View source for Info (Unix)

{{lowercase title|title=info}}
{{Infobox software
|name                       = Info
|logo                       =
|screenshot                 = GNU Info 6.8 screenshot.png
|caption                    =
|collapsible                =
|author                     =
|developer                  =
|released                   = <!-- {{Start date|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
|latest release version     = 6.8
|latest release date        = {{Start date and age|2021|07|03}}
|latest preview version     =
|latest preview date        = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
|programming language       = [[C (programming language)|C]]
|operating system           = [[Unix-like]]
|platform                   = [[Cross-platform]]
|size                       =
|language                   =
|genre                      = [[Documentation viewer]]
|license                    = [[GNU General Public License]]
|website                    = {{URL|https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/}}
}}
'''Info''' is a [[software utility]] which forms a [[hypertext]]ual, multipage documentation and [[help viewer]] working on a [[command-line interface]].
Info reads ''info'' files generated by the ''[[texinfo]]'' program and presents the documentation as a [[tree structure|tree]] with simple commands to traverse the tree and to follow cross references. For instance, pressing the [[space bar]] scrolls down within the current tree node or goes to the next node in the current document if already at the bottom of the current node, allowing to read the contents of an info file  sequentially. Pressing the [[backspace]] key moves in the opposite direction. Furthermore:
* {{keypress|]}} goes to the next node in the current document.
* {{keypress|[}} goes to the previous node in the current document.
* {{keypress|n}} goes to the next node on the same level as the current node.
* {{keypress|p}} goes to the previous node on the same level as the current node.
* {{keypress|u}} ("up") goes to the parent of the current node.
* {{keypress|l}} goes to the last visited node.
* Moving the cursor over a ''link'' (a word preceded by an asterisk) and pressing the [[enter key]] follows the link.
* Pressing the [[tab key]] will move the cursor to the next nearest link.
The [[C (programming language)|C]] implementation of info was designed as the main documentation system of GNU based [[operating system]]s and was then ported to other [[Unix-like]] operating systems. However, info files had already been in use on [[Incompatible Timesharing System|ITS]] [[emacs]]. On the [[TOPS-20]] operating system INFO was called XINFO.<ref>Stacy, Christopher C. (1982), [http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/41180 MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Working Papers, WP-235, Getting Started Computing at the AI Lab]</ref>
==List of Info readers==
* GNU info, distributed with [[Texinfo]]
* [https://github.com/baszoetekouw/pinfo pinfo]
* [https://tkman.sourceforge.net/index.html tkman]
* [http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/tkinfo/ tkinfo]
* [https://apps.kde.org/khelpcenter/ khelpcenter]
* [[emacs]]
* [https://gitlab.com/HiPhish/info.vim info.vim] (Vim plugin)
* [https://github.com/alx741/vinfo vinfo] (Vim plugin)
* [https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Yelp GNOME Yelp]
==See also==
{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}
* [[Manual page (Unix)]]
* [[List of Unix commands]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Unix commands}}
[[Category:Unix software]]
[[Category:Online help]]
[[Category:Command-line software]]