Subject: bug#60762: 28.2; info--manual-names ignores Info-additional-directory-list

From: Sean Devlin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2023 07:04:53 -0500

> On Jan 13, 2023, at 3:15 AM, Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
>> From: Sean Devlin <[email-masked]>
>> Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2023 18:44:50 -0500
>> 
>> Info.el gives the following advice for customizing the Info manual
>> search path:
>> 
>> "Normally, you should either set INFOPATH or customize
>> `Info-additional-directory-list' ..."
> 
> This text was removed, and will not appear in Emacs 29 and later.

Ok.

> 
>> The variable Info-additional-directory-list is intended as the main
>> Lisp-level customization point for users.
> 
> That is inaccurate.  The main Lisp-level customization variable for
> users is Info-default-directory-list.  So the question I'd like to ask
> before discussing the situations you describe is why don't you
> customize Info-default-directory-list instead?

The documentation string for Info-default-directory says:

“Although this is a customizable variable, that is mainly for technical
reasons.  Normally, you should either set INFOPATH or customize
`Info-additional-directory-list', rather than changing this variable.”

To me, this suggests that users should prefer
Info-additional-directory-list. I guess that will change in Emacs 29,
but that is not released yet.

In any case, the documentation string for
Info-additional-directory-list says:

“List of additional directories to search for Info documentation files.
These directories are searched after those in `Info-directory-list’.”

Which is not true in the case I cited.

I am not running Emacs 29 to test, but the documentation for
Info-additional-directory-list and the code for info--manual-names do
not appear to have changed on that branch.

To be clear, I have already worked around this issue in my own
configuration.

Thanks.

> Thanks.