info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[dhruva]

Hi,
 I am finding a strange problem recently. I build emacs from HEAD on
Windows using MinGW tools (make bootstrap) and keep updating
frequently by (make info && make recompile && make && make install).
 The first time I install the top INFO (dir) has single unique entries
for all topics. The next time I update and build, I see a second entry
for almost all the topics (except "Emacs Lisp Introduction"). It is
not a case of blind appending, something else must be broken in the
"make info" which updates the DIR file. I will try exploring but with
my limited knowledge, I doubt that I can make good progress.

with best regards,
dhruva

PS: I can send the DIR file if someone wants to have a look at it.

-- 
Dhruva Krishnamurthy
Contents reflect my personal views only!

Re: info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[dhruva]

Hi,

On 6/23/07, dhruva <dhruvakm@gmail.com> wrote:
>  The first time I install the top INFO (dir) has single unique entries
> for all topics. The next time I update and build, I see a second entry
> for almost all the topics (except "Emacs Lisp Introduction"). It is

I renamed the folder in which I have built emacs, this problem gets
resolved. I guess the folder in which emacs is build is getting added
to the search path for info files. If I rename the info folder to
something else in the installed location, it still finds the DIR file
(from the build folder).
 If this is trivial to fix, it would be welcome. I will try to further
explore it myself.

woth best regards,
dhruva

-- 
Dhruva Krishnamurthy
Contents reflect my personal views only!

Re: info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 09:06:12 +0530
> From: dhruva <dhruvakm@gmail.com>
> 
>  I am finding a strange problem recently. I build emacs from HEAD on
> Windows using MinGW tools (make bootstrap) and keep updating
> frequently by (make info && make recompile && make && make install).
>  The first time I install the top INFO (dir) has single unique entries
> for all topics. The next time I update and build, I see a second entry
> for almost all the topics (except "Emacs Lisp Introduction"). It is
> not a case of blind appending, something else must be broken in the
> "make info" which updates the DIR file.

Do you mean that the `info/dir' _file_ gets modified to include
duplicate entries?  Or do you mean that looking at the (dir) _node_
after typing "C-h i" in Emacs, you see duplicate menu items?

Re: info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[dhruva]

On 6/23/07, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> > for all topics. The next time I update and build, I see a second entry
> > for almost all the topics (except "Emacs Lisp Introduction"). It is
> > not a case of blind appending, something else must be broken in the
> > "make info" which updates the DIR file.
>
> Do you mean that the `info/dir' _file_ gets modified to include
> duplicate entries?  Or do you mean that looking at the (dir) _node_
> after typing "C-h i" in Emacs, you see duplicate menu items?
>

The info/dir file does not have duplicate entries. But, I do see
duplicate menu entries on "C-h i" in emacs. I could fix this by
renaming the folder in which I had build emacs. This makes me believe
that emacs has taken the build directory as the part of the info path
list (though this is not shown in the

The list var "Info-default-directory-list" has the following value
(with no customization i.e., "emacs -q")

("c:/emacs/info/" "/usr/local/share/info/" "/usr/local/info/"
"/usr/local/gnu/info/" "/usr/local/gnu/lib/info/"
"/usr/local/gnu/lib/emacs/info/" "/usr/local/emacs/info/"
"/usr/local/lib/info/" "/usr/local/lib/emacs/info/" "/gnu/info/"
"e:/GNU/emacs/info/")

The last entry is the location I have installed emacs (e:/gnu/emacs).
IMHO, the other directories are redundant. Based on the OS, could we
have a smaller set or could this be decided based on the existence of
the folder?

-dky

-- 
Dhruva Krishnamurthy
Contents reflect my personal views only!

Re: info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:58:08 +0530
> From: dhruva <dhruvakm@gmail.com>
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> On 6/23/07, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> > > for all topics. The next time I update and build, I see a second entry
> > > for almost all the topics (except "Emacs Lisp Introduction"). It is
> > > not a case of blind appending, something else must be broken in the
> > > "make info" which updates the DIR file.
> >
> > Do you mean that the `info/dir' _file_ gets modified to include
> > duplicate entries?  Or do you mean that looking at the (dir) _node_
> > after typing "C-h i" in Emacs, you see duplicate menu items?
> >
> 
> The info/dir file does not have duplicate entries.

Well, your text above, viz:

  something else must be broken in the "make info" which updates the DIR file.

did suggest that the _file_ DIR has duplicate copies.  Thus my
question.

> But, I do see
> duplicate menu entries on "C-h i" in emacs. I could fix this by
> renaming the folder in which I had build emacs. This makes me believe
> that emacs has taken the build directory as the part of the info path
> list

Yes, that's true.

> The list var "Info-default-directory-list" has the following value

You are looking at the wrong variable.  The correct one is
Info-directory-list.  See the functions info-initialize and
Info-default-dirs which compute its value at startup.

I'm not sure that it's a Bad Thing that the build directory is first
in Info-default-dirs.  Emacs always prefers the Info files that came
with the specific version you built, for the case that you experiment
in the build directory without uninstalling the officially installed
one.

The code in Info-default-dirs does not do on Windows exactly what it
does on GNU/Linux, but that's for a good reason: Windows binaries are
very likely to run on a system other than the one where they were
built, and the code that sets up Info-directory-list should DTRT in
that case.  You are welcome to suggest changes that avoid duplicate
entries in the DIR node, but please make sure the modified code does
not break the use case where the binaries are installed in an
arbitrary directory with no sources or build directory anywhere in
sight.

> ("c:/emacs/info/" "/usr/local/share/info/" "/usr/local/info/"
> "/usr/local/gnu/info/" "/usr/local/gnu/lib/info/"
> "/usr/local/gnu/lib/emacs/info/" "/usr/local/emacs/info/"
> "/usr/local/lib/info/" "/usr/local/lib/emacs/info/" "/gnu/info/"
> "e:/GNU/emacs/info/")
> 
> The last entry is the location I have installed emacs (e:/gnu/emacs).
> IMHO, the other directories are redundant. Based on the OS, could we
> have a smaller set or could this be decided based on the existence of
> the folder?

We already do that, see info-initialize.  That's why
Info-directory-list doesn't include the non-existing directories.

Re: info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[dhruva]

Hi,
 Thank you for the detailed explanation.

On 6/23/07, Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> that case.  You are welcome to suggest changes that avoid duplicate
> entries in the DIR node, but please make sure the modified code does
> not break the use case where the binaries are installed in an
> arbitrary directory with no sources or build directory anywhere in
> sight.

The default installation on windows puts info under the emacs folder tree:
Can we use:
(if (file-directory-p)
    (concat invocation-directory "../info")
   ())

I am not sure regarding the installation on non windows. Another
approach is to have a file containing the paths to folders to be added
to Info and lisp search paths. An install script (not the install
target of makefile) used to install pre-built binaries could read that
file and generate a lisp file which can be loaded by emacs on startup,
this can have location specific folder locations.

> We already do that, see info-initialize.  That's why
> Info-directory-list doesn't include the non-existing directories.

On my system, "Info-directory-list" evaluates to "nil". Could this
indicate a problem?

with best regards,
dhruva

-- 
Dhruva Krishnamurthy
Contents reflect my personal views only!

Re: info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[dhruva]

Hi,

On 6/23/07, dhruva <dhruvakm@gmail.com> wrote:
> On my system, "Info-directory-list" evaluates to "nil". Could this
> indicate a problem?

Once I did "C-h i", a call to "info-initialize" is made and that
initialized the variable. It had the build location first.
("e:/cache/build/emacs/info/" "e:/GNU/emacs/info/")

I have a doubt: If the DIR file have unique entries, how does it show
duplicate entries on "C-h i"?
Does the info subsystem use the entries in DIR file and find all info
files corresponding to a menu item in the info path and display all
occurrences, that could explain the issue I am facing.
To reaffirm, the DIR file is not corrupted, apologies for misleading.

-dky

-- 
Dhruva Krishnamurthy
Contents reflect my personal views only!

Re: info DIR file: Duplicate topic entries problem

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 22:07:02 +0530
> From: dhruva <dhruvakm@gmail.com>
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> 
> On 6/23/07, dhruva <dhruvakm@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On my system, "Info-directory-list" evaluates to "nil". Could this
> > indicate a problem?
> 
> Once I did "C-h i", a call to "info-initialize" is made and that
> initialized the variable.

Right.

> It had the build location first.
> ("e:/cache/build/emacs/info/" "e:/GNU/emacs/info/")

As expected.  I see a similar value on my machine.

> I have a doubt: If the DIR file have unique entries, how does it show
> duplicate entries on "C-h i"?
> Does the info subsystem use the entries in DIR file and find all info
> files corresponding to a menu item in the info path and display all
> occurrences, that could explain the issue I am facing.

Yes, this is what happens.  Info assembles the DIR node from all the
DIR files it finds in the directories mentioned in Info-directory-list.

> To reaffirm, the DIR file is not corrupted, apologies for misleading.

Thanks.