22.4 HTML Cross-references

Cross-references between Texinfo manuals in HTML format become, in the end, a standard HTML <a> link, but the details are unfortunately complex. This section describes the algorithm used in detail, so that Texinfo can cooperate with other programs, such as texi2html, by writing mutually compatible HTML files.

This algorithm may or may not be used for links within HTML output for a Texinfo file. Since no issues of compatibility arise in such cases, we do not need to specify this.

We try to support references to such “external” manuals in both monolithic and split forms. A monolithic (mono) manual is entirely contained in one file, and a split manual has a file for each node. (See HTML Splitting.)

The algorithm was primarily devised by Patrice Dumas in 2003–04.