lookbib(1)

💅 lookbib(1) — bestie's guide to searching bibliographic databases ✨

ok so this is lookbib, from the General Commands Manual section, and it's genuinely one of those little tools that just works — no cap. Let me tell you everything 💖

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✨ NAME ✨

lookbib — search bibliographic databases 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

lookbib [-i string] [-t n] file ...

lookbib --help

lookbib -v
lookbib --version

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so picture this: lookbib writes a prompt to the standard error stream (unless the standard input stream is not a terminal, in which case it just… doesn't, bestie 🙈), then reads a line from the standard input containing a set of keywords, then searches each bibliographic database file for references containing those keywords, writes any references found to the standard output stream, and then repeats that whole process until the end of input. it's giving loop queen 👑

and here's the iconic part: for each database file to be searched, if an index file file.i created by indxbib(1) exists, then it will be searched instead — and each index can cover multiple databases. multi-tasking icon behavior fr fr 🔥

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --help — displays a usage message. that's it, that's the whole vibe. (and -v and --version show version information instead). all of them exit afterward, periodt. 👑
• -i string — when searching files for which no index exists, ignore the contents of fields whose names are in string. very "not me ignoring you" energy 💀
• -t n — require only the first n characters of keys to be given. the default is 6. six characters, no more, no cap ⭐

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• file.i — Index files. 🦋

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• “Some Applications of Inverted Indexes on the Unix System”, by M. E. Lesk, 1978, AT&T Bell Laboratories Computing Science Technical Report No. 69. (yes the whole citation, we respect the classics 🫶)
• refer(1), lkbib(1), indxbib(1) — the whole friend group, honestly 💜

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ngl bestie, if you're searching databases with no index around, -i and -t are your moment — go off 💅

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and that's the page! 🎀 this was groff 1.23.0, dated 29 October 2024 — mwah, slay, see u in the group chat 💖✨🍓