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<span id="Info-Format-Cross-Reference"></span><div class="header">
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<span id="Info-Format_003a-Cross_002dreference"></span><h4 class="subsection">G.2.4 Info Format: Cross-reference</h4>
<span id="index-Cross_002dreferences_002c-in-Info-format"></span>
<p>A general cross-reference in Info format has one of the following two forms:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example"> <cross-reference> =
* (N|n)ote <id>::
| * (N|n)ote <label>:<id>(.|,)
<id> = (<lparen><infofile><rparen>)?(<del>?<nodename><del>?)?
| <id> = (<lparen><infofile><rparen>)?(<nodename>)?
<label> = <del>?<label text><del>?
</pre></div>
<p>No space should occur between the ‘<samp>*</samp>’ character and the following
‘<samp>N</samp>’ or ‘<samp>n</samp>’. ‘<samp>*Note</samp>’ should be used at the start of a
sentence, otherwise ‘<samp>*note</samp>’ should be used. (Some Info readers,
such as the one in Emacs, can display ‘<samp>*Note</samp>’ and ‘<samp>*note</samp>’ as
‘<samp>See</samp>’ and ‘<samp>see</samp>’ respectively.) In both cases, <tt><label
text></tt> is descriptive text.
</p>
<p>In both forms the <tt><id></tt> refers to a node or anchor, in the same way
as a reference in the node information line does (see <a href="Info-Format-Regular-Nodes.html">Info Format Regular Nodes</a>). The optional parenthesized ‘<samp><infofile></samp>’ is the
filename of the manual being referenced, and the <tt><nodename></tt> is the
node or anchor within that manual,
</p>
<p>The second form has a descriptive label. A cross-reference in this form
should usually be terminated with a comma or period, to make it
feasible to find the end of the <tt><id></tt>.
</p>
<p>If <tt><label></tt> contains a colon character (<tt>:</tt>), it should be
surrounded with a pair of <tt><del></tt> characters. Likewise, if
<tt><nodename></tt> contains problematic characters (such as commas or
periods), it should be surrounded by a pair of <tt><del></tt> characters;
then a terminating comma or period is not needed.
</p>
<p>As with node names, this quoting mechanism has as of the time of
writing limited support in Info-reading programs; hence we do not
recommend using it until this changes.
</p>
<p>The format does not prescribe how to find other manuals to resolve
such references.
</p>
<p>Here are some examples:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">*note GNU Free Documentation License::
*note Tag table: Info Format Tag Table, for details.
*Note Overview: (make)Top.
*Note ^?:^?: (bash)Bourne Shell Builtins.
*Note alloca.h: (gnulib)^?alloca.h^?.
</pre></div>
<p>The first shows a reference to a node in the current manual using the
short form.
</p>
<p>The second also refers to a node in the current manual, namely ‘Info
Format Tag Table’; the ‘Tag table’ before the ‘<samp>:</samp>’ is only a label
on this particular reference, and the ‘<samp>for details.</samp>’ is text
belonging to the sentence, not part of the reference.
</p>
<p>The third example refers to the node ‘Top’ in another manual, namely
‘<samp>make</samp>’, with ‘Overview’ being the label for this cross-reference.
</p>
<p>The fourth example shows a colon character being quoted in a label,
and the fifth example shows a period being quoted in a node name.
</p>
<p>See <a href="Cross-References.html">Cross References</a>.
</p>
<hr>
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