The info file version of a manual is organized into nodes, which usually correspond to the chapters and sections of the printed book. You can follow them in sequence, if you wish, just like in the printed book--but there are also other choices. Info files have menus that let you go quickly to the node that has the information you need. Info has "hot" references; if one section refers to another, you can tell Info to take you immediately to that other section--and you can get back again easily to take up your reading where you left off. Naturally, you can also search for particular words or phrases.
The best way to get started with the online documentation system is to use a programmed tutorial by running Info itself. You can get into Info by just typing its name--no options or arguments are necessary--at your shell's prompt (shown as `eg$' here):
eg$ info
Info displays its first screen, a menu of the documentation available, and awaits your input. Type the single letter
h
to request a tutorial, designed to teach you how to use Info.
If you already use Emacs, you may want to get into the documentation browsing mode, instead, by typing C-h i inside Emacs.
You can get out of Info at any time by typing the single letter q.
Info can also display a summary of all its commands at any time, when you type the single character ?.
This text documents the use of the GNU Info program, version 2.9.
Info is a program which is used to view info files on an ASCII
terminal. info files are the result of processing texinfo files
with the program makeinfo or with the Emacs command M-x
texinfo-format-buffer. Finally, texinfo is a documentation
language which allows a printed manual and online documentation (an info
file) to be produced from a single source file.