How can I select a .info file for info mode?

How can I select a .info file for info mode?

[Bruce Korb]

Hi,

It used to be the case that ``ESC-2 CTL-h i'' gave me the opportunity
to select the .info file to use for info mode.  Not any more.
Plowing through the docs doesn't give me a good enough hint about
how to do it either.  Please tell me there is still a way to do this?
Searching keybindings did not yield anything promising either.
I guess I could read the elisp for the previous emacs and my current
one, but that is too far over the top for me.  I don't grok elisp
very well anyway.

Thank you.  Regards, Bruce

$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 22.2.1
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

RE: How can I select a .info file for info mode?

[Drew Adams]

> It used to be the case that ``ESC-2 CTL-h i'' gave me the opportunity
> to select the .info file to use for info mode.  Not any more.
> Plowing through the docs doesn't give me a good enough hint about
> how to do it either.  Please tell me there is still a way to do this?
> Searching keybindings did not yield anything promising either.
> I guess I could read the elisp for the previous emacs and my current
> one, but that is too far over the top for me.  I don't grok elisp
> very well anyway.

Yes, `ESC-2 C-h i' (or `M-2 C-h i') works in Emacs before the Emacs 22 release.
Dunno if this change was intentional or is a bug - you might check the NEWS file
to see. If it was not intentional, then you might want to report a bug using
`M-x report-emacs-bug'.

In any case, you can still use `C-u C-h i' to do the same thing - it prompts you
for the Info file to use.

RE: How can I select a .info file for info mode?

[Drew Adams]

I wrote:

> > It used to be the case that ``ESC-2 CTL-h i'' gave me the 
> > opportunity to select the .info file to use for info mode.
> > Not any more. Plowing through the docs doesn't give me a
> > good enough hint about how to do it either.  Please tell
> > me there is still a way to do this?
> > Searching keybindings did not yield anything promising either.
> > I guess I could read the elisp for the previous emacs and my current
> > one, but that is too far over the top for me.  I don't grok elisp
> > very well anyway.
> 
> Yes, `ESC-2 C-h i' (or `M-2 C-h i') works in Emacs before the 
> Emacs 22 release. Dunno if this change was intentional or is
> a bug - you might check the NEWS file to see. If it was not
> intentional, then you might want to report a bug using
> `M-x report-emacs-bug'.
> 
> In any case, you can still use `C-u C-h i' to do the same 
> thing - it prompts you
> for the Info file to use.

I replied separately to the bug report you filed, but I reply here as well, to
help others who might be interested.

My suggestion above was incomplete. I should have suggested to first, before
reading NEWS, look at the doc for the key you're using. `C-h k C-h i' says this
as part of the description of command `info':

"In interactive use, a non-numeric prefix argument directs
this command to read a file name from the minibuffer.
A numeric prefix argument selects an Info buffer with the prefix number
appended to the Info buffer name."

This means:

* `C-u C-h i' (using a non-numeric prefix arg) does what you were looking for:
prompts for the Info file to use.

* `M-2 C-h i' (using a numeric prefix arg) opens Info with the buffer named
`*info*<2>'.