BIB2BIB(1)

📦
version 1.99 · 2 versions
, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 BIB2BIB(1) — the filter era 💖

okay bestie, welcome to BibX2bib (yes that's the NAME, she's a filter for BibTeX data bases, and she ate) 💅

this page lives in the General Commands Manual, section 1 — so like, it's a command you just run, no cap.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

bib2bib [options] <filename> ...

that's it. that's the whole vibe. options, then as many filenames as your little heart desires 🫶

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so bib2bib is a filter tool, right? she reads one or several bibliography files, filters the entries against a criterion you give her, and then outputs two things:

  1. the list of selected keys
  2. a new bibliography file containing only the selected entries

and if you give her no input file at all? no stress — input is taken from the standard input. queen of flexibility honestly 👑

alsoooo, she can output a file containing all the keys of entries that satisfy the condition. that second file? it's literally built to be fed in as the -citefile option to bibtex2html. match made in heaven fr fr 🦋

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -ob filename — tells her where to write the selected entries. if you don't say anything, she defaults to standard output. no secrets here 💖
  • -oc filename — tells her where to write the list of selected keys. if you don't say anything, this file is not created at all. ghosted 🫥
  • -c condition — the ✨condition✨ for selecting entries. output keeps only the entries that satisfy it. give her several of these and only entries that satisfy all of the conditions get selected (she's picky, we love that). the syntax of conditions is described in the complete documentation, and heads up: it's better to escape shell expansions in those conditions — in other words, write your conditions between quotes. periodt 💅
  • -expand — expands all abbreviations in the output file. ⚠️ but notice: there is no way to ask for expansion of cross-references, because the meaning of such an expansion is unclear. better to let bibtex (via bibtex2html) handle the cross-references himself, depending on the style considered. let him cook 🔥
  • -s field — sorts the entries of the bibliography with respect to the given field, which may be $key or $type to refer to the key or the entry type, same as for filter conditions. you can use this one several times to specify a lexicographic order — like by year, then by keys. and when the field is $date, entries are sorted chronologically ⏰
    • when sorting, the resulting bibliography will always contain the comments first, then the preambles, then the abbreviations, and finally the regular entries. 🚨 be warned: such a sort may put cross-references before entries that refer to them, so be cautious. this one's giving chaos energy, stay safe out there 😭
  • -r — reverses the sort 🔄
  • -q, --quiet — be quiet. 🤫
  • -w, --warn-error — stop at the first warning. dramatic but valid 💀

🌈 USAGE WITH BIBTEX2HTML 🌈

notice that the two output files are suitable for use with bibtex2html. a typical use would be:

bib2bib -oc citefile -ob bibfile.bib -c condition file1.bib file2.bib ...
bibtex2html -citefile citefile bibfile.bib

which will produce exactly the HTML file for the selected references. iconic behaviour, truly 👑

and finally (last one i promise), notice that bibtex2html will expand the strings — by default, unless you specify the -noexpand option — but not the cross-references. okay that's the tea ☕

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Bib2bib has been written by Jean-Christophe Filliâtre and Claude Marché. 🫶

This manpage has been compiled by Ralf Treinen from the original bib2bib documentation. thank you for your service 🎀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

for complete documentation, please check the bibtex2html manual. on a Debian system the manual can be found at /usr/share/doc/bibtex2html — both in the formats postscript and HTML — or via the Debian help system. go read it bestie, i believe in you 📚

that's the whole page!! now go filter some bibliographies, you absolute main character 🌟

signing off from the General Commands Manual, section 1 — BIB2BIB(1), always and forever 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from