20.6.5 Other Customization Variables

This table gives the remaining customization variables, which apply to multiple formats, or affect global behavior, or otherwise don’t fit into the categories of the previous sections.

CLOSE_QUOTE_SYMBOL

When a closing quote is needed, use this character; default ’ in HTML, ’ in Docbook. The default for Info is the same as OPEN_QUOTE_SYMBOL (see below).

CPP_LINE_DIRECTIVES

Recognize #line directives in a “preprocessing” pass (see External Macro Processors); on by default.

DEBUG

If set, debugging output is generated; default is off (zero).

DOCTYPE

For Docbook, HTML, XML. Specifies the SystemLiteral, the entity’s system identifier. This is a URI which may be used to retrieve the entity, and identifies the canonical DTD for the document. The default value is different for each of HTML, Docbook and Texinfo XML.

DUMP_TEXI

For debugging. If set, no conversion is done, only parsing and macro expansion. If the option --macro-expand is set, the Texinfo source is also expanded to the corresponding file. Default false.

DUMP_TREE

For debugging. If set, the tree constructed upon parsing a Texinfo document is output to standard error; default false.

ENABLE_ENCODING_USE_ENTITY

For HTML, XML. If --enable-encoding is set, and there is an entity corresponding with the letter or the symbol being output, prefer the entity. Set by default for HTML, but not XML.

EXTERNAL_CROSSREF_SPLIT

For cross-references to other manuals, this determines if the other manual is considered to be split or monolithic. By default, it is set based on the value of SPLIT. See HTML Xref, and see HTML Xref Configuration.

EXTENSION

The extension added to the output file name. The default is different for each output format.

IGNORE_BEFORE_SETFILENAME

If set, begin outputting at @setfilename, if @setfilename is present; default true.

IGNORE_SPACE_AFTER_BRACED_COMMAND_NAME

If set, spaces are ignored after an @-command that takes braces. Default true, matching the TeX behavior.

INDEX_ENTRY_COLON

Symbol used between the index entry and the associated node or section; default ‘:’.

INDEX_SPECIAL_CHARS_WARNING

If set, warn about ‘:’ in index entry, as it leads to invalid entries in index menus in output Info files. For Info and plaintext only.

INFO_SPECIAL_CHARS_QUOTE

If set, whenever there are problematic characters for Info output in places such as node names or menu items, surround the part of the construct where they appear with quoting characters, as described in Info Format Specification. See Node Line Requirements.

INFO_SPECIAL_CHARS_WARNING

If set, warn about problematic constructs for Info output (such as the string ‘::’) in node names, menu items, and cross-references; default true. Do not warn about index entries, since parsing problems there don’t prevent navigation; readers can still relatively easily find their way to the node in question.

MAX_MACRO_CALL_NESTING

The maximal number of recursive calls of @-commands defined through @rmacro; default 100000. The purpose of this variable is to avoid infinite recursions.

MENU_ENTRY_COLON

Symbol used between the menu entry and the description; default empty.

NO_USE_SETFILENAME

If set, do not use @setfilename to set the document name; instead, base the output document name only on the input file name. The default is false.

NODE_NAME_IN_INDEX

If set, use node names in index entries, otherwise prefer section names; default true.

NODE_NAME_IN_MENU

If set, use node names in menu entries, otherwise prefer section names; default true.

OPEN_QUOTE_SYMBOL

When an opening quote is needed, e.g., for ‘@samp’ output, use the specified character; default ‘ for HTML, ‘ for Docbook. For Info, the default depends on the enabled document encoding (see @documentencoding); if no document encoding is set, or the encoding is US-ASCII, etc., ‘'’ is used. This character usually appears as an undirected single quote on modern systems. If the document encoding is Unicode, the Info output uses a Unicode left quote.

OUTPUT_ENCODING_NAME

Normalized encoding name used for output files. Should be a usable charset name in HTML, typically one of the preferred IANA encoding names. By default, if an input encoding is set (typically through @documentencoding), this information is used to set the output encoding name. If no input encoding is specified, the default output encoding name may be set by the output format. In particular, the XML-based formats use utf-8 for OUTPUT_ENCODING_NAME if the encoding is not otherwise specified. See @documentencoding.

OVERVIEW_LINK_TO_TOC

If set, the cross-references in the Overview link to the corresponding Table of Contents entries; default true.

PACKAGE

PACKAGE_VERSION

PACKAGE_AND_VERSION

PACKAGE_URL

PACKAGE_NAME

The implementation’s short package name, package version, package name and version concatenated, package url, and full package name, respectively. By default, these variables are all set through Autoconf, Automake, and configure.

PREFIX

The output file prefix, which is prepended to some output file names. By default it is set by @setfilename or from the input file (see @setfilename). How this value is used depends on the value of other customization variables or command line options, such as whether the output is split. The default is unset.

PROGRAM

Name of the program used. By default, it is set to the name of the program launched, with a trailing ‘.pl’ removed.

SHOW_MENU

If set, Texinfo menus are output. By default, it is set unless generating Docbook or if --no-headers is specified.

SORT_ELEMENT_COUNT

If set, the name of a file to which a list of elements (nodes or sections, depending on the output format) is dumped, sorted by the number of lines they contain after removal of @-commands; default unset. This is used by the program texi-elements-by-size in the util/ directory of the Texinfo source distribution (see texi-elements-by-size).

SORT_ELEMENT_COUNT_WORDS

When dumping the elements-by-size file (see preceding item), use word counts instead of line counts; default false.

TEST

If set to true, some variables which are normally dynamically generated anew for each run (date, program name, version) are set to fixed and given values. This is useful to compare the output to a reference file, as is done for the tests. The default is false.

TEXI2DVI

Name of the command used to produce PostScript, PDF, and DVI; default ‘texi2dvi’. See texi2any Printed Output.

TEXI2HTML

Generate HTML and try to be as compatible as possible with texi2html; default false.

TEXINFO_DTD_VERSION

For XML. Version of the DTD used in the XML output preamble. The default is set based on a variable in configure.ac.

TEXTCONTENT_COMMENT

For stripped text content output (i.e., when TEXINFO_OUTPUT_FORMAT is set to textcontent). If set, also output comments. Default false.

TOP_NODE_UP

Up node for the Top node; default ‘(dir)’. This node name is supposed to be already formatted for the output format. In HTML can be used in attribute, so should not contain any element. Used for HTML output only if TOP_NODE_UP_URL is set to override the url, see TOP_NODE_UP_URL in HTML Customization Variables.

TREE_TRANSFORMATIONS

The associated value is a comma separated list of transformations that can be applied to the Texinfo tree prior to outputting the result. If more than one is specified, the ordering is irrelevant; each is always applied at the necessary point during processing.

The only one executed by default is ‘move_index_entries_after_items’ for HTML and Docbook output. Here’s an example of updating the master menu in a document:

makeinfo \
  -c TREE_TRANSFORMATIONS=regenerate_master_menu \
  -c PLAINTEXINFO=1 \
  mydoc.texi \
  -o /tmp/out

(Caveat: Since PLAINTEXINFO output does expand Texinfo macros and conditionals, it’s necessary to remove any such differences before installing the updates in the original document. This will be remedied in a future release.)

The following transformations are currently supported (many are used in the pod2texi utility distributed with Texinfo; see Invoking pod2texi):

‘complete_tree_nodes_menus’

Add menu entries or whole menus for nodes associated with sections of any level, based on the sectioning tree.

‘fill_gaps_in_sectioning’

Adds empty @unnumbered... sections in a tree to fill gaps in sectioning. For example, an @unnumberedsec will be inserted if a @chapter is followed by a @subsection.

‘insert_nodes_for_sectioning_commands’

Insert nodes for sectioning commands lacking a corresponding node.

‘move_index_entries_after_items’

In @enumerate and @itemize, move index entries appearing just before an @item to just after the @item. Comment lines between index entries are moved too. As mentioned, this is always done for HTML and Docbook output.

‘regenerate_master_menu’

Update the Top node master menu, either replacing the (first) @detailmenu in the Top node menu, or creating it at the end of the Top node menu.

‘simple_menu’

Mostly the same as SIMPLE_MENU: use a simple preformatted style for the menu. It differs from setting SIMPLE_MENU in that SIMPLE_MENU only has an effect in HTML output.

USE_NODES

Preferentially use nodes to decide where elements are separated. If set to false, preferentially use sectioning to decide where elements are separated. The default is true.

USE_NODE_TARGET

If set, use the node associated with a section for the section target in cross-references; default true.

USE_NUMERIC_ENTITY

For HTML and XML. If set, use numeric entities instead of ASCII characters when there is no named entity. By default, set to true for HTML.

USE_UP_NODE_FOR_ELEMENT_UP

Fill in up sectioning direction with node direction when there is no sectioning up direction. In practice this can only happen when there is no @top section. Not set by default.

USE_SETFILENAME_EXTENSION

Default is on for Info, off for other output. If set, use exactly what @setfilename gives for the output file name, including the extension. You should not need to explicitly set this variable.

USE_TITLEPAGE_FOR_TITLE

Use the full @titlepage as the title, not a simple title string; default false.

USE_UNIDECODE

If set to false, do not use the Text::Unidecode Perl module to transliterate more characters; default true.