1. Introduction

Vinfo is a Vim plugin that allows you to read Info documentation files right inside a Vim session in a Vim-help fashioned way or from a shell just the way you would normally use Info

Why?

The traditional GNU Info program has a 'vi mode', but lets face it, it's just not good enough; it's very limited and ugly.

That is where Vinfo comes in, leveraging Vim's help-files format and navigation (tags jumping).

2. Installation

• Vinfo is Pathogen/ Vundle compatible.

• Or install it manually by copying the files to the corresponding locations.

3. Usage

Vinfo can be used right inside a Vim session or from a shell using an alias.

** For extra details about how to use Vinfo please use :h Vinfo **

3.1 Use inside Vim

You can use Vinfo inside Vim with:

:Vinfo doc

Where doc is the Info documentation to read.

Example: Read Glibc Info documentation

:Vinfo libc

3.2 Use outside Vim

When your are not inside a Vim session but in the shell prompt you can invoke Vinfo as a command by using the following shell script:

    #! /bin/sh
    vim -c "Vinfo $1" -c 'silent only'

Save it in /usr/bin/ as a file named vinfo, give it execution permission with:

$ chmod +x /usr/bin/vinfo

Then from your shell you can read a DOC with:

$ vinfo doc

4. FAQ

4.1 Why the first time I open an Info doc is too slow

The first time Vinfo will create a repo for that Info doc, convert the text files to Vim help-file syntax and create the tags.

Don't worry, it's just the very first time. Then it will be ok.

4.2 Why the first time I open an Info doc Vim interface freaks out?

Because of the same reason of 4.1

But again: Don't worry, it's just the very first time. Then it will be ok.

4.3 My Info files have been updated but Vinfo is still using the old ones

In Vim execute:

:VinfoClean

4.4 Does Vinfo works in Mac or Windows?

No. It's just for GNU/Linux systems. Info is the GNU documentation system

5. MISC

5.1 How it looks

Reading Glibc Info documentation

With traditional Info:

With Vinfo: