This is a short piece that will give you some basic knowledge of
info. It is not supposed to be a complete guide, but a starting point
to help beginners to use the info program so they can easily read the
FAQ and the C library documentation.
Info is the primary documentation reader for the GNU project and for
DJGPP.
You must have installed the txi*b.zip to be able to use it.
Some key pressing terminology
-----------------------------
"C-x" means pressing and holding down the "Ctrl" key, then pressing
and releasing the "x" key and then releasing the "Ctrl" key.
"M-x" means pressing and releasing the "Esc" key, then pressing and
releasing the "x" key.
Keys which are used together with the "Ctrl" key or the "Esc" key are
case independent. However in the sequence "M-x compile" the "compile"
part _is_ case dependent (while the "M-x" is not).
How to exit
-----------
First of all you must know how to exit the program, so you can come
back and read the rest of this document in case you are running in
plain DOZE.
The easiest way is "C-c".
The nice way (towards the info program) is "q".
How to start
------------
Just type "info" at the command prompt. This starts the info program
and positions you at the "Directory node", which is an index of a lot
of different info documents. If you now want to look at the C library
you use the arrow keys (or "C-p", "C-n", "C-f" and "C-b" in case the
arrow keys doesn't exist or work), and position you on the line the
starts with "* libc.a" and press "RET".
If you want to go directly to the FAQ from the command prompt (and
bypassing the "Directory node", you type "info faq" at the prompt and
voila you are immediately at the start of the FAQ.
How to find what you what to know
---------------------------------
Suppose you are getting the infamous "ld.exe: cannot open -lstdcxx: No
such file or directory" and you want to check what the FAQ has to say
about that. You start info and go to the the FAQ node ("info faq").
Then you press "i" (for index search) followed by entering "can" and
"TAB TAB". Now you will see potential completions. Alas none of them
seems to be relevant for this problem, so you press "C-g" (abort-key)
to restart you index search, and then enter "-lstd" followed by
TAB". Now the the info program only have one choice so it completes
your search and this time it's exactly what you are looking for! Now
press "RET" to go to that node and read what the FAQ has to say about
this subject.
Sometimes the index search isn't good enough (because the indices
cannot list everything), in this case "C-s" (search) can be
useful. Suppose you failed finding anything in the previous section
using index search (for arguments sake). Then you press "C-s" followed
by typing "-lstd" and there you are again at the right place in the
right time. If this first match isn't what you wanted, you can search
for the next by pressing "C-s" again (and again...) and if you want to
search backwards you can use "C-r".
How to find out more
--------------------
This was just a small short sample of info's abilities. To find out
more I suggest you read info's info ("info info").
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