Info is a

software utility Utility software is software designed to help analyze, configure, optimize or maintain a computer. It is used to support the computer infrastructure - in contrast to application software, which is aimed at directly performing tasks that benefit or ...

which forms a

hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...

ual, multipage documentation and help viewer working on a

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

. Info reads ''info'' files generated by the ''

texinfo Texinfo is a typesetting syntax used for generating documentation in both on-line and printed form (creating filetypes as , , , etc., and its own hypertext format, ) with a single source file. It is implemented by a computer program released as fr ...

'' program and presents the documentation as a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

with simple commands to traverse the tree and to follow cross references. For instance, pressing the

space bar The space bar is on the bottom center of the keyboard The space bar, spacebar, blank, or space key is a key on a typewriter or alphanumeric keyboard in the form of a horizontal bar in the lowermost row, significantly wider than all other keys. ...

scrolls down within the current tree node or goes to the next node in the current document if already at the bottom of the current node, allowing to read the contents of an info file sequentially. Pressing the

backspace Backspace () is the keyboard key that originally pushed the typewriter carriage one position backwards and in modern computer systems moves the display cursor one position backwards,"Backwards" means to the left for left-to-right languages. delete ...

key moves in the opposite direction. Furthermore: * goes to the next node in the current document. * goes to the previous node in the current document. * goes to the next node on the same level as the current node. * goes to the previous node on the same level as the current node. * ("up") goes to the parent of the current node. * goes to the last visited node. * Moving the cursor over a ''link'' (a word preceded by an asterisk) and pressing the

enter key On computer keyboards, the enter key and return key are two closely related keys with overlapping and distinct functions dependent on operating system and application. Functions The return key has its origins in two typewriter functions: ca ...

follows the link. * Pressing the

tab key The tab key (abbreviation of tabulator key or tabular key) on a keyboard is used to advance the cursor to the next tab stop. History The word ''tab'' derives from the word ''tabulate'', which means "to arrange data in a tabular, or table, fo ...

will move the cursor to the next nearest link. The C implementation of info was designed as the main documentation system of GNU based

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

s and was then ported to other

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating systems. However, info files had already been in use on ITS

emacs Emacs , originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor MACroS"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, s ...

. On the

TOPS-20 The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is a proprietary OS used on some of DEC's 36-bit mainframe computers. The Hardware Reference Manual was described as for "DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20 Processor" (meaning the DEC PDP- ...

operating system INFO was called XINFO.Stacy, Christopher C. (1982)
MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Working Papers, WP-235, Getting Started Computing at the AI Lab
/ref>

List of Info readers

* GNU info, distributed with

Texinfo Texinfo is a typesetting syntax used for generating documentation in both on-line and printed form (creating filetypes as , , , etc., and its own hypertext format, ) with a single source file. It is implemented by a computer program released as fr ...

pinfo
* tkman * tkinfo * khelpcenter (click "Browse Info Pages") *

info.vim
(Vim plugin) * vinfo (Vim help-files fashioned reading)
GNOME Yelp

References

{{Unix commands Unix software Online help Command-line software

List of Info readers

See also

References