Here is a sample menu entry showing the parts of a cross-reference:
* Foo Label: Foo Target. More information about Foo.
The reference has two parts: the first part is called the label; it is the name that you can use to refer to the cross-reference, and the second is the target; it is the full name of the node that the cross-reference points to. The target is separated from the label by a single colon ‘:’; first the label appears, and then the target.
The ‘.’ ends the name of the target. The ‘.’ is not part of the target; it serves only to let Info know where the target name ends.
A shorthand way of specifying references allows two adjacent colons to stand for a target name which is the same as the label name:
* Foo Commands:: Commands pertaining to Foo.
In the above example, the name of the target is the same as the name of
the label, in this case Foo Commands
.
You will normally see two types of cross-reference while viewing nodes: menu references, and note references. Menu references appear within a node’s menu; they begin with a ‘*’ at the beginning of a line, and continue with a label, a target, and a comment which describes what the contents of the node pointed to contains.
Note references appear within the body of the node text; they begin with
*Note
, and continue with a label and a target.
Like ‘Next’, ‘Prev’, and ‘Up’ pointers, cross-references can point to any valid node. They are used to refer you to a place where more detailed information can be found on a particular subject. Here is a cross-reference which points to a node within the Texinfo documentation: See Cross-refrences in the Texinfo Manual, for more information on creating your own Texinfo cross-references.