How do I install a piece of Texinfo documentation?

First create Info files from the Texinfo files with the `makeinfo' program. makeinfo is available as part of the latest Texinfo package:

  /prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu/texinfo-2.14.tar.Z

For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which comes with Emacs. This manual also comes installed in Info format, so you can read it online.

Neither texinfo-format-buffer nor the makeinfo program install the resulting Info files in Emacs's Info tree. To install Info files:

1. Move the files to the `info' directory in the installed Emacs distribution. See @xref{Question 4} if you don't know where that is.
2. Edit the file info/dir in the installed Emacs distribution, and add a line for the top level node in the Info package that you are installing. Follow the examples are already in this file. The format is:

          * Topic: (relative-pathname).  Short description of topic.
   

If you want to install Info files and you don't have the necessary privileges, you have several options:

• Info files don't actually need to be installed before being used.You can feed a file name to the Info-goto-node command (invoked by pressing "g" in Info mode) by typing the name of the file in parentheses. This goes to the node named `Top' in that file. For example, to view a Info file named `XXX' in your home directory, you can type this:

    C-h i g (~/XXX) RET
  

• You can create your own Info directory.You can tell Emacs where the Info directory is by setting the value of the variable Info-directory to its pathname. For example, to use a private Info directory which is a subdirectory of your home directory named `Info', you could do this:

    (setq Info-directory (expand-file-name "~/Info"))
  

  You will need a top-level Info file named `dir' in this directory. You can include the system-wide Info directory in your private Info directory with symbolic links or by copying it.
• You can use an enhanced version of lisp/info.el that handles multiple Info directories. Then you can more easily use a mix of private and shared Info files. Dave Gillespie <daveg@synaptics.com, daveg@csvax.cs.caltech.edu> has written one such enhancement and I believe there are others. Dave's info.el also handles compressed Info files. Anonymous FTP:

    /archive.cis.ohio-state.edu:modes/info.el.Z
    /cs.umn.edu:pub/gnu/emacs/info.el.Z
  

  According to Jay Bourland <jayb@math.stanford.edu>, a version of Dave's info.el comes with `xinfo' (see section Can I view Info files without using GNU Emacs?).