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<span id="Minimum"></span><div class="header">
<p>
Next: <a href="Short-Sample.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Short Sample</a>, Previous: <a href="Comments.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Comments</a>, Up: <a href="Writing-a-Texinfo-File.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Writing a Texinfo File</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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<hr>
<span id="What-a-Texinfo-File-Must-Have"></span><h3 class="section">2.3 What a Texinfo File Must Have</h3>
<span id="index-Minimal-Texinfo-file-_0028requirements_0029"></span>
<span id="index-Must-have-in-Texinfo-file"></span>
<span id="index-Required-in-Texinfo-file"></span>
<span id="index-Texinfo-file-minimum"></span>
<p>By convention, the name of a Texinfo file ends with one of the
extensions <samp>.texi</samp>, <samp>.texinfo</samp>, <samp>.txi</samp>, or
<samp>.tex</samp>.
</p>
<p>In order to be made into a printed manual and other output
formats, a Texinfo file must begin with lines like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">\input texinfo
@settitle <var>name-of-manual</var>
</pre></div>
<p>The contents of the file follow this beginning, and then you
must end the Texinfo source with a line like this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">@bye
</pre></div>
<span id="index-_005cinput-_0028raw-TeX-startup_0029"></span>
<p>Here’s an explanation:
</p>
<ul>
<li> The ‘<samp>\input texinfo</samp>’ line tells TeX to use the
<samp>texinfo.tex</samp> file, which tells TeX how to translate the Texinfo
@-commands into TeX typesetting commands. (Note the use of the
backslash, ‘<samp>\</samp>’; this is correct for TeX.)
</li><li> The <code>@settitle</code> line specifies a title for the page headers (or
footers) of the printed manual, and the default title and document
description for the ‘<samp><head></samp>’ in HTML. Strictly speaking,
<code>@settitle</code> is optional—if you don’t mind your document being
titled ‘Untitled’.
</li><li> The <code>@bye</code> line at the end of the file on a line of its own tells
the formatters that the file is ended and to stop formatting. If you
leave this out, you’ll be dumped at TeX’s prompt at the end of the
run.
</li></ul>
<p>Furthermore, you will usually provide a Texinfo file with a title page,
indices, and the like, all of which are explained in this manual. But
the minimum, which can be useful for short documents, is just the two
lines at the beginning and the one line at the end.
</p>
<hr>
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<p>
Next: <a href="Short-Sample.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Short Sample</a>, Previous: <a href="Comments.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Comments</a>, Up: <a href="Writing-a-Texinfo-File.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Writing a Texinfo File</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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