Info Files in Other Directories

If an Info file is not in the `info' directory, there are three ways to specify its location:

• Write the pathname in the `dir' file as the second part of the menu.
• If you are using Emacs, list the name of the file in a second `dir' file, in its directory; and then add the name of that directory to the Info-directory-list variable in your personal or site initialization file. This tells Emacs's Info reader reader where to look for `dir' files. Emacs merges the files named `dir' from each of the listed directories. (In Emacs Version 18, you can set the Info-directory variable to the name of only one directory.)
• Specify the `info' directory name in an environment variable in your `.profile' or `.cshrc' initialization file. (Only you and others who set this environment variable will be able to find Info files whose location is specified this way.)

For example, to reach a test file in the `~bob/manuals' directory, you could add an entry like this to the menu in the `dir' file:

* Test: (/usr/bob/manuals/info-test).  Bob's own test file.

In this case, the absolute file name of the `info-test' file is written as the second part of the menu entry.

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

(setq Info-directory-list
      '("/usr/bob/manuals" 
        "/usr/local/emacs/info"))

This tells Emacs to merge the `dir' file from the `/usr/bob/manuals' directory with the `dir' file from the `"/usr/local/emacs/info'" directory. Info will list the `/usr/bob/manuals/info-test' file as a menu entry in the `/usr/bob/manuals/dir' file.

Finally, you can tell Info where to look by setting the INFOPATH environment variable in your `.cshrc' or `.profile' file.

If you use sh or bash for your shell command interpreter, you must set the INFOPATH environment variable in the `.profile' initialization file; but if you use csh, you must set the variable in the `.cshrc' initialization file. The two files require slightly different command formats.

• In a `.cshrc' file, you could set the INFOPATH variable as follows:

  setenv INFOPATH .:~bob/manuals:/usr/local/emacs/info
  

• In a `.profile' file, you would achieve the same effect by writing:

  INFOPATH=.:~bob/manuals:/usr/local/emacs/info
  export INFOPATH
  

The `.' indicates the current directory. Emacs uses the INFOPATH environment variable to initialize the value of Emacs's own Info-directory-list variable.