21.1.3 Options for makeinfo

The makeinfo program accepts many options. Perhaps the most commonly needed are those that change the output format. By default, makeinfo outputs Info files.

Each command line option is a word preceded by ‘--’ or a letter preceded by ‘-’. You can use abbreviations for the long option names as long as they are unique.

For example, you could use the following shell command to create an Info file for ‘bison.texinfo’ in which each line is filled to only 68 columns:

makeinfo --fill-column=68 bison.texinfo

You can write two or more options in sequence, like this:

makeinfo --no-split --fill-column=70 …

This would keep the Info file together as one possibly very long file and would also set the fill column to 70.

The options are:

-D var

Cause the variable var to be defined. This is equivalent to @set var in the Texinfo file (see section @set, @clear, and @value).

--commands-in-node-names

Allow @-commands in node names. This is not recommended, as it can probably never be implemented in TeX. It also makes makeinfo much slower. Also, this option is ignored when ‘--no-validate’ is used. See section Pointer Validation, for more details.

--css-include=file

Include the contents of file, which should contain cascading style sheets specifications, in the ‘<style>’ block of the HTML output. See section HTML CSS. If file is ‘-’, read standard input.

--css-ref=url

In HTML mode, add a ‘<link>’ tag to the HTML output which references a cascading style sheet at url. This allows using standalone style sheets.

--disable-encoding

--enable-encoding

By default, or with ‘--enable-encoding’, output accented and special characters in Info or plain text output based on ‘@documentencoding’. With ‘--disable-encoding’, 7-bit ASCII transliterations are output. See section documentencoding, and Inserting Accents.

--docbook

Generate Docbook output rather than Info.

--document-language=lang

Use lang to translate Texinfo keywords which end up in the output document. The default is the locale specified by the @documentlanguage command if there is one (see section @documentlanguage ll[_cc]: Set the Document Language).

--error-limit=limit

-e limit

Set the maximum number of errors that makeinfo will report before exiting (on the assumption that continuing would be useless); default 100.

--fill-column=width

-f width

Specify the maximum number of columns in a line; this is the right-hand edge of a line. Paragraphs that are filled will be filled to this width. (Filling is the process of breaking up and connecting lines so that lines are the same length as or shorter than the number specified as the fill column. Lines are broken between words.) The default value is 72. Ignored with ‘--html’.

--footnote-style=style

-s style

Set the footnote style to style, either ‘end’ for the end node style (the default) or ‘separate’ for the separate node style. The value set by this option overrides the value set in a Texinfo file by an @footnotestyle command (see section Footnotes). When the footnote style is ‘separate’, makeinfo makes a new node containing the footnotes found in the current node. When the footnote style is ‘end’, makeinfo places the footnote references at the end of the current node. Ignored with ‘--html’.

--force

-F

Ordinarily, if the input file has errors, the output files are not created. With this option, they are preserved.

--help

-h

Print a usage message listing all available options, then exit successfully.

--html

Generate HTML output rather than Info. See section Generating HTML. By default, the HTML output is split into one output file per Texinfo source node, and the split output is written into a subdirectory with the name of the top-level info file.

-I dir

Append dir to the directory search list for finding files that are included using the @include command. By default, makeinfo searches only the current directory. If dir is not given, the current directory ‘.’ is appended. Note that dir can actually be a list of several directories separated by the usual path separator character (‘:’ on Unix, ‘;’ on MS-DOS/MS-Windows).

--ifdocbook

--ifhtml

--ifinfo

--ifplaintext

--iftex

--ifxml

For the specified format, process ‘@ifformat’ and ‘@format’ commands even if not generating the given output format. For instance, if ‘--iftex’ is specified, then ‘@iftex’ and ‘@tex’ blocks will be read.

--internal-links=file

In HTML mode, output a tab separated file containing three columns: the internal link to an indexed item or item in the table of contents, the name of the index (or "toc") in which it occurs, and the term which was indexed or entered.

--macro-expand=file

-E file

Output the Texinfo source with all the macros expanded to the named file. Normally, the results of macro expansion are used internally by makeinfo and then discarded. This option is used by texi2dvi.

--no-headers

--plaintext

Do not include menus or node separator lines in the output, and implicitly ‘--enable-encoding’ (see above). This results in a simple plain text file that you can (for example) send in email without complications, or include in a distribution (as in an ‘INSTALL’ file).

For HTML output, likewise omit menus. And if ‘--no-split’ is also specified, do not include a navigation links at the top of each node (these are never included in the default case of split output). See section Generating HTML.

In both cases, ignore @setfilename and write to standard output by default—can be overridden with ‘-o’.

--no-ifdocbook

--no-ifhtml

--no-ifinfo

--no-ifplaintext

--no-iftex

--no-ifxml

Do not process ‘@ifformat’ and ‘@format’ commands, and do process ‘@ifnotformat’, even if generating the given format. For instance, if ‘--no-ifhtml’ is specified, then ‘@ifhtml’ and ‘@html’ blocks will not be read, and ‘@ifnothtml’ blocks will be.

--no-number-footnotes

Suppress automatic footnote numbering. By default, makeinfo numbers each footnote sequentially in a single node, resetting the current footnote number to 1 at the start of each node.

--no-number-sections

Do not output chapter, section, and appendix numbers. You need to specify this if your manual is not hierarchically-structured.

--no-split

Suppress the splitting stage of makeinfo. By default, large output files (where the size is greater than 70k bytes) are split into smaller subfiles. For Info output, each one is approximately 50k bytes. For HTML output, each file contains one node (see section Generating HTML).

--no-pointer-validate

--no-validate

Suppress the pointer-validation phase of makeinfo—a dangerous thing to do. This can also be done with the @novalidate command (see section Use TeX). Normally, after a Texinfo file is processed, some consistency checks are made to ensure that cross references can be resolved, etc. See section Pointer Validation.

--no-warn

Suppress warning messages (but not error messages).

--number-sections

Output chapter, section, and appendix numbers as in printed manuals. This is the default. It works only with hierarchically-structured manuals.

--output=file

-o file

Specify that the output should be directed to file and not to the file name specified in the @setfilename command found in the Texinfo source (see section @setfilename: Set the output file name). If file is ‘-’, output goes to standard output and ‘--no-split’ is implied. For split HTML output, file is the name for the directory into which all HTML nodes are written (see section Generating HTML).

-P dir

Prepend dir to the directory search list for @include. If dir is not given, the current directory ‘.’ is prepended. See ‘-I’ for more details.

--paragraph-indent=indent

-p indent

Set the paragraph indentation style to indent. The value set by this option overrides the value set in a Texinfo file by an @paragraphindent command (see section @paragraphindent: Paragraph Indenting). The value of indent is interpreted as follows:

‘asis’

Preserve any existing indentation at the starts of paragraphs.

‘0’ or ‘none’

Delete any existing indentation.

num

Indent each paragraph by num spaces.

--split-size=num

Keep Info files to at most num characters; default is 300,000.

--transliterate-file-names

Enable transliteration of 8-bit characters in node names for the purpose of file name creation. See section HTML Cross-reference 8-bit Character Expansion.

-U var

Cause var to be undefined. This is equivalent to @clear var in the Texinfo file (see section @set, @clear, and @value).

--verbose

Cause makeinfo to display messages saying what it is doing. Normally, makeinfo only outputs messages if there are errors or warnings.

--version

-V

Print the version number, then exit successfully.

--xml

Generate XML output rather than Info.

makeinfo also reads the environment variable TEXINFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT to determine the output format, if not overridden by a command line option. The possible values are:

docbook  html  info  plaintext  xml

If not set, Info output is the default.