(info-stnd.info.gz) Variables
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11 Manipulating Variables
*************************
GNU Info contains several "variables" whose values are looked at by
various Info commands. You can change the values of these variables,
and thus change the behavior of Info to more closely match your
environment and Info file reading manner.
There are two ways to set the value of a variable: interactively,
using the 'set-variable' command described below, or in the '#var'
section of the '.infokey' file. Custom Key Bindings.
'M-x set-variable'
Read the name of a variable, and the value for it, in the echo area
and then set the variable to that value. Completion is available
when reading the variable name ( completion The Echo Area.);
often, completion is available when reading the value to give to
the variable, but that depends on the variable itself. If a
variable does _not_ supply multiple choices to complete over, it
expects a numeric value.
'M-x describe-variable'
Read the name of a variable in the echo area and then display a
brief description of what the variable affects.
Here is a list of the variables that you can set in Info.
'automatic-footnotes'
When set to 'On', footnotes appear and disappear automatically;
else, they appear at the bottom of the node text. This variable is
'Off' by default. When a node is selected, a window containing the
footnotes which appear in that node is created, and the footnotes
are displayed within the new window. The window that Info creates
to contain the footnotes is called '*Footnotes*'. If a node is
selected which contains no footnotes, and a '*Footnotes*' window is
on the screen, the '*Footnotes*' window is deleted. Footnote
windows created in this fashion are not automatically tiled so that
they can use as little of the display as is possible.
'automatic-tiling'
When set to 'On', creating or deleting a window resizes other
windows. This variable is 'Off' by default. Normally, typing 'C-x
2' divides the current window into two equal parts. When
'automatic-tiling' is set to 'On', all of the windows are resized
automatically, keeping an equal number of lines visible in each
window. There are exceptions to the automatic tiling;
specifically, the windows '*Completions*' and '*Footnotes*' are
_not_ resized through automatic tiling; they remain their original
size.
'cursor-movement-scrolls'
Normally, cursor movement commands ( Cursor Commands) stop
when top or bottom of a node is reached. When this variable is set
to 'On', cursor movement commands act as scrolling ones and their
behavior is controlled by the 'scroll-behavior' variable (see
below).
'errors-ring-bell'
When set to 'On', errors cause the bell to ring. The default
setting of this variable is 'On'.
'gc-compressed-files'
When set to 'On', Info garbage collects files which had to be
uncompressed. The default value of this variable is 'Off'.
Whenever a node is visited in Info, the Info file containing that
node is read into core, and Info reads information about the tags
and nodes contained in that file. Once the tags information is
read by Info, it is never forgotten. However, the actual text of
the nodes does not need to remain in core unless a particular Info
window needs it. For non-compressed files, the text of the nodes
does not remain in core when it is no longer in use. But
de-compressing a file can be a time consuming operation, and so
Info tries hard not to do it twice. 'gc-compressed-files' tells
Info it is okay to garbage collect the text of the nodes of a file
which was compressed on disk.
'ISO-Latin'
When set to 'On', Info accepts and displays ISO Latin characters.
By default, Info assumes an ASCII character set. 'ISO-Latin' tells
Info that it is running in an environment where the European
standard character set is in use, and allows you to input such
characters to Info, as well as display them.
'min-search-length'
Minimal length of a search string. Attempts to initiate a search
for a string (or regular expression) shorter than this value,
result in error. The default is 1 character.
'scroll-behavior'
'scroll-behaviour'
Control what happens when forward scrolling is requested at the end
of a node, or when backward scrolling is requested at the beginning
of a node. The default value for this variable is 'Continuous'.
There are three possible values for this variable:
'Continuous'
Try to get the first item in this node's menu, or failing
that, the 'Next' node, or failing that, the 'Next' of the
'Up'. This behavior is identical to using the ']'
('global-next-node') and '[' ('global-prev-node') commands.
'scroll-last-node'
Control what happens when a scrolling command is issued at the
end of the last node. Possible values are:
'Stop'
Do not scroll. Display the 'No more nodes within this
document.' message. This is the default.
'Scroll'
Scroll as usual. Since the last node is usually an
index, this means that the very first node from the menu
will be selected.
'Top'
Go to the top node of this document.
This variable is in effect only if 'scroll-behaviour' is set
to 'Continuous'.
Notice that the default behavior has changed in version 4.12.
Previous versions behaved as if 'scroll-last-node=Scroll' was
set. This behavior was counter-intuitive, therefore since
version 4.12 the default is to stop at the last node.
'Next Only'
Only try to get the 'Next' node.
'Page Only'
Simply give up, changing nothing. If 'scroll-behavior' is
'Page Only', no scrolling command can change the node that is
being viewed.
This variable normally affects only scrolling commands.
cursor-movement-scrolls, for information on how to widen its
scope.
The two names, 'scroll-behavior' and 'scroll-behaviour', are a
historical accident. They are merely synonyms.
'scroll-step'
The number of lines to scroll when the cursor moves out of the
window. Scrolling happens automatically if the cursor has moved
out of the visible portion of the node text when it is time to
display. Usually the scrolling is done so as to put the cursor on
the center line of the current window. However, if the variable
'scroll-step' has a nonzero value, Info attempts to scroll the node
text by that many lines; if that is enough to bring the cursor back
into the window, that is what is done. The default value of this
variable is 0, thus placing the cursor (and the text it is attached
to) in the center of the window. Setting this variable to 1 causes
a kind of "smooth scrolling" which some people prefer.
'show-index-match'
When set to 'On', the portion of the matched search string is
highlighted in the message which explains where the matched search
string was found. The default value of this variable is 'On'.
When Info displays the location where an index match was found,
( 'next-index-match' Searching Commands.), the portion of the
string that you had typed is highlighted by displaying it in the
inverse case from its surrounding characters.
'visible-bell'
When set to 'On', GNU Info attempts to flash the screen instead of
ringing the bell. This variable is 'Off' by default. Of course,
Info can only flash the screen if the terminal allows it; in the
case that the terminal does not allow it, the setting of this
variable has no effect. However, you can make Info perform quietly
by setting the 'errors-ring-bell' variable to 'Off'.
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