13.2 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).