texinfo: info menus are not displayed

[idoadam@…]

When info is run from the command line the menus are not displayed. The menus are definitely there since pressing m and then the Tab key displays the possible completions and selecting any of them works (except that the menus in that node are not displayed either).

The menus are displayed correctly in Emacs using C-h C-i.

I am using texinfo 4.13 compiled with MacPorts 1.8.2 on Mac OS X 10.6.3.

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Please remember to cc the maintainer.

[vinc17@…]

Replying to idoadam@…:

When info is run from the command line the menus are not displayed. The menus are definitely there since pressing m and then the Tab key displays the possible completions and selecting any of them works (except that the menus in that node are not displayed either).

I don't have this problem on my machine (Mac OS X Tiger): the menus displayed when running "info" and what I get when pressing m then the Tab key give the same things. Most menus in $prefix/share/info are not listed (because they are not in the "dir" file); however this is not a problem with texinfo, but with each port that installs/uninstalls info files.

The menus are displayed correctly in Emacs using C-h C-i.

I suppose you mean C-h i. I get the same thing as "info".

Could you try with INFOPATH=/opt/local/share/info to be sure you won't get results from directories that are not related to MacPorts?

[idoadam@…]

Replying to vinc17@…:

I don't have this problem on my machine (Mac OS X Tiger): the menus displayed when running "info" and what I get when pressing m then the Tab key give the same things. Most menus in $prefix/share/info are not listed (because they are not in the "dir" file); however this is not a problem with texinfo, but with each port that installs/uninstalls info files.

When I run info I get no menus at all. Pressing m and Tab gives me the completions corresponding to the files in /usr/share/info. I do not have Mac OS X 10.4 installed anymore so I cannot check it in that version. (It would be nice if MacPorts had a script for building the dir file from dir file snippets supplied by various ports but this is a much more involved and unrelated issue relating to multiple ports.)

I suppose you mean C-h i. I get the same thing as "info".

Yes, I meant C-h i. It works both in the terminal version of Emacs bundles with OS X and with MacPorts' emacs-app-devel.

Could you try with INFOPATH=/opt/local/share/info to be sure you won't get results from directories that are not related to MacPorts?

I have tried setting INFOPATH to /opt/local/share/info using export. As a result info returns the error: info: dir: No such file or directory and terminates.

Running emacs with INFOPATH set yields the error "Can't find the Info directory node." This applies both to the OS X emacs and the emacs-app-devel port.

BTW, I appreciate your speedy reply to this ticket and fully understand that it will probably not be solved unless you manage to reproduce it.

[vinc17@…]

It's strange that with INFOPATH unset, you don't get the files in /usr/share/info for the menus (on my machine I get them). Anyway this is not really what one wants.

I think the problem is the following. With MacPorts, "make install" installs files in the destroot directory, so that the "dir" file would be created there (actually this file doesn't seem to be created at all with MacPorts while it is created when I build/install software outside MacPorts, even though the install-info command line is the same up to $prefix).

There have already been discussions in the mailing-lists. For instance, gsl has (had):

post-install    {
    system "install-info ${destroot}${prefix}/share/info/gsl-ref.info ${prefix}/share/info/dir"
}

even though the correct way would be to have something like post-activate and post-deactivate.

In any case, the texinfo port cannot do anything. This is up to the various ports having info manuals (or the MacPorts base) to handle that.

[idoadam@…]

Replying to vinc17@…:

It's strange that with INFOPATH unset, you don't get the files in /usr/share/info for the menus (on my machine I get them). Anyway this is not really what one wants. I think the problem is the following. With MacPorts, "make install" installs files in the destroot directory, so that the "dir" file would be created there (actually this file doesn't seem to be created at all with MacPorts while it is created when I build/install software outside MacPorts, even though the install-info command line is the same up to $prefix).

There have already been discussions in the mailing-lists. For instance, gsl has (had):

post-install    {
    system "install-info ${destroot}${prefix}/share/info/gsl-ref.info ${prefix}/share/info/dir"
}

even though the correct way would be to have something like post-activate and post-deactivate.

In any case, the texinfo port cannot do anything. This is up to the various ports having info manuals (or the MacPorts base) to handle that.

I agree with your statements about other ports not creating the dir file. However, my bug report is about another issue: the menus do not appear but they are accessible by pressing m and then Tab so the problem is not in the interpretation of the node structure in the dir file but with displaying it correctly. You might think that the dir file in OS X 10.6 is corrupt but then how come emacs has no problem with it?

Additionally, info latex, for example, does not display the menus but all other text in nodes is displayed --- only the menu items are missing. Again, emacs has no such problem.

[vinc17@…]

Replying to idoadam@…:

Additionally, info latex, for example, does not display the menus but all other text in nodes is displayed --- only the menu items are missing. Again, emacs has no such problem.

OK, this means that this is a problem related to menus in general, not a problem related to the dir files. If you see all the nodes, this could mean that menus are not recognized in the info file. What does "info -o out.txt latex" give you? Do you know any other users who have the same problem? (If there are none, this could be a problem local to your machine.) You can try to rebuild texinfo, in case something got wrong. You can also try "LC_ALL=C info" in case this is a problem related to the locales. ktrace/kdump may help to identify the cause of the problem.

[idoadam@…]

OK, this means that this is a problem related to menus in general, not a problem related to the dir files. If you see all the nodes, this could mean that menus are not recognized in the info file.

I would like to stress that the menus are recognized: I can access the list of menu items by pressing m and Tab and access the nodes they lead to by typing the menu items' names. The problem appears related to displaying them.

What does "info -o out.txt latex" give you?

This is even stranger: running 'info -o out.txt latex' and then 'cat out.txt' displays the entire latex top node with the menu items included. This is identical to what I get in emacs. Nothing is missing. The same applies to 'info -o out.txt'.

Do you know any other users who have the same problem? (If there are none, this could be a problem local to your machine.)

I cannot rule out your suggestion that this problem is local to my machine and I know no other users of MacPorts. However, the only software intstalled with an installer on my system is Xcode, iLife and MacPorts. All teh rest was simply installed by dragging application bundles to the /Applications folder. Hence the system should be close to a pristine state. The lack of other users noting this might be related to the probable scarcity of people using info from the command line rather than from emacs.

You can try to rebuild texinfo, in case something got wrong. You can also try "LC_ALL=C info" in case this is a problem related to the locales.

Changing the locale to C has no effect. I have also tried terminal with different color settings in case those are to blame (I usually use the default black on white). I do not have time to rebuild texinfo now.

Since you cannot reproduce the problem and have better things to do with your time, I suggest that we leave this ticket open for now. I will simply use emacs. Hopefully, this will be fixed by a future version upstream. I will add a comment if I discover anything new.

I once again thank you for trying to take care of the issue.

[idoadam@…]

I have tried using Mac OS X 10.6's info command. /usr/bin/info works flawlessly. /usr/bin/info -f /opt/local/share/info/latex.info works perfectly as well. Mac OS X 10.6.3 comes with info 4.8.

[vinc17@…]

Replying to idoadam@…:

Since you cannot reproduce the problem and have better things to do with your time, I suggest that we leave this ticket open for now. I will simply use emacs. Hopefully, this will be fixed by a future version upstream. I will add a comment if I discover anything new.

You should probably report the problem upstream, so that they know about it.

[snowflake (Dave Evans)]

Replying to idoadam@…:

I have tried using Mac OS X 10.6's info command. /usr/bin/info works flawlessly. /usr/bin/info -f /opt/local/share/info/latex.info works perfectly as well. Mac OS X 10.6.3 comes with info 4.8.

I have compiled 4.12 and 4.13 outside of Macports using configure and make . 4.12 works, 4.13 fails on the top menu.

I have captured the screen output to a file using script and verified that there is no output to the screen on 4.13, not even characters output with the same background and foreground colour.

I have run info on OSX via the Telnet client on a Windows NT box using VT100 emulation. There is nothing output there either.

[snowflake (Dave Evans)]

Needless to say, 4.13 works on FreeBSD 8, although it seems to have found more menu items compared to 4.8 on FreeBSD.

[snowflake (Dave Evans)]

This bug seems to be fixed in the latest development sources accessed today from savannah.gnu.org. It is not yet available as a tarball.

[vinc17@…]

If someone provides a patch, it could be applied.

[losmuertos@…]

Cc Me!

[losmuertos@…]

I have both fink and MacPorts installed, and the fink version 4.13 appears to work normally:

$ sudo port deactivate texinfo
$ hash -d info
$ type -a info
info is /sw/bin/info
info is /usr/bin/info
$ info info
$ type info
info is hashed (/sw/bin/info)
$ info --version
info (GNU texinfo) 4.13

[vinc17@…]

That's strange because fink doesn't appear to use a patch: ​http://fink.cvs.sourceforge.net/fink/dists/10.4/unstable/main/finkinfo/text/texinfo.info?view=markup

[root42]

I also have the problem. My MacPorts info dir file only contains aspell, for some reason:

schmitz@dmark:/opt/local/share/info $ ls
aalib.info				cppinternals.info			gettext.info				gnutls-mod_auth_st.png			info-stnd.info				octave.info
aalib.info-1				dir					gfind.info				gnutls-objects.png			info.info				octave.info-1
aalib.info-2				dvipng.info				gfortran.info				gnutls-pgp.png				kpathsea.info				octave.info-2
aalib.info-3				dvips.info				global.info				gnutls-x509.png				libIDL2.info				octave.info-3
aspell-dev.info				emacs					gm4.info				gnutls.info				libffi.info				octave.info-4
aspell.info				fftw3.info				gmp.info				gnutls.info-1				libgomp.info				octave.info-5
auctex.info				find-maint.info				gmp.info-1				gnutls.info-2				libidn-components.png			octave.info-6
auctex.info-1				flex.info				gmp.info-2				gnutls.info-3				libidn.info				preview-latex.info
auctex.info-2				flex.info-1				gnupg1.info				gperf.info				libtasn1.info				readline.info
autoconf.info				flex.info-2				gnuplot.info				groff.info				libtool.info				rluserman.info
automake.info				gawk.info				gnutls-certificate-user-use-case.png	groff.info-1				libtool.info-1				standards.info
automake.info-1				gawkinet.info				gnutls-client-server-use-case.png	groff.info-2				libtool.info-2				texi2html.info
automake.info-2				gcc.info				gnutls-extensions_st.png		groff.info-3				m4.info-1				texinfo
autosprintf.info			gccinstall.info				gnutls-handshake-sequence.png		gsed.info				m4.info-2				texinfo-1
bison.info				gccint.info				gnutls-handshake-state.png		gzip.info				make.info				texinfo-2
coreutils.info				gcj.info				gnutls-internals.png			help2man.info				make.info-1				texinfo-3
cp-tools.info				gcrypt.info				gnutls-layers.png			history.info				make.info-2				web2c.info
cpp.info				gdbm.info				gnutls-logo.png				iksemel					mpfr.info				wget.info
schmitz@dmark:/opt/local/share/info $ cat dir
Dies ist die Datei .../info/dir, die den obersten Knoten der
Info-Hierarchie enth"alt, genannt (dir)Top.
Beim ersten Aufruf von Info geht es bei diesem Knoten los.

File: dir,	Node: Top	Dies ist der Beginn des INFO-Baums

  Dieser Verzeichnis-Knoten zeigt ein Men"u aller Hauptpunkte an.
  "q" beendet Info, "?" listet alle Info-Befehle auf, "d" kehrt hierher
  zur"uck, "h" gibt eine Einsteiger-Hilfe, "mEmacs<Return>" besucht das
  Emacs-Manual, etc.

  Im Emacs kann man mit dem zweiten Mausknopf auf einen Men"ueintrag oder
  einen Querverweis klicken, um einen solchen ausw"ahlen.

* Menu:

GNU Packages
* Aspell: (aspell).             GNU Aspell spelling checker
* Aspell-dev: (aspell-dev).     For Aspell developers

But I obviously have lots of other info files installed. How can I regenerate the dir file?

[neal.gokli@…]

Replying to dave.evans55@…:

This bug seems to be fixed in the latest development sources accessed today from savannah.gnu.org. It is not yet available as a tarball.

I'm having this issue as well, and I see that we've been on texinfo 4.13 for a few years now. Any chance of bumping it to a newer version?

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

Is this still a problem with 5.2?

[mf2k (Frank Schima)]

No response. Please re-open if this is still a problem.