ROFFBIB(1)

📦 version 191015, in alpine 3.24

💖 ROFFBIB(1) — like, the whole manual but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, so this is roffbib, from the General Commands Manual section of the Unix life. she runs off bibliographic databases and she's lowkey iconic for it. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

roffbib — run off bibliographic database

like, it takes your bib database and prints it all out pretty. that's the whole vibe check 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

roffbib [-ehnorsxVQ] [-Tterm] [-mmac] [file ...]

yes she takes a whole lil pile of flags and some files, no cap ✨

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea: roffbib prints out all the records in a bibliographic database, in bibliography format rather than as footnotes or endnotes. it's giving main character reference list energy 📚✨

generally it is used in conjunction with sortbib, like so:

sortbib  database | roffbib

(not me putting two spaces in there, that's literally how it's written, keep it 💀)

roffbib accepts most of the options understood by nroff(1) — most importantly the -T flag to specify terminal type. so yeah, she's flexible 💜

now, if abstracts or comments are entered following the %X field key, roffbib will format them into paragraphs for an annotated bibliography. and listen — several %X fields may be given if several annotation paragraphs are desired. go off, annotate as much as you want 🎀

the -x flag will suppress the printing of these abstracts. bye bye annotation paragraphs 😭

a user-defined set of macros may be specified after the -m option. there should be a space between the -m and the macro filename (fr fr, don't forget the space, that's important bestie). this set of macros will replace the ones defined in /usr/share/heirloom-doctools/tmac/bib. so like, out with the old, in with your custom ones 🌈

the -V flag will send output to the Versatec; the -Q flag will queue output for the phototypesetter. vintage printer slay 👑

👑 the four command-line registers 👑

four command-line registers control formatting style of the bibliography — much like the number registers of ms(7). four of them. count 'em. let's go:

  • -rN1 — will number the references starting at one (1). counting from 1, as one does 🙈
  • -rV2 — will double space the bibliography. spacious ✨
  • -rV1 — will double space references but single space annotation paragraphs. a whole mixed-spacing moment 🦋

and the line length can be changed from the default 6.5 inches to 6 inches with the -rL6i argument 📏

plus the page offset can be set from the default of 0 to one inch by specifying -rO1i — that's capital O, not zero, i cannot stress this enough bestie, capital O 🔥

⚠️ note: with the -V and -Q flags the default page offset is already one inch. so like, it's already done for you there, no need to fight it 💀

💀 FILES 💀

  • /usr/share/heirloom-doctools/tmac/bib — file of macros used by nroff/troff

(the home of the macros that -m can replace, iykyk 🧚)

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

the whole bib friend group, honestly 🫶

🍓 NOTES 🍓

users have to rewrite macros to create customized formats. yep. that's on you, bestie. DIY era 💅

— sign-off time, besties —

this page came from Debian, dated December 12, 2005, and it's filed under ROFFBIB(1) — the General Commands Manual section. vintage but still serving 💜✨🎀

ngl, go forth and run off some bibliographies. slay 🦋

📦 where this page comes from