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C.1 GNU Sample Texts

Following is a sample Texinfo document with the full texts that should be used (adapted as necessary) in GNU manuals.

As well as the legal texts, it also serves as a practical example of how many elements in a GNU system can affect the manual. If you’re not familiar with all these different elements, don’t worry. They’re not required and a perfectly good manual can be written without them. They’re included here nonetheless because many manuals do (or could) benefit from them.

See Short Sample, for a minimal example of a Texinfo file.

Here are some notes on the example:

• The version.texi in the @include command is maintained automatically by Automake (see Texinfo in GNU Automake). It sets the ‘VERSION’, ‘UPDATED’ and ‘UPDATED-MONTH’ values used elsewhere. If your distribution doesn’t use Automake, but you do use Emacs, you may find the time-stamp.el package helpful (see Time Stamps in The GNU Emacs Manual).
• The @syncodeindex command reflects the recommendation to use only one index where possible, to make it easier for readers to look up index entries.
• The @dircategory is for constructing the Info directory. See Installing Info Directory Files, which includes a variety of recommended category names.
• The ‘Invoking’ node is a GNU standard to help users find the basic information about command-line usage of a given program. See Manual Structure Details in GNU Coding Standards.
• This sample shows how to includes the FDL in a manual using the @include command. The fdl.texi file is available in the Texinfo and other GNU source distributions. It is also available on the GNU website (at https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html) along with guidance for using it.
• If the FSF is not the copyright holder, then use the appropriate name.
• For documents that express your personal views, feelings or experiences, it is more appropriate to use a license permitting only verbatim copying, rather than the FDL. See Verbatim Copying License.

Here is the sample document:

\input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
@comment %**start of header
@include version.texi
@settitle GNU Sample @value{VERSION}
@syncodeindex pg cp
@comment %**end of header
@copying
This manual is for GNU Sample (version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}),
which is an example in the Texinfo documentation.

Copyright @copyright{} 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

@quotation
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover
Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
``GNU Free Documentation License''.
@end quotation
@end copying

@dircategory Texinfo documentation system
@direntry
* sample: (sample)Invoking sample.
@end direntry

@titlepage
@title GNU Sample
@subtitle for version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
@author A.U. Thor (@email{bug-sample@@gnu.org})
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
@end titlepage

@contents

@node Top
@top GNU Sample

This manual is for GNU Sample (version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}).

@menu
* Invoking sample::
* GNU Free Documentation License::
* Index::
@end menu


@node Invoking sample
@chapter Invoking sample

@pindex sample
@cindex invoking @command{sample}

This is a sample manual.  There is no sample program to
invoke, but if there were, you could see its basic usage
and command line options here.


@node GNU Free Documentation License
@appendix GNU Free Documentation License

@include fdl.texi


@node Index
@unnumbered Index

@printindex cp

@bye