Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 09:37:47 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
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To: Maurice Lombardi <Maurice DOT Lombardi AT ujf-grenoble DOT fr>
cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: LFN problem with info ?
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On Mon, 31 Jan 2000, Maurice Lombardi wrote:

> > info -f info-st~2.inf
> > 
> 
> That's the point !
> But in fact e.g.
>   info gcc
> works _without_ -f as any with file with less than 8 chars long filename
> (it supposes that the name of the topic and the file name are the same).
> Apparently using -f forces info to look through the file dir. to find
> the corresponding filename, whereas it looks directly to gcc.inf or
> gcc.info in the opposite case.

This is not how the stand-alone Info works; please refer to the manual
for a full description.

In a nutshell, "info foo" instructs it to look for the *menu item*
`foo' in the file DIR, while "info -f foo" instructs it to look for a
*file* `foo' (with or without known Info extensions like .inf, .info,
etc.).

So, "info gcc" works because the file DIR has a menu entry which
begins with "gcc", not because gcc.inf fits into DOS 8+3 limits.
And "info info-stnd" does NOT work because there's no menu entry in
DIR which begins with "info-stnd".  The menu entry for the stand-alone
Info reader is "Info-Standalone", so if you say "info info-stand" it
*will* work, regardless of whether the file name exceeds DOS 8+3
limits.

> I read usually info files through rhide (which works perfectly) or
> infview (for which the problems still remains). I stumbled into the
> infview problem after installing those new versions, and tried the
> simpler, older (but less usable: no mouse, strange key bindings !) info
> standalone to see if the problem persists, forgetting the -f since I
> did'nt used it for a long time. 

If you work on Windows, I suggest to have the Info reader be always
active in a separate DOS box.  That way, you don't need to use -f and
remember the file names, you just go through DIR's menu.

> Now is it possible that the "natural" way of doing, the one which pops
> out when everything is forgotten, be the right one, i.e. to imply -f as
> a default ?

It is tricky to imply -f, since there should be a way of invoking Info
without knowing the file names.