JABREF(1)

💖 JABREF — the manual page, but make it make sense 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the JABREF(1) page from the User Commands section of your manual. she's a classic. let's get into it 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

JabRef — a graphical frontend to manage BibTeX databases. that's it, that's the vibe. 👑

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

jabref [OPTIONS] [BIBTEX_FILE]

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so. JabRef is a graphical Java application for editing bibtex (.bib) databases. graphical. Java. databases. the holy trinity fr fr.

Here's the tea on what she can do:

• JabRef lets you organize your entries into overlapping logical groups — and with a single click you can limit your view to one single group, or an intersection, or a union of several groups. the way that just works 😭
• You can customize the entry information shown in the main window. your window, your rules 💅
• You can sort by any of the standard Bibtex fields. any. of. them.
• JabRef can autogenerate bibtex keys for your entries ✨
• JabRef also lets you easily link to PDF or web sources for your reference entries. lowkey essential.

And there's more, because she contains multitudes:

• JabRef can import from and export to several formats, and you can customize export filters.
• JabRef can be run as a command line application to convert from any import format to any export format. no GUI needed, she's versatile like that.

---

💅 OPTIONS 💅

one bullet per option, no skipping, we respect the lore here:

• -a, --aux <FILE> — Subdatabase from AUX: file[.aux],new[.bib]
• -asfl, --automaticallySetFileLinks — Automatically set file links
• -b, --blank — Do not open any files at startup
• -d, --prdef <FILE> — Reset preferences (key1,key2,... or 'all')
• --debug — Show debug level messages
• -f, --fetch <FILE> — Run fetcher, e.g. "--fetch=Medline:cancer"
• -g, --generateBibtexKeys — Regenerate all keys for the entries in a BibTeX file
• -h, --help — Display help on command line options
• -i, --import <FILE> — Import file: filename[,import format]
• --importToOpen <FILE> — Import to open tab
• -m, --exportMatches <FILE> — [field]searchTerm,outputFile: file[,exportFormat]
• -n, --nogui — No GUI. Only process command line options.
• -o, --output <FILE> — Output or export file: filename[,export format]
• -p, --primp <FILE> — Import preferences from file
• -v, --version — Display version
• -x, --prexp <FILE> — Export preferences to file

---

🎀 Available import formats: 🎀

here's the full roster, she ate:

• BibTeX : bibtex
• BibTeXML : bibtexml
• Biblioscape : biblioscape
• Copac : cpc
• INSPEC : inspec
• ISI : isi
• MSBib : msbib
• Medline : medline
• MedlinePlain : medlineplain
• Ovid : ovid
• PDFcontent : pdfcontent
• REPEC New Economic Papers (NEP) : repecnep
• RIS : ris
• Refer/Endnote : refer
• SilverPlatter : silverplatter
• XMP-annotated PDF : xmp
• text citations : textcitations

Available export formats: MSBib, bibordf, bibtexml, din1505, docbook, endnote, harvard, html, iso690rtf, iso690txt, listrefs, misq, mods, ods, oocalc, oocsv, ris, simplehtml, tablerefs, tablerefsabsbib

---

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Export a selection of references — the main character move:

jabref -m '(author=bock or title|keywords="computer methods") and not (author=sager)',output.html,html -n true inputfile.bib

For information referring to the search function see the documentation for 'advanced search'. 👀

Custom export formats can be added within the program (options - manage custom exports). you're welcome 💖

---

☕ JAVA-WRAPPERS NOTE ☕

ngl this is important: this program is a shell script wrapper based on java-wrappers(7). So you therefore benefit from several features — please see the java-wrappers(7) manual page for more information about them. 🧚

---

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• the included help and commandline help: jabref -h
• https://www.jabref.org/
• java-wrappers(7)

---

💀 reminder bestie: every flag, every format, every path up there is exactly as written. don't freestyle with them.

okay and that's the whole page. this was JabRef 3.6, dated December 2016, and honestly? iconic for her era. periodt. 🎀✨💜