Preparing to Use TeX
====================

TeX needs to know where to find the `texinfo.tex' file that you have
told it to input with the `\input texinfo' command at the beginning of
the first line.  The `texinfo.tex' file tells TeX how to handle
@-commands.  (`texinfo.tex' is included in the standard GNU
distributions.)

  Usually, the `texinfo.tex' file is put in the default directory that
contains TeX macros (the `/usr/lib/tex/macros' directory) when GNU
Emacs or other GNU software is installed.  In this case, TeX will find
the file and you do not need to do anything special.  Alternatively,
you can put `texinfo.tex' in the directory in which the Texinfo source
file is located, and TeX will find it there.

  However, you may want to specify the location of the `\input' file
yourself.  One way to do this is to write the complete path for the file
after the `\input' command.  Another way is to set the `TEXINPUTS'
environment variable in your `.cshrc' or `.profile' file.  The
`TEXINPUTS' environment variable will tell TeX where to find the
`texinfo.tex' file and any other file that you might want TeX to use.

  Whether you use a `.cshrc' or `.profile' file depends on whether you
use `csh', `sh', or `bash' for your shell command interpreter.  When
you use `csh', it looks to the `.cshrc' file for initialization
information, and when you use `sh' or `bash', it looks to the
`.profile' file.

  In a `.cshrc' file, you could use the following `csh' command
sequence:

     setenv TEXINPUTS .:/usr/me/mylib:/usr/lib/tex/macros

  In a `.profile' file, you could use the following `sh' command
sequence:

     TEXINPUTS=.:/usr/me/mylib:/usr/lib/tex/macros
     export TEXINPUTS

This would cause TeX to look for `\input' file first in the current
directory, indicated by the `.', then in a hypothetical user's
`me/mylib' directory, and finally in the system library.