(texinfo) Tag and Split Files

 
 Tag Files and Split Files
 -------------------------
 
   If a Texinfo file has more than 30,000 bytes, `texinfo-format-buffer'
 automatically creates a tag table for its Info file;  `makeinfo' always
 creates a tag table.  With a "tag table", Info can jump to new nodes
 more quickly than it can otherwise.
 
   In addition, if the Texinfo file contains more than about 70,000
 bytes, `texinfo-format-buffer' and `makeinfo' split the large Info file
 into shorter "indirect" subfiles of about 50,000 bytes each.  Big files
 are split into smaller files so that Emacs does not need to make a
 large buffer to hold the whole of a large Info file; instead, Emacs
 allocates just enough memory for the small, split-off file that is
 needed at the time.  This way, Emacs avoids wasting memory when you run
 Info.  (Before splitting was implemented, Info files were always kept
 short and "include files" were designed as a way to create a single,
 large printed manual out of the smaller Info files.   Include
 Files, for more information.  Include files are still used for very
 large documents, such as `The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual', in which
 each chapter is a separate file.)
 
   When a file is split, Info itself makes use of a shortened version of
 the original file that contains just the tag table and references to
 the files that were split off.  The split-off files are called
 "indirect" files.
 
   The split-off files have names that are created by appending `-1',
 `-2', `-3' and so on to the file name specified by the `@setfilename'
 command.  The shortened version of the original file continues to have
 the name specified by `@setfilename'.
 
   At one stage in writing this document, for example, the Info file was
 saved as the file `test-texinfo' and that file looked like this:
 
      Info file: test-texinfo,    -*-Text-*-
      produced by texinfo-format-buffer
      from file: new-texinfo-manual.texinfo
      
      ^_
      Indirect:
      test-texinfo-1: 102
      test-texinfo-2: 50422
      test-texinfo-3: 101300
      ^_^L
      Tag table:
      (Indirect)
      Node: overview^?104
      Node: info file^?1271
      Node: printed manual^?4853
      Node: conventions^?6855
      ...
 
 (But `test-texinfo' had far more nodes than are shown here.)  Each of
 the split-off, indirect files, `test-texinfo-1', `test-texinfo-2', and
 `test-texinfo-3', is listed in this file after the line that says
 `Indirect:'.  The tag table is listed after the line that says `Tag
 table:'.
 
   In the list of indirect files, the number following the file name
 records the cumulative number of bytes in the preceding indirect files,
 not counting the file list itself, the tag table, or the permissions
 text in each file.  In the tag table, the number following the node name
 records the location of the beginning of the node, in bytes from the
 beginning of the (unsplit) output.
 
   If you are using `texinfo-format-buffer' to create Info files, you
 may want to run the `Info-validate' command.  (The `makeinfo' command
 does such a good job on its own, you do not need `Info-validate'.)
 However, you cannot run the `M-x Info-validate' node-checking command
 on indirect files.  For information on how to prevent files from being
 split and how to validate the structure of the nodes, see  Using
 Info-validate.
Info Catalog
(texinfo) Batch Formatting
(texinfo) Creating an Info File
(texinfo) makeinfo html
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