---

2 Selecting a Node ¶

The most basic node commands are ‘n’, ‘p’, and ‘u’. These move you around the node structure of the file:

n (next-node) ¶

Select the ‘Next’ node.

p (prev-node) ¶

Select the ‘Prev’ node.

u (up-node) ¶

Select the ‘Up’ node.

The top line of each Info node contains pointers which describe where the next, previous, and up nodes are. The nodes in an Info file are conventionally arranged in a hierarchical structure; for example, the ‘Next’ pointer in a section of a chapter takes you to the next section in the same chapter, while the ‘Up’ pointer takes you to the higher-level node for the chapter as a whole.

You can select a node that you have already viewed by using the ‘l’ command—this stands for “last”:

l (history-node) ¶

Move backwards through the history of visited nodes for this window. The current node is discarded from the history.

This is useful when you follow a reference to another node to read about a related issue, and would like then to resume reading at the same place where you started.

Two additional commands, ‘t’ and ‘d’, select special nodes:

t (top-node) ¶

Select the node ‘Top’ in the current Info file.

d (dir-node) ¶

Select the directory node (i.e., the node ‘(dir)’). This contains a menu referencing all the available Info files that are installed on your system.

In the command descriptions in this manual, the M-x command names are displayed in parentheses. M-x is itself a command (execute-command) letting you run a command by name. For example, you could select the next node with M-x next-node.

C-x means press the Ctrl key and the key x. M-x means press the Meta key and the key x. (Meta is usually labeled as Alt). SPC is the space bar. The other keys are usually called by the names printed on them. This notation to describe keystrokes is the same as that used within the Emacs manual (see User Input in The GNU Emacs Manual).

Many Info commands can take a numeric argument; see universal-argument to find out how to supply one.