From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Robert Thorpe Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: How to find Info Manuals Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:11:32 +0100 Message-ID: <874myh78jf.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1405516341 19581 80.91.229.3 (16 Jul 2014 13:12:21 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 13:12:21 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Jul 16 15:12:15 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1X7P06-000874-NK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 16 Jul 2014 15:12:02 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:39404 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1X7P06-0001G0-A3 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 16 Jul 2014 09:12:02 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:34662) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1X7Ozn-0001A6-E2 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 16 Jul 2014 09:11:50 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1X7Ozg-0002ty-7K for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 16 Jul 2014 09:11:43 -0400 Original-Received: from outbound-smtp01.blacknight.com ([81.17.249.7]:50018) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1X7Ozg-0002tO-1T for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 16 Jul 2014 09:11:36 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.blacknight.com (pemlinmail05.blacknight.ie [81.17.254.26]) by outbound-smtp01.blacknight.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 12076C8014 for ; Wed, 16 Jul 2014 13:11:23 +0000 (UTC) Original-Received: (qmail 21888 invoked from network); 16 Jul 2014 13:11:34 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO RTLaptop) (rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com@[109.78.224.105]) by 81.17.254.9 with ESMTPSA (DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA encrypted, authenticated); 16 Jul 2014 13:11:33 -0000 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6.x X-Received-From: 81.17.249.7 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:98685 Archived-At: I find Info manuals very useful. The Emacs Info browser is very fast and well-integrated with Emacs. The "C-h S" command, is invaluable, it looks up a symbol in a manual. For example, if you're editing C code and you type C-h S near the word "printf" it will bring up the Info page from the GNU C library manual describing the printf function. Since the manual describes related functions together that can be useful, you can compare "printf" related functions. It also works on variables and constants that have standard meanings. This can be useful even when using other compilers or libraries, because the manuals describe standard functions. Almost all GNU project languages and utilities have manuals in Info format. Unfortunately for us users, the Debian people decided that the GNU Free Documentation License is a "non-free" license. When the GNU project switched to using it for manuals the Debian people put them in a non-free repository. In my opinion, the behaviour of both sides was bad. Debian derivatives like Ubuntu keep that structure. Here is a list of the packages containing the Info manuals for various languages and libraries. In almost all cases the Debian and Ubuntu name is the same: * Standard C Library (GNU Libc): glibc-doc. * Emacs (the whole Emacs manual set): emacs24-common-non-dfsg. * GNU Awk: gawk-doc. * Ada 2005 language standard: ada-reference-manual-2012 (ada-reference-manual-info on Ubuntu & old Debian). * GNU Ada compiler (GNAT): gnat-doc or gnat-4.6-doc. * GNU Fortran 77 & 95: gfortran-doc. * Scheme (Guile): guile-1.8-doc-non-dfsg. * TeX & LaTeX: some info docs are in texlive-base, but they're not complete. * GNU TexInfo: texinfo-doc-nonfree. * Autoconf: autoconf-doc. * Bison: bison-doc. * GNU m4: m4. * GNU Make: make-doc. * Automake: automake. * Cfengine: cfengine2. * GNU Maxima: maxima-doc. * GNU Octave: octave-info. I know that most of these work properly with C-h S, though I'm not sure all do. The Binutils info docs (in binutils-doc) don't support C-h S AFAIK. The GNU C++ library was done with Doxygen, it doesn't seem to have an Info manual. If no package is available the Info docs can be installed the old fashioned way using 'sudo install-info infofile'. Due to a packaging mistake the Bash info file isn't present it can be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/. The TexInfo people provide the Perl documentation in Info format http://www.gnu.org/software/perl/manual/ . No Debian package contains the main info file for GNU Common Lisp, the packages only contain some additional manuals, I think that's a packaging mistake. The best way to get that manual is from the GCL source tarball. Somewhere on the internet there's an info file of the whole Common Lisp Hyperspec, though I can't find it. BR, Robert Thorpe