Parts of an Xref (Stand-alone GNU Info 6.8)

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### 8.1 Parts of an Xref

Cross-references have two major 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 colon ‘`:`’; first the label appears, and then the target. For example, in the sample menu cross-reference below, the single colon separates the label from the target.

    * Foo Label: Foo Target.        More information about Foo.

Note the ‘`.`’ which 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 Writing an Xref in the Texinfo Manual, for more information on creating your own texinfo cross references.

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