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Selecting a New Node

The following documentation details the numerous info commands which select a new node to view in the current window.

The most basic node commands are n, p, u, and l.

When you are viewing a node, the top line of the node contains some info pointers which describe where the next, previous, and up nodes are. info uses this line to move about the node structure of the file when you type the following commands.

n (next-node)

Selects the Next node.

p (prev-node)

Selects the Prev (previous) node.

u (up-node)

Selects the Up node.

You can easily select a node that you have already viewed in this window by using the l command (this name stands for last), to actually move through the list of already visited nodes for this window. l with a negative numeric argument moves forward through the history of nodes for this window, so you can quickly step between two adjacent (in viewing history) nodes.

l (history-node)

Selects the most recently selected node in this window.

Two additional commands make it easy to select the most commonly selected nodes; they are t and d.

t (top-node)

Selects the node Top in the current info file.

d (dir-node)

Selects the directory node (i.e., the node, (dir)).

The following are some other commands which immediately result in the selection of a different node in the current window.

< (first-node)

Selects the first node which appears in this file. This node is most often Top, but it doesnt have to be.

> (last-node)

Selects the last node which appears in this file.

] (global-next-node)

Moves forward or down through node structure. If the node that you are currently viewing has a Next pointer, that node is selected. Otherwise, if this node has a menu, the first menu item is selected. If there is no Next and no menu, the same process is tried with the Up node of this node.

[ (global-prev-node)

Moves backward or up through node structure. If the node that you are currently viewing has a Prev pointer, that node is selected. Otherwise, if the node has an Up pointer, that node is selected, and if it has a menu, the last item in the menu is selected.

global-next-node and global-prev-node behave the same as simply scrolling through the file with Spacebar and Del; see scroll-behavior in Manipulating Variables for more information.

g (goto-node)

Reads the name of a node and selects it. No completion is done while reading the node name, since the desired node may reside in a separate file. The node must be typed exactly as it appears in the info file. A file name may be included as with any node specification, as in the following example.

    g(emacs)Buffers

This input finds the Buffers node in the emacs info file.

C-x, k (kill-node)

Kills a node. The node name is prompted for in the echo area, with a default of the current node. Killing a node means that info tries hard to forget about it, removing it from the list of history nodes kept for the window where that node is found. Another node is selected in the window which contained the killed node.

C-x, C-f (view-file)

Reads the name of a file and selects the entire file.
C-x, C-f filename is equivalent to using the keystroke and command sequence, g(filename)*.

C-x, C-b (list-visited-nodes)

Makes a window containing a menu of all of the currently visited nodes. This window becomes the selected window, and you may use the standard info commands within it.

C-x, b (select-visited-node)

Selects a node which has been previously visited in a visible window. This is similar to C-x, C-b followed by m, but no window is created.