From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Drew Adams" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: auto-update of Info dir file? Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 08:28:50 -0700 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1147706973 16949 80.91.229.2 (15 May 2006 15:29:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 15:29:33 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon May 15 17:29:32 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Fff0W-0005j4-2y for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 15 May 2006 17:29:16 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Fff0V-0000Bw-FJ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 15 May 2006 11:29:15 -0400 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Fff0C-00009X-QF for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 15 May 2006 11:28:56 -0400 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1Fff0B-00008q-6h for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 15 May 2006 11:28:56 -0400 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Fff0B-00008i-16 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 15 May 2006 11:28:55 -0400 Original-Received: from [148.87.113.118] (helo=rgminet01.oracle.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:DHE_RSA_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA:24) (Exim 4.52) id 1Fff2a-0007Ua-Jq for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 15 May 2006 11:31:25 -0400 Original-Received: from rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com (rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com [138.1.186.49]) by rgminet01.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.6/Switch-3.1.6) with ESMTP id k4FFSo4f031269 for ; Mon, 15 May 2006 09:28:50 -0600 Original-Received: from dradamslap (dradams-lap.us.oracle.com [130.35.177.126]) by rgmsgw300.us.oracle.com (Switch-3.1.7/Switch-3.1.7) with SMTP id k4FFSnp6003320 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5 bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 15 May 2006 09:28:50 -0600 Original-To: "Emacs-Devel" X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1807 X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAAI= X-Whitelist: TRUE X-Whitelist: TRUE X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:54510 Archived-At: I haven't thought this through much or tried to investigate how it might work, but it occurred to me that `info' might do something like this: For each directory in `Info-directory-list', for each top-level file in the directory (i.e. whose name doesn't end in "-N", N=1,2,3...): Check if there is a corresponding entry in the Info `dir' file (in `Info-dir-contents-directory'), and, if not, add one. Perhaps there is already part of the mechanism for doing this. When I look in some Info files now I see (START|END)-INFO-DIR-ENTRY, which makes me think there must already be a means of adding the entry. Perhaps all that's missing is to have `info' do that on the fly automatically for each top-level Info file in the directories of `Info-directory-list'. Some Info files might not have a (START|END)-INFO-DIR-ENTRY, in which case only a simple entry would be added - say, using the file name as the link itself and leaving the description blank. (Or perhaps a description could be gleaned from the Info file.) I mention this because of a question in help-gnu-emacs today and a reply advising the user to add the entry to the `dir' file. Why not have Emacs do that automatically, so the only user task would be to add the Info files to the directory? If this were costly in performance, it might be done only on first use of `info' in a session.