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After installing gnuplot on Lion using 'brew gnuplot', the gnuplot info page appears at /usr/local/Cellar/gnuplot/4.4.3/share/info/gnuplot.info

But in the info index page (M-x info) in emacs, I see no gnuplot entry.

How can one point the "info system" (for emacs especially) to the newly installed gnuplot info page? If I missed something during brewing that would have connected the gnuplot info to the master info page, please point it out. If there is a direct way of reading the gnuplot page (again, through emacs) without going through the master index, please also mention it.

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2 Answers 2

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Is the info file symlinked in /usr/local/share/info? If not, a simple

ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/gnuplot/4.4.3/share/info/gnuplot.info /usr/local/share/info/

should solve the problem.

If not, look at the value of Info-directory-list in Emacs (C-h v). If "/usr/local/share/info" isn't included there, you can add it with

(push "/usr/local/share/info" Info-directory-list)

in the *scratch* buffer (and in .emacs of course).

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  • Nice. That makes sense. But I'm missing one step. In /usr/local/share/info I have a soft link named dir, which gets included in the Emacs main info directory once 'push ..' is called, but that dir does not include gnuplot. Is there an info directory compilation step?
    – Calaf
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 18:01
  • You should call install-info which will update the dir file. I think all you need to do is run install-info /usr/local/share/info/gnuplot.inf /usr/local/share/info/dir. In fact you probably don't have to symlink it, but I think it's a good idea.
    – Ivan Andrus
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 18:48
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I'll take them in reverse order. :-)

  1. Inside emacs, when invoking info from a non-numeric prefix argument (e.g. C-u) it will prompt you for a file.

  2. I don't know about home brew, but I don't see anything in the formula that is specific to gnuplot. (In fact OMM I don't see the info file at all. I have the man page, but not the info page. I wonder if I made some decision that I don't remember.)

  3. You can set the emacs variables Info-directory-list or Info-additional-directory-list.

  4. You can set the INFOPATH environment variable. This will work for emacs and the command line reader.

  5. Symlink like patrix suggests. This is probably the best option and should likely be added to the home brew recipe if it's not already.

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  • 1- How can a non-numeric prefix argument be used? C-u foo M-x info, for example, enters ffffoo followed by a normal entry to info. 3- After both (push "/usr/local/share/info" Info-directory-list) and (push "/usr/local/share/info" Info-additional-directory-list), I still don't see the gnuplot (just an example to be concrete, there is nothing special there) info listed.
    – Calaf
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 18:00
  • 4- INFOPATH (and PATH environment variables in general) are messy. To be able to just launch emacs from the Dock, I have to duplicate these settings (which are normally in .profile) in .emacs. 5- ln -s ... did not update /usr/local/share/info/dir to include gnuplot.info.
    – Calaf
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 18:00
  • Just C-u M-x info should work. You can of course set INFOPATH etc. in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist, but I agree they are messy. I'll have to check into the Emacs variables.
    – Ivan Andrus
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 18:25

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