stand-alone info: cannot move to the previous menu item when the node name contains a colon and hide-note-references is on

aidan <[email protected]> Tue, 5 May 2026 22:56:39 +0800
Newsgroups gmane.comp.tex.texinfo.bugs
Message-ID <CAFYOJqxb7-3eazH6ZpdmNH6A8hpc5SvWZQWnZgkm=uj_WMB16w@mail.gmail.com>
1 steps to reproduce
********************

  1. generate ‘a.info’ file from ‘a.texi’:

          \input texinfo

          @node Top
          @top a

          @node chapter 1: foo
          @chapter chapter 1: foo

          foo

          @node chapter 2: bar
          @chapter chapter 2: bar

          bar

          @node chapter 3: baz
          @chapter chapter 3: baz

          baz

          @bye

  2. run info: ‘env -u INFOPATH info --init-file /dev/null -v
     hide-note-references=On a.info’

  3. press ‘TAB’ 3 times, the cursor moves to the next menu item
     successfully, but using ‘M-<TAB>’ cannot move the cursor back to
     the previous menu item

2 another way to reproduce
**************************

  1. generate ‘a.info’ file from ‘a.texi’.

  2. run info: ‘INFOPATH=$HOME/info info --init-file /dev/null ./a.info’

     (the ‘INFOPATH’ contains a generated ‘dir.info’ file, created in
     the same way as described in the linked discussion:
     <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-texinfo/2026-04/msg00100.html>)

  3. press ‘TAB’ 3 times, the cursor moves to the next menu item
     successfully, but using ‘M-<TAB>’ cannot move the cursor back to
     the previous menu item

3 note
******

I'm aware that using colons in node names is not recommended.  However,
as the documentation states:

     • Unfortunately, you cannot reliably use periods, commas, or colons
     within a node name; these can confuse some Info readers.
     ‘texi2any’ quotes problematic node names and labels by default, but
     some Info readers do not recognize this syntax.

In principle, since texi2any automatically quotes problematic node
names, it should still work.