Texinfo 7.3 released

Version 7.3 of Texinfo, the GNU documentation-formatting system, has been released. It contains a number of new features, performance improvements, and enhancements.

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From:		Gavin Smith <gavinsmith0123-AT-gmail.com>
To:		info-gnu-AT-gnu.org
Subject:		Texinfo 7.3 released
Date:		Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:32:55 +0000
Message-ID:		<aaXX1-Dg6xME4PIR@orangestar>
Cc:		bug-texinfo-AT-gnu.org

We have released version 7.3 of Texinfo, the GNU documentation format.

This package contains tools to produce documentation in various formats, including HTML and PDF, from source files in the Texinfo format. Texinfo is a text-based format with commands for marking text, document structuring, and indexing.

https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/texinfo/texinfo-7.3.tar.xz https://ftpmirror.gnu.org/texinfo/texinfo-7.3.tar.gz

If automatic redirection fails, the list of mirrors is at: https://www.gnu.org/prep/ftp.html

Failing that, you can use the main server: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-7.3.tar.xz https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-7.3.tar.gz

In this release, there are several new commands in the Texinfo language, including commands to streamline the creation of title and copyright pages.

With conversion to PDF using the texinfo.tex file, non-ASCII characters from section titles can now occur in the PDF outline. The PDF outline also now contains entries for initial letters in any indices in the document.

texi2any conversion to HTML now is done mostly in C, rather than Perl (if XS modules are enabled), so is much faster.

In the HTML output, the "transliteration" feature where non-ASCII characters in link targets are replaced is now off by default. This gives better results for languages where this feature did not work well, like Japanese.

texi2any looks in htmlxref.d directories for information on links to external manuals, in addition to files called htmlxref.cnf, making it easier to combine information on manuals from different sources.

Syntax highlighting of code samples in HTML output with the 'HIGHLIGHT_SYNTAX' variable is no longer marked as experimental, and works slightly differently.

Error and warning messages again include any directory components of input file names. There have been improvements in the warning messages given about the structure of menus in a document.

For the Info output, the new experimental variable 'INFO_MATH_IMAGES' causes texi2any to create images for any uses of the @math or @displaymath commands. The Info format has been extended to support such images.

The Info program supports a "hook" system which can be used to give the user information on obtaining uninstalled manuals. There has been a change to how command-line arguments to Info are interpreted, which aids in finding documentation of command-line options.

Special thanks to Patrice Dumas for his work on the texi2any program. We would like to thank all who tested the package and who reported problems, contributed fixes, or contributed translations.

Please email any comments to bug-texinfo@gnu.org.

The Texinfo web page: https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/

Support free software * https://www.fsf.org/ * https://www.gnu.org/

Here is the full news:

* Language . new commands for title page creation: @documentinfo, @publication, and @maketitle. you can use these instead of explicit formatting inside @titlepage. . you can use heading commands such as @heading after @node. nodes defined this way are not part of the chapter structure of the document (unlike if @section etc. were used). . new command @xrefname can follow @node in place of a heading command. this is for when you do not want any heading at all to be displayed. . new command @namedanchor for defining text to be used for a cross- reference to an anchor (with @xrefautomaticsectiontitle on) . new command @thispart to print part name in headings or footings . deprecate @clickstyle . if there is no @documentlanguage, the language is unspecified, rather than en_US. (texi2any will still use English strings by default, but will not put en_US in the output, depending on output format.)

* texi2any . texi2any uses the Perl extensions in C for converters when possible, which results in a large speed-up for HTML output. set the `TEXINFO_XS_CONVERT' environment variable to 0 for pure Perl. . optional texi2any program implementation in C embedding Perl. use --enable-using-c-texi2any to prefer the C implementation. . report leading directory components of input file names in messages (this reverses 6.8 release change, 2021). . when CHECK_NORMAL_MENU_STRUCTURE is on, give the line number of the problem menu entry . DUMP_TREE should now be a file name, or - to output to standard error . remove USE_REL_REV variable; former effect is now always on . (API only) rename LINKS_BUTTONS customization variable to LINKS_DIRECTIONS . (API only) rename space direction ' ' to 'Space' . HTML output: . the HIGHLIGHT_SYNTAX variable can be used for syntax highlighting of code samples. this feature was present in earlier releases but is no longer marked as experimental. . do not wrap the contents of