Linux From Scratch: Version 5.1-pre1
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# Installing Texinfo-4.6

The Texinfo package contains programs for reading, writing, and converting Info documents.

    Approximate build time:  0.2 SBU
    Required disk space:     17 MB

Official download location for Texinfo (4.6):
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/

For its installation Texinfo depends on: Bash, Binutils, Coreutils, Diffutils, GCC, Gettext, Glibc, Grep, Make, Ncurses, Sed.

##

## Installation of Texinfo

Prepare Texinfo for compilation:

    ./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package:

    make

This package has a test suite available which can perform a number of checks to ensure it built correctly. Should you choose to run it, the following command will do so:

    make check

Install the package:

    make install

And optionally install the components belonging in a TeX installation:

    make TEXMF=/usr/share/texmf install-tex

The meaning of the make parameter:

- `TEXMF=/usr/share/texmf`: The TEXMF makefile variable holds the location of the root of your TeX tree if, for example, you plan to install a TeX package later on.

The Info documentation system uses a plain text file to hold its list of menu entries. The file is located at `/usr/share/info/dir`. Unfortunately, due to occasional problems in the Makefiles of various packages, it can sometimes get out of step with the Info manuals actually installed on the system. If ever you need to recreate the `/usr/share/info/dir` file, the following optional commands will accomplish the task:

    cd /usr/share/info
    rm dir
    for f in *
    do install-info $f dir 2>/dev/null
    done

##

## Contents of Texinfo

Installed programs: info, infokey, install-info, makeinfo, texi2dvi and texindex

## Short descriptions

info is used to read Info documents. Info documents are a bit like man pages, but often go much deeper than just explaining all the flags. Compare for example man tar and info tar.

infokey compiles a source file containing Info customizations into a binary format.

install-info is used to install Info files. It updates entries in the Info index file.

makeinfo translates the given Texinfo source documents into various other formats: Info files, plain text, or HTML.

texi2dvi is used to format the given Texinfo document into a device-independent file that can be printed.

texindex is used to sort Texinfo index files.

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