14.2 Definition Command Continuation Lines

The heading line of a definition command can get very long. Therefore, Texinfo has a special syntax allowing them to be continued over multiple lines of the source file: a lone ‘@’ at the end of each line to be continued. Here’s an example:

@defun fn-name @
  arg1 arg2 arg3
This is the basic continued defun.
@end defun

produces:

Function: fn-name arg1 arg2 arg3

This is the basic continued defun.

As you can see, the continued lines are combined, as if they had been typed on one source line.

Although this example only shows a one-line continuation, continuations may extend over any number of lines, in the same way; put an @ at the end of each line to be continued.

In general, any number of spaces or tabs before the @ continuation character are collapsed into a single space. There is one exception: the Texinfo processors will not fully collapse whitespace around a continuation inside braces. For example:

@deffn {Category @
  Name} …

The output (not shown) has excess space between ‘Category’ and ‘Name’. To avoid this, elide the unwanted whitespace in your input, or put the continuation @ outside braces.

@ does not function as a continuation character in any other context. Ordinarily, ‘@’ followed by a whitespace character (space, tab, newline) produces a normal interword space (see Multiple Spaces).