makeinfo
The makeinfo program has a feature for automatically determining
node pointers for a hierarchically organized document.
When you take advantage of this feature, you do not need to write the
`Next', `Previous', and `Up' pointers after the name of a node.
However, you must write a sectioning command, such as @chapter
or @section, on the line immediately following each truncated
@node line (except that comment lines may intervene).
In addition, you must follow the `Top' @node line with a line
beginning with @top to mark the `Top' node in the
file. See @top.
Finally, you must write the name of each node (except for the `Top' node) in a menu that is one or more hierarchical levels above the node's hierarchical level.
This implicit node pointer insertion feature in makeinfo
relieves you from the need to update menus and pointers manually or
with Texinfo mode commands. (See Updating Nodes and Menus.)
In most cases, you will want to take advantage of this feature and not redundantly specify node pointers. However, Texinfo documents are not required to be organized hierarchically or in fact to contain sectioning commands at all (for example, if you never intend the document to be printed). The special procedure for handling the short text before a menu (see Menus) also disables this feature, for that group of nodes. In those cases, you will need to explicitly specify the pointers.