<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<!-- This manual is for GNU Texinfo (version 6.7, 23 September 2019),
a documentation system that can produce both online information and a
printed manual from a single source using semantic markup.
Copyright (C) 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997,
1998, 1999, 2001, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009,
2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
"GNU Free Documentation License". -->
<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.7, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Cross Reference Parts (GNU Texinfo 6.7)</title>
<meta name="description" content="Cross Reference Parts (GNU Texinfo 6.7)">
<meta name="keywords" content="Cross Reference Parts (GNU Texinfo 6.7)">
<meta name="resource-type" content="document">
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
<meta name="Generator" content="texi2any">
<link href="index.html" rel="start" title="Top">
<link href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" rel="index" title="Command and Variable Index">
<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
<link href="Cross-References.html" rel="up" title="Cross References">
<link href="_0040xref.html" rel="next" title="@xref">
<link href="Cross-Reference-Commands.html" rel="prev" title="Cross Reference Commands">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none}
blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em}
div.display {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.example {margin-left: 3.2em}
div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em}
kbd {font-style: oblique}
pre.display {font-family: inherit}
pre.format {font-family: inherit}
pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif}
pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif}
span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap}
span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal}
span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal}
ul.no-bullet {list-style: none}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang="en">
<span id="Cross-Reference-Parts"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="_0040xref.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@xref</code></a>, Previous: <a href="Cross-Reference-Commands.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Cross Reference Commands</a>, Up: <a href="Cross-References.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Cross References</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<hr>
<span id="Parts-of-a-Cross_002dreference"></span><h3 class="section">6.3 Parts of a Cross-reference</h3>
<span id="index-Cross_002dreference-parts"></span>
<span id="index-Parts-of-a-cross_002dreference"></span>
<span id="Reference-Syntax"></span>
<p>A cross-reference command requires only one argument, which is
the name of the node to which it refers. Here is a simple example:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xref{Node name}.
</pre></div>
<p>In Info output, this produces
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">*Note Node name::.
</pre></div>
<p>In a printed manual, the output is
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>See Section <var>nnn</var> [Node name], page <var>ppp</var>.
</p></blockquote>
<p>A cross-reference command may contain up to four additional arguments.
By using these arguments, you can provide a cross-reference name,
a topic description or section title for the printed output, the name
of a different manual file, and the name of a different printed manual.
To refer to another manual as a whole, the manual file and/or the name
of the printed manual are the only required arguments (see <a href="Referring-to-a-Manual-as-a-Whole.html">Referring to a Manual as a Whole</a>).
</p>
<p>Here is an example of a full five-part cross-reference:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xref{Node name, Online Label, Printed Label,
info-file-name, A Printed Manual}, for details.
</pre></div>
<p>which produces
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">*Note Online Label: (info-file-name)Node name,
for details.
</pre></div>
<p>in Info and
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>See section “Printed Label” in <i>A Printed Manual</i>, for details.
</p></blockquote>
<p>in a printed book.
</p>
<p>The five possible arguments for a cross-reference are:
</p>
<ol>
<li> The node or anchor name (required, except for reference to whole
manuals). This is the location to which the cross-reference takes
you. In a printed document, the location of the node provides the
page reference only for references within the same document.
Use <code>@node</code> to define the node (see <a href="Writing-a-Node.html">Writing a Node</a>), or
<code>@anchor</code> (see <a href="_0040anchor.html"><code>@anchor</code></a>).
<p>Write a node name in a cross-reference in exactly the same way as in
the <code>@node</code> line, including the same capitalization; otherwise, the
formatters may not find the reference.
</p>
</li><li> A label for online output. It is usually omitted; then
the topic description (third argument) is used if it was specified;
if that was omitted as well, the node name is used.
</li><li> A label for printed output. Often, this is the title or topic of the
section. This is used as the name of the reference in the printed
manual. If omitted, the node name is used.
</li><li> The name of the manual file in which the reference is located, if it is
different from the current file. This name is used both for Info and
HTML.
</li><li> The name of a printed manual from a different Texinfo file.
</li></ol>
<p>The template for a full five argument cross-reference looks like
this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xref{<var>node-name</var>, <var>online-label</var>, <var>printed-label</var>,
<var>info-file-name</var>, <var>printed-manual-title</var>}
</pre></div>
<p>Whitespace before and after the commas separating these arguments is
ignored. To include a comma in one of the arguments, use
<code>@comma{}</code> (see <a href="Inserting-a-Comma.html">Inserting a Comma</a>).
</p>
<span id="index-Comma-after-cross_002dreference"></span>
<p>When processing with TeX, a comma is automatically inserted after the
page number for cross-references to within the same manual, unless the
closing brace of the argument is followed by non-whitespace (such as a
comma or period). This gives you the choice of whether to have a comma
there in Info or HTML output. For example,
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@xref{Another Section} for more information
</pre></div>
<p>produces
‘See Another Section, page <var>ppp</var>, for more information’<!-- /@w --> in the
printed output, and
‘<samp>*Note Another Section:: for more information</samp>’<!-- /@w --> in the Info
output.
</p>
<p>If an unwanted comma is added, follow the argument
with a command such as ‘<samp>@:</samp>’. For example,
‘<samp>@xref{Hurricanes}@: <span class="nolinebreak">---</span> for the details</samp>’<!-- /@w --> produces
</p>
<blockquote>
<p>See Hurricanes, page <var>ppp</var> — for the details
</p></blockquote>
<p>instead of
‘See Hurricanes, page <var>ppp</var>, — for the details’<!-- /@w -->.
</p>
<p>Cross-references with one, two, three, four, and five arguments are
described separately following the description of <code>@xref</code>.
</p>
<p><code>makeinfo</code> warns when the text of a cross-reference (and node
names and menu items) contains a problematic construct that will
interfere with its parsing in Info. If you don’t want to see the
warnings, you can set the customization variable
<code>INFO_SPECIAL_CHARS_WARNING</code> to ‘<samp>0</samp>’ (see <a href="Other-Customization-Variables.html">Other Customization Variables</a>).
</p>
<hr>
<div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="_0040xref.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@xref</code></a>, Previous: <a href="Cross-Reference-Commands.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Cross Reference Commands</a>, Up: <a href="Cross-References.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Cross References</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Command-and-Variable-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>