1REFER(1)                    General Commands Manual                   REFER(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       refer - preprocess bibliographic references for groff
7

SYNOPSIS

9       refer [ -benvCPRS ] [ -an ] [ -cfields ] [ -fn ] [ -ifields ]
10             [ -kfield ] [ -lm,n ] [ -pfilename ] [ -sfields ] [ -tn ]
11             [ -Bfield.macro ] [ filename... ]
12
13       It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and its
14       parameter.
15

DESCRIPTION

17       This file documents the GNU version of refer,  which  is  part  of  the
18       groff  document  formatting system.  refer copies the contents of file‐
19       name... to the standard output, except that lines between .[ and .] are
20       interpreted as citations, and lines between .R1 and .R2 are interpreted
21       as commands about how citations are to be processed.
22
23       Each citation specifies a reference.  The citation can specify a refer‐
24       ence  that  is contained in a bibliographic database by giving a set of
25       keywords that only that reference contains.  Alternatively it can spec‐
26       ify a reference by supplying a database record in the citation.  A com‐
27       bination of these alternatives is also possible.
28
29       For each citation, refer can produce a mark in  the  text.   This  mark
30       consists  of  some  label which can be separated from the text and from
31       other labels in various ways.  For each reference it also outputs groff
32       commands  that  can  be  used by a macro package to produce a formatted
33       reference for each citation.  The output of  refer  must  therefore  be
34       processed  using  a suitable macro package.  The -ms and -me macros are
35       both suitable.  The commands to format a citation's  reference  can  be
36       output immediately after the citation, or the references may be accumu‐
37       lated, and the commands output at some later point.  If the  references
38       are  accumulated,  then  multiple  citations of the same reference will
39       produce a single formatted reference.
40
41       The interpretation of lines between .R1 and .R2 as commands  is  a  new
42       feature  of  GNU refer.  Documents making use of this feature can still
43       be processed by Unix refer just by adding the lines
44
45              .de R1
46              .ig R2
47              ..
48       to the beginning of the document.  This  will  cause  troff  to  ignore
49       everything  between  .R1 and .R2.  The effect of some commands can also
50       be achieved by options.  These options are supported mainly for compat‐
51       ibility  with  Unix  refer.   It is usually more convenient to use com‐
52       mands.
53
54       refer generates .lf lines so that filenames and line  numbers  in  mes‐
55       sages  produced  by commands that read refer output will be correct; it
56       also interprets lines beginning with .lf so  that  filenames  and  line
57       numbers in the messages and .lf lines that it produces will be accurate
58       even if the input has been preprocessed by a command such as soelim(1).
59

OPTIONS

61       Most options are equivalent to commands (for  a  description  of  these
62       commands see the Commands subsection):
63
64       -b     no-label-in-text; no-label-in-reference
65
66       -e     accumulate
67
68       -n     no-default-database
69
70       -C     compatible
71
72       -P     move-punctuation
73
74       -S     label "(A.n|Q) ', ' (D.y|D)"; bracket-label " (" ) "; "
75
76       -an    reverse An
77
78       -cfields
79              capitalize fields
80
81       -fn    label %n
82
83       -ifields
84              search-ignore fields
85
86       -k     label L~%a
87
88       -kfield
89              label field~%a
90
91       -l     label A.nD.y%a
92
93       -lm    label A.n+mD.y%a
94
95       -l,n   label A.nD.y-n%a
96
97       -lm,n  label A.n+mD.y-n%a
98
99       -pfilename
100              database filename
101
102       -sspec sort spec
103
104       -tn    search-truncate n
105
106       These  options  are equivalent to the following commands with the addi‐
107       tion that the filenames specified on the command line are processed  as
108       if  they  were  arguments to the bibliography command instead of in the
109       normal way:
110
111       -B     annotate X AP; no-label-in-reference
112
113       -Bfield.macro
114              annotate field macro; no-label-in-reference
115
116       The following options have no equivalent commands:
117
118       -v     Print the version number.
119
120       -R     Don't recognize lines beginning with .R1/.R2.
121

USAGE

123   Bibliographic databases
124       The bibliographic database is a text file consisting of  records  sepa‐
125       rated by one or more blank lines.  Within each record fields start with
126       a % at the beginning of a line.  Each field has a  one  character  name
127       that immediately follows the %.  It is best to use only upper and lower
128       case letters for the names of fields.  The name of the field should  be
129       followed  by  exactly one space, and then by the contents of the field.
130       Empty fields are ignored.  The conventional meaning of each field is as
131       follows:
132
133       A      The name of an author.  If the name contains a title such as Jr.
134              at the end, it should be separated  from  the  last  name  by  a
135              comma.   There  can be multiple occurrences of the A field.  The
136              order is significant.  It is a good idea always to supply  an  A
137              field or a Q field.
138
139       B      For an article that is part of a book, the title of the book.
140
141       C      The place (city) of publication.
142
143       D      The  date of publication.  The year should be specified in full.
144              If the month is specified, the name rather than  the  number  of
145              the  month  should be used, but only the first three letters are
146              required.  It is a good idea always to supply a D field; if  the
147              date  is  unknown,  a  value  such as in press or unknown can be
148              used.
149
150       E      For an article that is part of a book, the name of an editor  of
151              the  book.  Where the work has editors and no authors, the names
152              of the editors should be given as A fields and , (ed) or , (eds)
153              should be appended to the last author.
154
155       G      US Government ordering number.
156
157       I      The publisher (issuer).
158
159       J      For an article in a journal, the name of the journal.
160
161       K      Keywords to be used for searching.
162
163       L      Label.
164
165       N      Journal issue number.
166
167       O      Other  information.   This  is usually printed at the end of the
168              reference.
169
170       P      Page number.  A range of pages can be specified as m-n.
171
172       Q      The name of the author, if the author is  not  a  person.   This
173              will  only  be used if there are no A fields.  There can only be
174              one Q field.
175
176       R      Technical report number.
177
178       S      Series name.
179
180       T      Title.  For an article in a book or journal, this should be  the
181              title of the article.
182
183       V      Volume number of the journal or book.
184
185       X      Annotation.
186
187       For  all fields except A and E, if there is more than one occurrence of
188       a particular field in a record, only the last such field will be used.
189
190       If accent strings are used, they should  follow  the  character  to  be
191       accented.   This  means  that  the  AM  macro must be used with the -ms
192       macros.  Accent strings should not be quoted: use  one  \  rather  than
193       two.
194
195   Citations
196       The format of a citation is
197              .[opening-text
198              flags keywords
199              fields
200              .]closing-text
201
202       The opening-text, closing-text and flags components are optional.  Only
203       one of the keywords and fields components need be specified.
204
205       The keywords component says to search the bibliographic databases for a
206       reference  that  contains all the words in keywords.  It is an error if
207       more than one reference if found.
208
209       The fields components specifies additional fields to replace or supple‐
210       ment those specified in the reference.  When references are being accu‐
211       mulated and the keywords component is non-empty, then additional fields
212       should be specified only on the first occasion that a particular refer‐
213       ence is cited, and will apply to all citations of that reference.
214
215       The opening-text and closing-text component  specifies  strings  to  be
216       used  to  bracket  the  label  instead  of the strings specified in the
217       bracket-label command.  If either of these components is non-empty, the
218       strings  specified  in the bracket-label command will not be used; this
219       behaviour can be altered using the [ and ] flags.   Note  that  leading
220       and trailing spaces are significant for these components.
221
222       The  flags  component  is a list of non-alphanumeric characters each of
223       which modifies the treatment of this particular citation.   Unix  refer
224       will  treat these flags as part of the keywords and so will ignore them
225       since they are non-alphanumeric.  The  following  flags  are  currently
226       recognized:
227
228       #      This says to use the label specified by the short-label command,
229              instead of that specified by the label  command.   If  no  short
230              label  has been specified, the normal label will be used.  Typi‐
231              cally the short label is used with author-date labels  and  con‐
232              sists of only the date and possibly a disambiguating letter; the
233              # is supposed to be suggestive of a numeric type of label.
234
235       [      Precede opening-text with the  first  string  specified  in  the
236              bracket-label command.
237
238       ]      Follow  closing-text  with  the  second  string specified in the
239              bracket-label command.
240
241       One advantages of using the [ and ] flags  rather  than  including  the
242       brackets  in  opening-text  and closing-text is that you can change the
243       style of bracket used in the document just  by  changing  the  bracket-
244       label  command.  Another advantage is that sorting and merging of cita‐
245       tions will not necessarily be inhibited if the flags are used.
246
247       If a label is to be inserted into the text, it will be attached to  the
248       line  preceding  the  .[ line.  If there is no such line, then an extra
249       line will be inserted before the .[ line and a warning will be given.
250
251       There is no special notation for making a citation to  multiple  refer‐
252       ences.   Just  use  a  sequence  of  citations, one for each reference.
253       Don't put anything between the citations.  The labels for all the cita‐
254       tions  will  be attached to the line preceding the first citation.  The
255       labels may also be sorted or merged.  See the  description  of  the  <>
256       label expression, and of the sort-adjacent-labels and abbreviate-label-
257       ranges command.  A label will not be merged if its citation has a  non-
258       empty opening-text or closing-text.  However, the labels for a citation
259       using the ] flag and without any closing-text immediately followed by a
260       citation  using  the  [ flag and without any opening-text may be sorted
261       and merged even though the first citation's opening-text or the  second
262       citation's  closing-text  is  non-empty.   (If you wish to prevent this
263       just make the first citation's closing-text \&.)
264
265   Commands
266       Commands are contained between lines starting with .R1 and .R2.  Recog‐
267       nition  of  these  lines can be prevented by the -R option.  When a .R1
268       line is recognized any accumulated references are flushed out.  Neither
269       .R1 nor .R2 lines, nor anything between them is output.
270
271       Commands  are separated by newlines or ;s.  # introduces a comment that
272       extends to the end of the line (but  does  not  conceal  the  newline).
273       Each command is broken up into words.  Words are separated by spaces or
274       tabs.  A word that begins with " extends to the next " that is not fol‐
275       lowed  by another ".  If there is no such " the word extends to the end
276       of the line.  Pairs of " in a word beginning with " collapse to a  sin‐
277       gle  ".   Neither # nor ; are recognized inside "s.  A line can be con‐
278       tinued by ending it with \; this works everywhere except after a #.
279
280       Each command name that is marked with * has an associated negative com‐
281       mand  no-name that undoes the effect of name.  For example, the no-sort
282       command specifies that references should not be sorted.   The  negative
283       commands take no arguments.
284
285       In the following description each argument must be a single word; field
286       is used for a single upper or lower case letter naming a field;  fields
287       is used for a sequence of such letters; m and n are used for a non-neg‐
288       ative numbers; string is used for an arbitrary string; filename is used
289       for the name of a file.
290
291       abbreviate* fields string1 string2 string3 string4
292                                Abbreviate the first names of fields.  An ini‐
293                                tial letter will  be  separated  from  another
294                                initial  letter by string1, from the last name
295                                by string2, and from anything else (such as  a
296                                von  or  de)  by  string3.  These default to a
297                                period followed by a space.  In  a  hyphenated
298                                first  name,  the initial of the first part of
299                                the name will be separated from the hyphen  by
300                                string4;   this  defaults  to  a  period.   No
301                                attempt is made to handle any ambiguities that
302                                might  result  from  abbreviation.   Names are
303                                abbreviated before sorting  and  before  label
304                                construction.
305
306       abbreviate-label-ranges* string
307                                Three  or  more  adjacent labels that refer to
308                                consecutive references will be abbreviated  to
309                                a  label  consisting  of the first label, fol‐
310                                lowed by string followed by  the  last  label.
311                                This is mainly useful with numeric labels.  If
312                                string is omitted it defaults to -.
313
314       accumulate*              Accumulate references instead of  writing  out
315                                each  reference as it is encountered.  Accumu‐
316                                lated references will be written out  whenever
317                                a reference of the form
318
319                                       .[
320                                       $LIST$
321                                       .]
322
323                                is  encountered,  after  all  input files have
324                                been processed, and whenever .R1 line is  rec‐
325                                ognized.
326
327       annotate* field string   field is an annotation; print it at the end of
328                                the reference as a paragraph preceded  by  the
329                                line
330
331                                       .string
332
333                                If string is omitted it will default to AP; if
334                                field is also omitted it will  default  to  X.
335                                Only one field can be an annotation.
336
337       articles string...       string... are definite or indefinite articles,
338                                and should be ignored at the  beginning  of  T
339                                fields when sorting.  Initially, the, a and an
340                                are recognized as articles.
341
342       bibliography filename... Write out all the references contained in  the
343                                bibliographic databases filename...  This com‐
344                                mand should come last in a .R1/.R2 block.
345
346       bracket-label string1 string2 string3
347                                In the text, bracket each label  with  string1
348                                and string2.  An occurrence of string2 immedi‐
349                                ately followed by string1 will be turned  into
350                                string3.  The default behaviour is
351
352                                       bracket-label \*([. \*(.] ", "
353
354       capitalize fields        Convert fields to caps and small caps.
355
356       compatible*              Recognize  .R1 and .R2 even when followed by a
357                                character other than space or newline.
358
359       database filename...     Search the bibliographic databases filename...
360                                For  each filename if an index filename.i cre‐
361                                ated by indxbib(1) exists,  then  it  will  be
362                                searched  instead; each index can cover multi‐
363                                ple databases.
364
365       date-as-label* string    string is a label expression that specifies  a
366                                string with which to replace the D field after
367                                constructing the label.  See the Label expres‐
368                                sions  subsection  for  a description of label
369                                expressions.  This command is useful if you do
370                                not  want  explicit  labels  in  the reference
371                                list, but instead want to handle any necessary
372                                disambiguation  by qualifying the date in some
373                                way.  The label used in the text  would  typi‐
374                                cally  be  some  combination of the author and
375                                date.  In most cases you should also  use  the
376                                no-label-in-reference command.  For example,
377
378                                       date-as-label D.+yD.y%a*D.-y
379
380                                would  attach  a  disambiguating letter to the
381                                year part of the D field in the reference.
382
383       default-database*        The default database should be searched.  This
384                                is the default behaviour, so the negative ver‐
385                                sion of this command is  more  useful.   refer
386                                determines whether the default database should
387                                be searched on  the  first  occasion  that  it
388                                needs to do a search.  Thus a no-default-data‐
389                                base command must be  given  before  then,  in
390                                order to be effective.
391
392       discard* fields          When  the  reference is read, fields should be
393                                discarded; no string  definitions  for  fields
394                                will be output.  Initially, fields are XYZ.
395
396       et-al* string m n        Control  use  of  et al in the evaluation of @
397                                expressions in label expressions.  If the num‐
398                                ber  of  authors  needed  to  make  the author
399                                sequence unambiguous is u and the total number
400                                of authors is t then the last t-u authors will
401                                be replaced by string provided that t-u is not
402                                less  than  m  and  t is not less than n.  The
403                                default behaviour is
404
405                                       et-al " et al" 2 3
406
407       include filename         Include filename and interpret the contents as
408                                commands.
409
410       join-authors string1 string2 string3
411                                This   says   how  authors  should  be  joined
412                                together.  When there are exactly two authors,
413                                they  will be joined with string1.  When there
414                                are more than two authors, all  but  the  last
415                                two  will be joined with string2, and the last
416                                two authors will be joined with  string3.   If
417                                string3   is   omitted,  it  will  default  to
418                                string1; if string2 is also  omitted  it  will
419                                also default to string1.  For example,
420
421                                       join-authors " and " ", " ", and "
422
423                                will  restore  the  default method for joining
424                                authors.
425
426       label-in-reference*      When  outputting  the  reference,  define  the
427                                string  [F  to be the reference's label.  This
428                                is the default behaviour; so the negative ver‐
429                                sion of this command is more useful.
430
431       label-in-text*           For each reference output a label in the text.
432                                The label will be separated from the surround‐
433                                ing  text  as  described  in the bracket-label
434                                command.  This is the  default  behaviour;  so
435                                the  negative  version of this command is more
436                                useful.
437
438       label string             string is a label expression describing how to
439                                label each reference.
440
441       separate-label-second-parts string
442                                When  merging  two-part  labels,  separate the
443                                second part of the second label from the first
444                                label with string.  See the description of the
445                                <> label expression.
446
447       move-punctuation*        In the text, move any punctuation at  the  end
448                                of  line past the label.  It is usually a good
449                                idea to give this command unless you are using
450                                superscripted numbers as labels.
451
452       reverse* string          Reverse  the fields whose names are in string.
453                                Each field name can be followed  by  a  number
454                                which  says  how  many  such  fields should be
455                                reversed.  If no number is given for a  field,
456                                all such fields will be reversed.
457
458       search-ignore* fields    While  searching  for  keys  in  databases for
459                                which no index exists, ignore the contents  of
460                                fields.  Initially, fields XYZ are ignored.
461
462       search-truncate* n       Only require the first n characters of keys to
463                                be given.  In  effect  when  searching  for  a
464                                given  key words in the database are truncated
465                                to the maximum of n and the length of the key.
466                                Initially n is 6.
467
468       short-label* string      string is a label expression that specifies an
469                                alternative (usually shorter) style of  label.
470                                This  is  used when the # flag is given in the
471                                citation.   When   using   author-date   style
472                                labels,  the identity of the author or authors
473                                is sometimes clear from the context, and so it
474                                may be desirable to omit the author or authors
475                                from the label.  The short-label command  will
476                                typically  be used to specify a label contain‐
477                                ing just a date and possibly a  disambiguating
478                                letter.
479
480       sort* string             Sort  references  according to string.  Refer‐
481                                ences  will  automatically   be   accumulated.
482                                string  should  be a list of field names, each
483                                followed by  a  number,  indicating  how  many
484                                fields  with the name should be used for sort‐
485                                ing.  + can be used to indicate that  all  the
486                                fields  with  the name should be used.  Also .
487                                can be used to indicate the references  should
488                                be  sorted  using the (tentative) label.  (The
489                                Label  expressions  subsection  describes  the
490                                concept of a tentative label.)
491
492       sort-adjacent-labels*    Sort  labels  that  are  adjacent  in the text
493                                according to their position in  the  reference
494                                list.  This command should usually be given if
495                                the abbreviate-label-ranges command  has  been
496                                given,  or  if the label expression contains a
497                                <>  expression.   This  will  have  no  effect
498                                unless references are being accumulated.
499
500   Label expressions
501       Label  expressions can be evaluated both normally and tentatively.  The
502       result of normal evaluation is used for output.  The result  of  tenta‐
503       tive  evaluation,  called  the  tentative  label, is used to gather the
504       information that normal evaluation needs  to  disambiguate  the  label.
505       Label  expressions  specified by the date-as-label and short-label com‐
506       mands are not evaluated tentatively.  Normal and  tentative  evaluation
507       are the same for all types of expression other than @, *, and % expres‐
508       sions.  The description below  applies  to  normal  evaluation,  except
509       where otherwise specified.
510
511       field
512       field n
513              The n-th part of field.  If n is omitted, it defaults to 1.
514
515       'string'
516              The characters in string literally.
517
518       @      All the authors joined as specified by the join-authors command.
519              The whole of each author's name will be used.  However,  if  the
520              references  are sorted by author (that is the sort specification
521              starts with A+), then authors' last names will be used  instead,
522              provided  that  this  does  not introduce ambiguity, and also an
523              initial subsequence of the authors may be used  instead  of  all
524              the authors, again provided that this does not introduce ambigu‐
525              ity.  The use of only the last name for the i-th author of  some
526              reference  is  considered to be ambiguous if there is some other
527              reference, such that the first i-1 authors of the references are
528              the  same,  the  i-th  authors  are  not  the same, but the i-th
529              authors' last names are the same.  A proper initial  subsequence
530              of  the  sequence of authors for some reference is considered to
531              be ambiguous if there is a reference with some other sequence of
532              authors which also has that subsequence as a proper initial sub‐
533              sequence.  When an initial subsequence of authors is  used,  the
534              remaining  authors  are  replaced by the string specified by the
535              et-al command; this command may also specify additional require‐
536              ments  that  must  be  met  before an initial subsequence can be
537              used.  @ tentatively evaluates to a canonical representation  of
538              the  authors, such that authors that compare equally for sorting
539              purpose will have the same representation.
540
541       %n
542       %a
543       %A
544       %i
545       %I     The serial number of the reference formatted  according  to  the
546              character  following  the  %.   The serial number of a reference
547              is 1 plus the number of earlier references with  same  tentative
548              label as this reference.  These expressions tentatively evaluate
549              to an empty string.
550
551       expr*  If there is another reference with the same tentative  label  as
552              this reference, then expr, otherwise an empty string.  It tenta‐
553              tively evaluates to an empty string.
554
555       expr+n
556       expr-n The first (+) or last (-) n upper or lower case letters or  dig‐
557              its of expr.  Troff special characters (such as \('a) count as a
558              single letter.  Accent strings are retained  but  do  not  count
559              towards the total.
560
561       expr.l expr converted to lowercase.
562
563       expr.u expr converted to uppercase.
564
565       expr.c expr converted to caps and small caps.
566
567       expr.r expr reversed so that the last name is first.
568
569       expr.a expr  with  first names abbreviated.  Note that fields specified
570              in the abbreviate command are abbreviated before any labels  are
571              evaluated.   Thus  .a is useful only when you want a field to be
572              abbreviated in a label but not in a reference.
573
574       expr.y The year part of expr.
575
576       expr.+y
577              The part of expr before the year, or the whole  of  expr  if  it
578              does not contain a year.
579
580       expr.-y
581              The part of expr after the year, or an empty string if expr does
582              not contain a year.
583
584       expr.n The last name part of expr.
585
586       expr1~expr2
587              expr1 except that if the last character of expr1 is  -  then  it
588              will be replaced by expr2.
589
590       expr1 expr2
591              The concatenation of expr1 and expr2.
592
593       expr1|expr2
594              If expr1 is non-empty then expr1 otherwise expr2.
595
596       expr1&expr2
597              If expr1 is non-empty then expr2 otherwise an empty string.
598
599       expr1?expr2:expr3
600              If expr1 is non-empty then expr2 otherwise expr3.
601
602       <expr> The  label  is  in  two parts, which are separated by expr.  Two
603              adjacent two-part labels which have the same first part will  be
604              merged by appending the second part of the second label onto the
605              first label separated by the string specified in  the  separate-
606              label-second-parts  command  (initially,  a  comma followed by a
607              space); the resulting label will also be a two-part  label  with
608              the  same first part as before merging, and so additional labels
609              can be merged into it.  Note that  it  is  permissible  for  the
610              first  part  to  be  empty; this maybe desirable for expressions
611              used in the short-label command.
612
613       (expr) The same as expr.  Used for grouping.
614
615       The above expressions  are  listed  in  order  of  precedence  (highest
616       first); & and | have the same precedence.
617
618   Macro interface
619       Each  reference starts with a call to the macro ]-.  The string [F will
620       be defined to be the label for this reference, unless the  no-label-in-
621       reference  command  has  been  given.   There  then follows a series of
622       string definitions, one for each field: string [X corresponds to  field
623       X.   The number register [P is set to 1 if the P field contains a range
624       of pages.  The [T, [A and [O number registers are set to 1 according as
625       the  T, A and O fields end with one of the characters .?!.  The [E num‐
626       ber register will be set to 1 if the [E string contains more  than  one
627       name.   The reference is followed by a call to the ][ macro.  The first
628       argument to this macro gives a number representing the type of the ref‐
629       erence.   If  a  reference contains a J field, it will be classified as
630       type 1, otherwise if it contains a B field, it will  type 3,  otherwise
631       if  it contains a G or R field it will be type 4, otherwise if contains
632       a I field it will be type 2, otherwise it will be type 0.   The  second
633       argument is a symbolic name for the type: other, journal-article, book,
634       article-in-book or tech-report.  Groups of references  that  have  been
635       accumulated or are produced by the bibliography command are preceded by
636       a call to the ]< macro and followed by a call to the ]> macro.
637

FILES

639       /usr/dict/papers/Ind  Default database.
640
641       file.i                Index files.
642

ENVIRONMENT

644       REFER  If set, overrides the default database.
645

SEE ALSO

647       indxbib(1), lookbib(1), lkbib(1)
648

BUGS

650       In label expressions, <> expressions are ignored inside  .char  expres‐
651       sions.
652
653
654
655Groff Version 1.20.1            9 January 2009                        REFER(1)
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