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<span id="First-Node"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="_0040top-Command.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@top</code> Command</a>, Previous: <a href="Node-Line-Requirements.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Node Line Requirements</a>, Up: <a href="Nodes.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Nodes</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>
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<span id="The-First-Node"></span><h3 class="section">4.5 The First Node</h3>
<span id="index-Top-node-is-first"></span>
<span id="index-First-node"></span>
<p>The first node of a Texinfo file is the <em>Top</em> node, except in an
included file (see <a href="Include-Files.html">Include Files</a>). The Top node should contain a
short summary, copying permissions, and a master menu. See <a href="The-Top-Node.html">The Top Node</a>, for more information on the Top node contents and examples.
</p>
<p>Here is a description of the node pointers to be used in the Top node:
</p>
<ul>
<li> <span id="index-Up-node-of-Top-node"></span>
<span id="index-_0028dir_0029-as-Up-node-of-Top-node"></span>
The Top node (which must be named ‘<samp>top</samp>’ or ‘<samp>Top</samp>’) should have
as its ‘Up’ node the name of a node in another file, where there is a
menu that leads to this file. Specify the file name in parentheses.
<p>Usually, all Info files are available through a single virtual Info
tree, constructed from multiple directories. In this case, use
‘<samp>(dir)</samp>’ as the parent of the Top node; this specifies the
top-level node in the <samp>dir</samp> file, which contains the main menu
for the Info system as a whole. (Each directory with Info files is
intended to contain a file named <samp>dir</samp>.)
</p>
<p>That’s fine for Info, but for HTML output, one might well want the Up
link from the Top node to go to some specific place.
For example, for GNU the natural place would be
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/manual/">http://www.gnu.org/manual/</a> (a web page collecting links to most
GNU manuals), better specified as just <code>/manual/</code> if the manual
will be installed on <code>www.gnu.org</code>. This can be specified with
the <code>TOP_NODE_UP_URL</code> customization variable (see <a href="HTML-Customization-Variables.html">HTML Customization Variables</a>), as in
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">$ <kbd>makeinfo --html -c TOP_NODE_UP_URL=/manual/</kbd> ...
</pre></div>
</li><li> <span id="index-Prev-node-of-Top-node"></span>
The ‘Prev’ node of the Top node is usually either omitted or also set
to <samp>(dir)</samp>. Either is fine.
</li><li> <span id="index-Next-node-of-Top-node"></span>
The ‘Next’ node of the Top node should be the first chapter in your
document.
</li></ul>
<p>See <a href="Installing-an-Info-File.html">Installing an Info File</a>, for more information about installing
an Info file in the <samp>info</samp> directory.
</p>
<p>It is usually best to leave the pointers off entirely and let the
tools implicitly define them, with this simple result:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@node Top
</pre></div>
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Next: <a href="_0040top-Command.html" accesskey="n" rel="next"><code>@top</code> Command</a>, Previous: <a href="Node-Line-Requirements.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Node Line Requirements</a>, Up: <a href="Nodes.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Nodes</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>
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