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<h3 class="section">1.9 What a Texinfo File Must Have</h3>

<p><a name="index-Minimal-Texinfo-file-_0028requirements_0029-70"></a><a name="index-Must-have-in-Texinfo-file-71"></a><a name="index-Required-in-Texinfo-file-72"></a><a name="index-Texinfo-file-minimum-73"></a>
By convention, the name of a Texinfo file ends with (in order of
preference) one of the extensions <samp><span class="file">.texinfo</span></samp>, <samp><span class="file">.texi</span></samp>,
<samp><span class="file">.txi</span></samp>, or <samp><span class="file">.tex</span></samp>.  The longer extensions are preferred since
they describe more clearly to a human reader the nature of the file. 
The shorter extensions are for operating systems that cannot handle long
file names.

  <p>In order to be made into a printed manual and an Info file, a Texinfo
file <strong>must</strong> begin with lines like this:

<pre class="example">     \input texinfo
     @setfilename <var>info-file-name</var>
     @settitle <var>name-of-manual</var>
</pre>
  <p class="noindent">The contents of the file follow this beginning, and then you
<strong>must</strong> end a Texinfo file with a line like this:

<pre class="example">     @bye
</pre>
  <p><a name="index-g_t_005cinput-_0040r_007b_0028raw-_0040TeX_007b_007d-startup_0029_007d-74"></a>Here's an explanation:

     <ul>
<li>The &lsquo;<samp><span class="samp">\input texinfo</span></samp>&rsquo; line tells TeX to use the
<samp><span class="file">texinfo.tex</span></samp> file, which tells TeX how to translate the Texinfo
@-commands into TeX typesetting commands.  (Note the use of the
backslash, &lsquo;<samp><span class="samp">\</span></samp>&rsquo;; this is correct for TeX.)

     <li>The <code>@setfilename</code> line provides a name for the Info file and
tells TeX to open auxiliary files.  <strong>All text before
</strong><code>@setfilename</code><strong> is ignored!</strong>

     <li>The <code>@settitle</code> line specifies a title for the page headers (or
footers) of the printed manual, and the default document description for
the &lsquo;<samp><span class="samp">&lt;head&gt;</span></samp>&rsquo; in HTML format.  Strictly speaking, <code>@settitle</code>
is optional&mdash;if you don't mind your document being titled `Untitled'.

     <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.

  </ul>

  <p>Typically, you will not use quite such a spare format, but will include
mode setting and start-of-header and end-of-header lines at the
beginning of a Texinfo file, like this:

<pre class="example">     \input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
     @c %**start of header
     @setfilename <var>info-file-name</var>
     @settitle <var>name-of-manual</var>
     @c %**end of header
</pre>
  <p class="noindent">In the first line, &lsquo;<samp><span class="samp">-*-texinfo-*-</span></samp>&rsquo; causes Emacs to switch into
Texinfo mode when you edit the file.

  <p>The <code>@c</code> lines which surround the <code>@setfilename</code> and
<code>@settitle</code> lines are optional, but you need them in order to
run TeX or Info on just part of the file.  (See <a href="Start-of-Header.html#Start-of-Header">Start of Header</a>.)

  <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 three
lines at the beginning and the one line at the end.

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