overfull \vbox in @printindex

[Eric Blake-1]

I'm stumped trying to avoid this message while generating
the M4 manual into dvi and pdf format.

|...
| Appendix B [111] [112] [113] (./m4.fns)
| Overfull \vbox (45.24568pt too high) has occurred while \output is active
| [114] (./m4.cps [115] [116]) [117] [118] )
|...

It seems like there are just enough instances of @deffn
throughout the manual (given a fresh checkout of CVS
branch-1_4, wc doc/m4.fn shows 68 lines trying to go into
the fn index) that the double-column balancing routines
can't gracefully fit everything into one page, but are unwilling
to split the final one or two index entries onto a new page.
I'm getting the error even if I go for the extreme:

| @page
| @printindex fn

When I use a section heading instead, as in

| @node Macro index
| @appendixsec Index for all @code{m4} macros
| 
| References are exclusively to the places where a builtin is introduced
| the first time.
| 
| @printindex fn

the amount of the overfull \vbox increases.  I tried adding
@sp 20 prior to @printindex, but that just scooted the
entire double column down without causing any page
split, to the point that even more index entries were
moved beyond page margins.

The texinfo manual mentions hints for avoiding overfull
\hbox, but says nothing about overfull \vbox.  Is this a
bug in the current texinfo.tex (2007-02-11.16)?  Is there
something else I should try?

-- 
Eric Blake

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