Re: info utility: buggy resolution of cross references

On Tue, Feb 24, 2026 at 03:38:48PM +0200, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > From: Gavin Smith <[email protected]>
> > Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:46:15 +0000
> > 
> > On Mon, Feb 23, 2026 at 03:17:36PM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > > This is an old bug in the "info" utility, which no longer appeared in
> > > 7.1.1 and 7.2, but reappeared in 7.2.92 (all my tests have been done
> > > under Debian, with Debian packages):
> > > 
> > >   https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=484740
> > 
> > I've confirmed the bug (assuming it is one) isn't present in 7.2.
> > 
> > It's likely the bug was fixed inadvertently through other changes
> > to the code, and again broken again by mistake.
> > 
> > It's related to the 'follow-strategy' variable.  If this is "remain",
> > which is the default, Info files in the same directory are preferred.
> 
> Right.  And that was always the way it worked.  It is also the right
> way, because it allows one to have several Info files by the same name
> on the same system, and causes the Info reader predictably find the
> right one in each case.
> 
> It is okay to make the Info reader more robust in these situations,
> but by and large, the assumption is and always has been that the
> directory where Info files are stored should have nothing except Info
> files (including DIR and any image files used by the manuals).  If any
> other files are present there, IMNSHO it's a cockpit mistake of sorts,
> and the solution should be to remove those non-Info files.  They have
> no reason to be there.
> 
> That said, I'm not the maintainer of Texinfo, just an interested
> bystander and occasional contributor.  The decision is up to Gavin and
> Patrice.

(I wrote the email you were replying to.)

As I remember, preferring the directory containing the current Info file
was a feature we added.  It's listed in the NEWS for texinfo-6.1 (2016-02-06):

* info:
  . Now tries to find referenced manuals in the same directory as the
    current file first, before looking in search path.  Customize this
    with new variable `follow-strategy'.

It appears to have been proposed by Norbert Preining:

> ANyway, I wan to return to the proposal I wrote some time ago and
> that was discarded as not working (or unclear):
> 
> Change info reader node search method as follows:
> * if a node is going to be followed, first search *in*the*current*directory*
>   for the respective info file, and if that fails search INFOPATH.
> 
> That way one can:
> * put files into subdirs
> * links within the same suite work (emacs shipping lots of related info docs)
> * links to external progs will use the default version by searching
>   in INFOPATH

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2015-08/msg00018.html


I haven't checked the behaviour from earlier releases in this regard recently
and it's possible that Emacs Info mode always had the behaviour described.