6.3 The @node Command

A node is a segment of text that begins at an @node command and continues until the next @node command. The definition of node is different from that for chapter or section. A chapter may contain sections and a section may contain subsections; but a node cannot contain subnodes; the text of a node continues only until the next @node command in the file. A node usually contains only one chapter structuring command, the one that follows the @node line. On the other hand, in printed output nodes are used only for cross references, so a chapter or section may contain any number of nodes. Indeed, a chapter usually contains several nodes, one for each section, subsection, and subsubsection.

To specify a node, write an @node command at the beginning of a line, and follow it with up to four arguments, separated by commas, on the rest of the same line. The first argument is required; it is the name of this node (for details of node names, see section @node Line Requirements). The subsequent arguments are the names of the `Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers, in that order, and may be omitted if your Texinfo document is hierarchically organized (see section Creating Pointers with makeinfo).

Whether the node pointers are specified implicitly or explicitly, the HTML output from makeinfo for each node includes links to the `Next', `Previous', and `Up' nodes. The HTML also uses the accesskey attribute with the values ‘n’, ‘p’, and ‘u’ respectively. This allows people using web browsers to follow the nagivation using (typically) M-letter, e.g., M-n for the `Next' node, from anywhere within the node.

You may insert spaces before each name on the @node line if you wish; the spaces are ignored. You must write the name of the node and (if present) the names of the `Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers all on the same line. Otherwise, the formatters fail. (See info: (info)Top, for more information about nodes in Info.)

Usually, you write one of the chapter-structuring command lines immediately after an @node line—for example, an @section or @subsection line. (See section Structuring Command Types.)

TeX uses @node lines to identify the names to use for cross references. For this reason, you must write @node lines in a Texinfo file that you intend to format for printing, even if you do not intend to format it for Info. (Cross references, such as the one at the end of this sentence, are made with @xref and related commands; see Cross References.)