Re: texinfo-4.0: Crashes on Red Hat 6.1 system

[Karl Berry]

    It's another name that can be used for (presumably locally installed) dir 
    files.  The Info reader looks for `dir' and `localdir' in each directory 

Right, I knew that part, sorry I wasn't clear.  The question is, why was
localdir invented?  Why should localdir be read as well as dir?

There's a note in the ChangeLog that says:

    Mon Jan 25 10:59:49 1993  Brian Fox  (bfox@cubit)
            * info/dir.c: New file implements Gillespies `localdir' hacks.

Which is less than illuminating.  In the absence of any compelling
arguments to the contrary, I don't see any reason to keep supporting
localdir ... Brian, are you there?