4.2 Setting output file and directory names

The manual name is constructed by stripping the ‘.texi’, ‘.txi’, ‘.texinfo’, or ‘.txinfo’ extension from the Texinfo file name.

By default, texi2html generates the manual file in the current directory if the manual isn't split. A ‘.html’ file extension is appended to the manual name.

If the manual is split the files are put in a directory named after the manual name. The file name is constructed using the manual name as basename. An underscore followed by a number is appended to the basename for each files corresponding with sectioning elements, with the exception of the top element. For the top element there is nothing appended. The files containing special elements pages have an underscore and a 3 letter code corresponding to their content (‘toc’ for table of contents, ‘abt’ for about, ‘ovr’ for overview, ‘fot’ for footnotes if they are separated) appended. Lastly, an ‘.html’ file extension is appended.

Thus, if the texinfo file ‘afile.texi’ is processed and split at chapters into 3 files, the generated files (in directory ‘afile’) will be:

afile.html         --> @node Top or @top section
afile_1.html       --> Chapter 1
afile_2.html       --> Chapter 2
afile_toc.html     --> Table of Contents
afile_abt.html     --> About Page

This default behavior may be modified by several command line options. If the output isn't split, the prefix file name may be overrided by the ‘--output’ command line option (variable $OUT). If the output is split, and ‘--output’ is set, the files are placed in the directory specified by the argument to the option.

The basename may be overridden with ‘--prefix’ (variable $PREFIX). If ‘--short-ext’ is given, ‘.htm’ is appended instead of ‘.html’ in the final step (variable $SHORTEXTN). The ‘--top-file’ option overrides the top element file name (variable $TOP_FILE). This can be used to name the top element file ‘index.html’. Similarly, ‘--toc-file’ changes the name of the table of contents file (variable $TOC_FILE).

Reusing the example above, but this time calling texi2html like so:

$ texi2html -split chapter -prefix manual -short-ext -top-file index.htm -toc-file contents.htm afile.texi

we get, in ‘manual’:

index.htm          --> @node Top or @top section
manual_1.htm       --> Chapter 1
manual_2.htm       --> Chapter 2
contents.htm       --> Table of Contents
manual_abt.htm     --> About Page

The file names generated by texi2html differ from those generated by makeinfo. makeinfo uses the node name to construct the file names while splitting at nodes. It is possible to get the same behaviour out of texi2html by specifying the ‘--node-files’ option (variable $NODE_FILES). If the output isn't split at nodes, texi2html will still output files named after the nodes, without real content but redirecting to the right file. The default is false for this option. This trick enables the generated HTML manual to be a target for the cross-references of other manuals generated by makeinfo or texi2html.

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