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<p>
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<span id="The-First-Line-of-a-Texinfo-File"></span><h4 class="subsection">3.2.1 The First Line of a Texinfo File</h4>
<span id="index-First-line-of-a-Texinfo-file"></span>
<span id="index-Beginning-line-of-a-Texinfo-file"></span>
<span id="index-Header-of-a-Texinfo-file"></span>
<p>Every Texinfo file that is to be the top-level input to TeX must begin
with a line that looks like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">\input texinfo
</pre></div>
<p>When the file is processed by TeX, the ‘<samp>\input texinfo</samp>’ command
tells TeX to load the macros needed for processing a Texinfo file.
These are in a file called <samp>texinfo.tex</samp>, which should have been
installed on your system along with either the TeX or Texinfo
software. TeX uses the backslash, ‘<samp>\</samp>’, to mark the beginning of
a command, exactly as Texinfo uses ‘<samp>@</samp>’. The <samp>texinfo.tex</samp>
file causes the switch from ‘<samp>\</samp>’ to ‘<samp>@</samp>’; before the switch
occurs, TeX requires ‘<samp>\</samp>’, which is why it appears at the
beginning of the file.
</p>
<p>You may optionally follow this line with a comment to tell GNU Emacs
to use Texinfo mode when the file is edited:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
</pre></div>
<p>This may be useful when Emacs doesn’t detect the file type
from the file extension automatically.
</p>
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