Completely broken Info reader

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi Stan,

stan wrote:
> On Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:43:18 -0700
> Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Thank you Stan for the reply. I tried removing info but it takes with
>> it about 877 dependencies so i tried `yum reinstall info' instead. I
>> still have that problem.
>>
>> Are you using 32 bit Fedora? As it mentions on Bug 515402 [1] its 
> 
> No, F11 x86_64.  Very strange that it works on my system and not on
> yours.  I'm using a kernel with the Fedora patches applied, but custom
> compiled for my system; maybe that is the difference.
> 

That is indeed very strange.

>> specific to 64 bit systems. What could be the proper way to try to
>> track down this problem? I'm rather used to the emacs like
>> bindings... :-/
>>
> 
> Well, I used to use emacs a long time ago, but switched to vim, so maybe
> if info had vim bindings I would feel the same.  :-)

We all have our favourites, don't we? ;)

> I think the way to do it properly is to install the info-debuginfo pkg
> and then run gdb on info e.g. gdb --args info bash.  By stepping through
> the code as it executes you would find the point where it failed, and
> thus the place to fix.  There is a reasonably steep learning curve to do
> this, though the info documentation for gdb is good and you only need to
> learn a small subset of gdb commands.  And it requires that you have at
> least a nodding acquaintance with C (in order to understand what is
> being done wrong when you find the error).
> 

That is a very good suggestion Stan. I will definitely try doing that in 
my spare time. I am familiar with some C++, I am guessing that should be 
background enough to try my hand at this. :)

>> [1]https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/texinfo-4.13a-4.fc11
>>
> 
> On my system, info Autoconf 'Autoconf Macro Index' works fine.
> 
> But I see that I have the patched version of the texinfo package,
> texinfo-4.13a-4.fc11.x86_64, because I have updates testing enabled.
> That probably explains why it works for me.  I see from the link you
> give above that it has been submitted to stable, so it should start
> working for you too if you update your system after it appears in
> updates (a day or two?).
> 
> However, I never noticed it not working, though info isn't something I
> use hourly or even always daily.  
> 

I had tried that update the day it hit updates-testing, but no luck so 
far. That last comment on the page is mine. I will try following what 
you suggested and comment on the package. Thanks for pointing me in the 
right direction Stan. :)

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.