1sortbib(1) User Commands sortbib(1)
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6 sortbib - sort a bibliographic database
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9 sortbib [-s KEYS] database...
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13 sortbib sorts files of records containing refer key-letters by user-
14 specified keys. Records may be separated by blank lines, or by `.[' and
15 `.]' delimiters, but the two styles may not be mixed together. This
16 program reads through each database and pulls out key fields, which are
17 sorted separately. The sorted key fields contain the file pointer, byte
18 offset, and length of corresponding records. These records are deliv‐
19 ered using disk seeks and reads, so sortbib may not be used in a pipe‐
20 line to read standard input.
21 The most common key-letters and their meanings are given below.
24 %A Author's name
26 %B Book containing article referenced
29 %C City (place of publication)
32 %D Date of publication
35 %E Editor of book containing article referenced
38 %F Footnote number or label (supplied by refer)
41 %G Government order number
44 %H Header commentary, printed before reference
47 %I Issuer (publisher)
50 %J Journal containing article
53 %K Keywords to use in locating reference
56 %L Label field used by -k option of refer
59 %M Bell Labs Memorandum (undefined)
62 %N Number within volume
65 %O Other commentary, printed at end of reference
68 %P Page number(s)
71 %Q Corporate or Foreign Author (unreversed)
74 %R Report, paper, or thesis (unpublished)
77 %S Series title
80 %T Title of article or book
83 %V Volume number
86 %X Abstract — used by roffbib, not by refer
89 %Y,Z Ignored by refer
92 By default, sortbib alphabetizes by the first %A and the %D fields,
96 which contain the senior author and date.
97 sortbib sorts on the last word on the %A line, which is assumed to be
100 the author's last name. A word in the final position, such as `jr.' or
101 `ed.', will be ignored if the name beforehand ends with a comma.
102 Authors with two-word last names or unusual constructions can be sorted
103 correctly by using the nroff convention `\0' in place of a blank. A %Q
104 field is considered to be the same as %A, except sorting begins with
105 the first, not the last, word. sortbib sorts on the last word of the %D
106 line, usually the year. It also ignores leading articles (like `A' or
107 `The') when sorting by titles in the %T or %J fields; it will ignore
108 articles of any modern European language. If a sort-significant field
109 is absent from a record, sortbib places that record before other
110 records containing that field.
111 No more than 16 databases may be sorted together at one time. Records
114 longer than 4096 characters will be truncated.
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117 -sKEYS Specify new KEYS. For instance, -sATD will sort by author,
118 title, and date, while -sA+D will sort by all authors, and
119 date. Sort keys past the fourth are not meaningful.
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123 See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
124 ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
129 │ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
130 ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
131 │Availability │SUNWdoc │
132 └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
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135 addbib(1), indxbib(1), lookbib(1), refer(1), roffbib(1), attributes(5)
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138 Records with missing author fields should probably be sorted by title.
139SunOS 5.11 14 Sep 1992 sortbib(1)