Linux From Scratch - Version r12.0-209

Chapter 8. Installing Basic System Software

8.71. Texinfo-7.1

The Texinfo package contains programs for reading, writing, and converting info pages.

Approximate build time: 0.3 SBU
Required disk space: 128 MB

8.71.1. Installation of Texinfo

Prepare Texinfo for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

To test the results, issue: 

make check

Install the package: 

make install

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 the TeX tree if, for example, a TeX package will be installed later.

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 sync with the info pages installed on the system. If the /usr/share/info/dir file ever needs to be recreated, the following optional commands will accomplish the task: 

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

8.71.2. Contents of Texinfo

Installed programs: info, install-info, makeinfo (link to texi2any), pdftexi2dvi, pod2texi, texi2any, texi2dvi, texi2pdf, and texindex
Installed library: MiscXS.so, Parsetexi.so, and XSParagraph.so (all in /usr/lib/texinfo)
Installed directories: /usr/share/texinfo and /usr/lib/texinfo

Short Descriptions

info

Used to read info pages which are similar to man pages, but often go much deeper than just explaining all the available command line options [For example, compare man bison and info bison.]

install-info

Used to install info pages; it updates entries in the info index file

makeinfo

Translates the given Texinfo source documents into info pages, plain text, or HTML

pdftexi2dvi

Used to format the given Texinfo document into a Portable Document Format (PDF) file

pod2texi

Converts Pod to Texinfo format

texi2any

Translate Texinfo source documentation to various other formats

texi2dvi

Used to format the given Texinfo document into a device-independent file that can be printed

texi2pdf

Used to format the given Texinfo document into a Portable Document Format (PDF) file

texindex

Used to sort Texinfo index files