4.3BSD - /usr/man/cat1/refer.0

REFER(1)                                                              REFER(1)


NAME
       refer - find and insert literature references in documents

SYNOPSIS
       refer [ -a ] [ -b ] [ -c ] [ -e ] [ -fn ] [ -kx ] [ -lm,n ] [ -n ] [ -p
       bib ] [ -skeys ] [ -Bl.m ] [ -P ] [ -S ] [ file ... ]

DESCRIPTION
       Refer is a preprocessor for nroff or troff(1) that  finds  and  formats
       references for footnotes or endnotes.  It is also the base for a series
       of programs designed to index, search, sort, and print stand-alone bib‐
       liographies, or other data entered in the appropriate form.

       Given  an incomplete citation with sufficiently precise keywords, refer
       will search a bibliographic database for  references  containing  these
       keywords  anywhere  in the title, author, journal, etc.  The input file
       (or standard input) is copied to  standard  output,  except  for  lines
       between  .[  and  .] delimiters, which are assumed to contain keywords,
       and are replaced by information from the bibliographic  database.   The
       user  may  also search different databases, override particular fields,
       or add new fields.  The  reference  data,  from  whatever  source,  are
       assigned to a set of troff strings.  Macro packages such as ms(7) print
       the finished reference text from these strings.  By default  references
       are flagged by footnote numbers.

       The following options are available:

       -an   Reverse  the  first n author names (Jones, J. A. instead of J. A.
             Jones).  If n is omitted all author names are reversed.

       -b    Bare mode: do not put any flags  in  text  (neither  numbers  nor
             labels).

       -ckeys
             Capitalize  (with  CAPS  SMALL CAPS) the fields whose key-letters
             are in keys.

       -e    Instead of leaving the references where  encountered,  accumulate
             them until a sequence of the form
                  .[
                  $LIST$
                  .]
             is  encountered,  and  then write out all references collected so
             far.  Collapse references to same source.

       -fn   Set the footnote number to n instead of the default of  1  (one).
             With labels rather than numbers, this flag is a no-op.

       -kx   Instead  of  numbering  references,  use labels as specified in a
             reference data line beginning %x; by default x is L.

       -lm,n Instead of numbering references, use labels made from the  senior
             author’s last name and the year of publication.  Only the first m
             letters of the last name and the last n digits of  the  date  are
             used.   If  either  m  or  n  is  omitted the entire name or date
             respectively is used.

       -n    Do not search the default file /usr/dict/papers/Ind.  If there is
             a REFER environment variable, the specified file will be searched
             instead of the default file; in this case  the  -n  flag  has  no
             effect.

       -p bib
             Take  the  next  argument  bib  as  a  file  of  references to be
             searched.  The default file is searched last.

       -skeys
             Sort references by fields  whose  key-letters  are  in  the  keys
             string;  permute  reference numbers in text accordingly.  Implies
             -e.  The key-letters in keys may be followed by a number to indi‐
             cate  how many such fields are used, with + taken as a very large
             number.  The default is AD which sorts on the senior  author  and
             then  date;  to sort, for example, on all authors and then title,
             use -sA+T.

       -Bl.m Bibliography mode.  Take a file composed of records separated  by
             blank  lines,  and  turn  them into troff input.  Label l will be
             turned into the macro .m with l defaulting to %X and .m  default‐
             ing to .AP (annotation paragraph).

       -P    Place punctuation marks .,:;?! after the reference signal, rather
             than before.  (Periods and commas used to be done with  strings.)

       -S    Produce references in the Natural or Social Science format.

       To  use  your  own  references, put them in the format described below.
       They can be searched more rapidly by running indxbib(1) on them  before
       using  refer;  failure to index results in a linear search.  When refer
       is used with the eqn, neqn or tbl preprocessors refer should be  first,
       to minimize the volume of data passed through pipes.

       The refer preprocessor and associated programs expect input from a file
       of references composed of records separated by blank lines.   A  record
       is  a  set  of lines (fields), each containing one kind of information.
       Fields start on a line beginning with a ‘‘%’’, followed by  a  key-let‐
       ter,  then a blank, and finally the contents of the field, and continue
       until the next line starting with ‘‘%’’.  The output ordering and  for‐
       matting of fields is controlled by the macros specified for nroff/troff
       (for footnotes and endnotes) or  roffbib  (for  stand-alone  bibliogra‐
       phies).   For  a  list  of the most common key-letters and their corre‐
       sponding fields, see addbib(1).  An example of a refer entry  is  given
       below.

EXAMPLE
       %A   M. E. Lesk
       %T   Some Applications of Inverted Indexes on the UNIX System
       %B   UNIX Programmer’s Manual
       %V   2b
       %I   Bell Laboratories
       %C   Murray Hill, NJ
       %D   1978

FILES
       /usr/dict/papers  directory of default publication lists
       /usr/lib/refer    directory of companion programs

SEE ALSO
       addbib(1), sortbib(1), roffbib(1), indxbib(1), lookbib(1)

AUTHOR
       Mike Lesk

BUGS
       Blank  spaces at the end of lines in bibliography fields will cause the
       records to sort and reverse incorrectly.  Sorting large numbers of ref‐
       erences causes a core dump.


7th Edition                      May 12, 1986                         REFER(1)