5.8 @anchor: Defining Arbitrary Cross-reference Targets

An anchor is a position in your document, labelled so that cross-references can refer to it, just as they can to nodes. You create an anchor with the @anchor command, and give the label as a normal brace-delimited argument. For example:

This marks the @anchor{x-spot}spot.
…
@xref{x-spot,,the spot}.

produces:

This marks the spot.
…
See [the spot], page 1.

As you can see, the @anchor command itself produces no output. This example defines an anchor ‘x-spot’ just before the word ‘spot’. You can refer to it later with an @xref or other cross reference command, as shown (see Cross-references).

It is best to put @anchor commands just before the position you wish to refer to; that way, the reader’s eye is led on to the correct text when they jump to the anchor. You can put the @anchor command on a line by itself if that helps readability of the source. Whitespace (including newlines) is ignored after @anchor.

Anchor names and node names may not conflict. Anchors and nodes are given similar treatment in some ways; for example, the goto-node command takes either an anchor name or a node name as an argument. (See Go to node in Info.)

Also like node names, anchor names cannot include some characters (see @node Line Requirements).

Because of this duality, when you delete or rename a node, it is usually a good idea to define an @anchor with the old name. That way, any links to the old node, whether from other Texinfo manuals or general web pages, keep working.