Next: texinfo-multiple-files-update, Up: Include Files
To include another file within a Texinfo file, write the
@include command at the beginning of a line and follow it on
the same line by the name of a file to be included. For example:
@include buffers.texi
The name of the file is taken literally, with a single exception:
@value{var} references are expanded. This makes it
possible to reliably include files in other directories in a
distribution. See @verbatiminclude, for
an example.
An included file should simply be a segment of text that you expect to
be included as is into the overall or outer Texinfo file; it
should not contain the standard beginning and end parts of a Texinfo
file. In particular, you should not start an included file with a
line saying `\input texinfo'; if you do, that phrase is inserted
into the output file as is. Likewise, you should not end an included
file with an @bye command; nothing after @bye is
formatted.
In the past, you were required to write an @setfilename line at the
beginning of an included file, but no longer. Now, it does not matter
whether you write such a line. If an @setfilename line exists
in an included file, it is ignored.
Conventionally, an included file begins with an @node line that
is followed by an @chapter line. Each included file is one
chapter. This makes it easy to use the regular node and menu creating
and updating commands to create the node pointers and menus within the
included file. However, the simple Emacs node and menu creating and
updating commands do not work with multiple Texinfo files. Thus you
cannot use these commands to fill in the `Next', `Previous', and `Up'
pointers of the @node line that begins the included file. Also,
you cannot use the regular commands to create a master menu for the
whole file. Either you must insert the menus and the `Next',
`Previous', and `Up' pointers by hand, or you must use the GNU Emacs
Texinfo mode command, texinfo-multiple-files-update, that is
designed for @include files.
When an included file does not have any node lines in it, the multiple files update command does not try to create a menu entry for it. Consequently, you can include any file, such as a version or an update file without node lines, not just files that are chapters. Small includable files like this are created by Automake (see GNU Sample Texts).