1SORTBIB(1) General Commands Manual SORTBIB(1)
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6 sortbib - sort bibliographic database
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9 sortbib [ -sKEYS ] database ...
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12 Sortbib sorts files of records containing refer key-letters by user-
13 specified keys. Records may be separated by blank lines, or by .[ and
14 .] delimiters, but the two styles may not be mixed together. This pro‐
15 gram reads through each database and pulls out key fields, which are
16 sorted separately. The sorted key fields contain the file pointer,
17 byte offset, and length of corresponding records. These records are
18 delivered using disk seeks and reads, so sortbib may not be used in a
19 pipeline to read standard input.
20 By default, sortbib alphabetizes by the first %A and the %D fields,
22 which contain the senior author and date. The -s option is used to
23 specify new KEYS. For instance, -sATD will sort by author, title, and
24 date, while -sA+D will sort by all authors, and date. Sort keys past
25 the fourth are not meaningful. No more than 16 databases may be sorted
26 together at one time. Records longer than 4096 characters will be
27 truncated.
28 Sortbib sorts on the last word on the %A line, which is assumed to be
30 the author's last name. A word in the final position, such as ``jr.''
31 or ``ed.'', will be ignored if the name beforehand ends with a comma.
32 Authors with two-word last names or unusual constructions can be sorted
33 correctly by using the nroff convention ``\0'' in place of a blank. A
34 %Q field is considered to be the same as %A, except sorting begins with
35 the first, not the last, word. Sortbib sorts on the last word of the
36 %D line, usually the year. It also ignores leading articles (like
37 ``A'' or ``The'') when sorting by titles in the %T or %J fields; it
38 will ignore articles of any modern European language. If a sort-sig‐
39 nificant field is absent from a record, sortbib places that record
40 before other records containing that field.
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43 refer(1), addbib(1), roffbib(1), indxbib(1), lookbib(1)
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46 Greg Shenaut, Bill Tuthill
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49 Records with missing author fields should probably be sorted by title.
504.2 Berkeley Distribution April 29, 1985 SORTBIB(1)