I am writing a package using the GNU build system. The documentation hence is in the texinfo format. As a result, executing make converts the texinfo file into the info format, and executing make pdf automatically produces a pdf file.
In the texinfo file, I have something like this:
@verbatim
awk '{...}' data.txt
@end verbatim
However, in the pdf, the "basic" single quotes (U+0027) in the awk command above are transformed into "curvy" single quotes (U+2019) so that, if one does a copy-paste of the command from the pdf into a terminal, bash complains ("syntax error"). This forces the user to edit the command he just copy-pasted. Same problem occurs if I replace @verbatim by @example. I searched the texinfo manual but couldn't find a way to specify apostrophes. I am using texinfo version 5.2.
Karl Berry (via the bug-texinfo mailing list) told me to add 2 lines to my texi file (more info):
@codequoteundirected on
@codequotebacktick on
as well as add the latest version of texinfo.tex to my package.