### 20.1.7 Batch Formatting

You can format Texinfo files for Info using `batch-texinfo-format` and Emacs Batch mode. You can run Emacs in Batch mode from any shell, including a shell inside of Emacs. (See Command Line Switches and Arguments in The GNU Emacs Manual.)

Here is a shell command to format all the files that end in ‘`.texinfo`’ in the current directory:

    emacs -batch -funcall batch-texinfo-format *.texinfo

Emacs processes all the files listed on the command line, even if an error occurs while attempting to format some of them.

Run `batch-texinfo-format` only with Emacs in Batch mode as shown; it is not interactive. It kills the Batch mode Emacs on completion.

`batch-texinfo-format` is convenient if you lack `makeinfo` and want to format several Texinfo files at once. When you use Batch mode, you create a new Emacs process. This frees your current Emacs, so you can continue working in it. (When you run `texinfo-format-region` or `texinfo-format-buffer`, you cannot use that Emacs for anything else until the command finishes.)