To use the updating commands, you must organize the Texinfo file hierarchically with chapters, sections, subsections, and the like. When you construct the hierarchy of the manual, do not `jump down' more than one level at a time: you can follow the `Top' node with a chapter, but not with a section; you can follow a chapter with a section, but not with a subsection. However, you may `jump up' any number of levels at one time--for example, from a subsection to a chapter.
Each @node line, with the exception of the line for the `Top'
node, must be followed by a line with a structuring command such as
@chapter, @section, or
@unnumberedsubsec.
Each @node line/structuring-command line combination
must look either like this:
@node Comments, Minimum, Conventions, Overview @comment node-name, next, previous, up @section Comments
or like this (without the @comment line):
@node Comments, Minimum, Conventions, Overview @section Comments
In this example, `Comments' is the name of both the node and the
section. The next node is called `Minimum' and the previous node is
called `Conventions'. The `Comments' section is within the `Overview'
node, which is specified by the `Up' pointer. (Instead of an
@comment line, you can write an @ifinfo line.)
If a file has a `Top' node, it must be called `top' or `Top' and be the first node in the file.
The menu updating commands create a menu of sections within a chapter, a menu of subsections within a section, and so on. This means that you must have a `Top' node if you want a menu of chapters.
Incidentally, the makeinfo command will create an Info file for
a hierarchically organized Texinfo file that lacks `Next', `Previous'
and `Up' pointers. Thus, if you can be sure that your Texinfo file
will be formatted with makeinfo, you have no need for the
`update node' commands. (See section Creating an Info File, for more information about makeinfo.) However,
both makeinfo and the texinfo-format-... commands
require that you insert menus in the file.