Running makeinfo inside Emacs

You can run makeinfo in GNU Emacs Texinfo mode by using either the makeinfo-region or the makeinfo-buffer commands. In Texinfo mode, the commands are bound to C-c C-m C-r and C-c C-m C-b by default.

C-c C-m C-r

M-x makeinfo-region

Format the current region for Info.

C-c C-m C-b

M-x makeinfo-buffer

Format the current buffer for Info.

When you invoke either makeinfo-region or makeinfo-buffer, Emacs prompts for a file name, offering the name of the visited file as the default. You can edit the default file name in the minibuffer if you wish, before typing RET to start the makeinfo process.

The Emacs makeinfo-region and makeinfo-buffer commands run the makeinfo program in a temporary shell buffer. If makeinfo finds any errors, Emacs displays the error messages in the temporary buffer.

You can parse the error messages by typing C-x ` (next-error). This causes Emacs to go to and position the cursor on the line in the Texinfo source that makeinfo thinks caused the error. See section `Running make or Compilers Generally' in The GNU Emacs Manual, for more information about using the next-error command.

In addition, you can kill the shell in which the makeinfo command is running or make the shell buffer display its most recent output.

C-c C-m C-k

M-x makeinfo-kill-job

Kill the current running makeinfo job created by makeinfo-region or makeinfo-buffer.

C-c C-m C-l

M-x makeinfo-recenter-output-buffer

Redisplay the makeinfo shell buffer to display its most recent output.

(Note that the parallel commands for killing and recentering a TeX job are C-c C-t C-k and C-c C-t C-l. See section Formatting and Printing in Texinfo Mode.)

You can specify options for makeinfo by setting the makeinfo-options variable with either the M-x edit-options or the M-x set-variable command, or by setting the variable in your `.emacs' initialization file.

For example, you could write the following in your `.emacs' file:

(setq makeinfo-options 
      "--paragraph-indent=0 --no-split 
       --fill-column=70 --verbose")

For more information, see section Options for makeinfo, as well as "Editing Variable Values,""Examining and Setting Variables," and "Init File" in the The GNU Emacs Manual.