Re: Running external info within Emacs

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Arash Esbati <arash@gnu.org>
> Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org
> Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2023 12:51:06 +0200
> 
> Now I eval (async-shell-command "info -x 2 latex2e") for debug infos:
> 
>   info: inaccessible directory C not added to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \msys64\mingw64\local\info;C not added to 
> INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \msys64\mingw64\share\info;C not added to 
> INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \msys64\usr\local\info;C not added to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \msys64\usr\share\info;C not added to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \msys64\usr\info;C not added to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \msys64\share\info;C not added to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \texlive\2023\texmf-dist\doc\info;C not added 
> to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory \emacs\share\info not added to INFOPATH
>   info: adding /usr/share/info to INFOPATH
>   info: found file /usr/share/info/dir
>   info: looking for file "latex2e"
>   info: looking for file latex2e in /usr/share/info
>   info: closing -
>   info: No menu item 'latex2e' in node '(dir)Top'
> 
> info seems to see the Windows style paths and chokes.  If I change
> "INFOPATH" to unix style and run the command like this:
> 
>   (with-environment-variables (("INFOPATH"
>                                 "\
>   /C/msys64/mingw64/local/info:\
>   /C/msys64/mingw64/share/info:\
>   /C/msys64/usr/local/info:\
>   /C/msys64/usr/share/info:\
>   /C/msys64/usr/info:\
>   /C/msys64/share/info:\
>   /C/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/doc/info:\
>   /C/emacs/share/info"))
>     (async-shell-command "info -x 2 latex2e"))
> 
> I get:
> 
>   info: inaccessible directory /C/msys64/mingw64/local/info not added to 
> INFOPATH
>   info: adding /C/msys64/mingw64/share/info to INFOPATH
>   info: adding /C/msys64/usr/local/info to INFOPATH
>   info: adding /C/msys64/usr/share/info to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory /C/msys64/usr/info not added to INFOPATH
>   info: inaccessible directory /C/msys64/share/info not added to INFOPATH
>   info: adding /C/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/doc/info to INFOPATH
>   info: adding /C/emacs/share/info to INFOPATH
>   info: duplicate directory /usr/share/info not added to INFOPATH
>   info: found file /C/msys64/usr/share/info/dir
>   info: found file /C/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/doc/info/dir
>   info: found file /C/emacs/share/info/dir
>   info: looking for file "latex2e"
>   info: looking for file latex2e in /C/msys64/mingw64/share/info
>   info: looking for file latex2e in /C/msys64/usr/local/info
>   info: looking for file latex2e in /C/msys64/usr/share/info
>   info: looking for file latex2e in /C/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/doc/info
>   info: found file /C/texlive/2023/texmf-dist/doc/info/latex2e.info
>   info: writing node (latex2e.info)Top...
>   info: writing node (latex2e.info)About this document...
>   [...]
>   File: latex2e.info,  Node: Top,  Next: About this document,  Up: (dir)
> 
> and it works.  So your first idea about "INFOPATH transformation several
> times" was correct.  Is there a fix for this?  WDYT?

Isn't this an MSYS2 bug?  Shouldn't MSYS2 Bash convert INFOPATH to the
MSYS /c/foo/bar format?  Or is that handling reserved only for PATH?

IOW, I'd take this up with MSYS2 folks.

Another alternative is to keep all the Info files in a single
/usr/share/info directory, in which case you will not need to set
INFOPATH at all.  Why do you need so many distinct directories with
Info files?

Btw, any reason why you use the MSYS port of Info?  A native port is
available, and you could even produce it by yourself if my 32-bit port
doesn't suit you for some reason.  (I was wondering for a long time
why the MSYS2/MinGW64 project doesn't provide a native Windows build
of Texinfo, since the upstream project supports such a build since
about forever.)