REFER(1) BSD Reference Manual REFER(1)NAMErefer - find and insert literature references in documents
SYNOPSISrefer [-a] [-b] [-c] [-e] [-fn] [-kx] [-lm,n] [-n] [-p bib] [-skeys]
[-Bl.m] [-P] [-S] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
Refer is a preprocessor for nroff(1) 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 bi-
bliographies, 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 key-
words 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(1) 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 la-
bels).
-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 respec-
tively is used.
-n Do not search the default file /var/db/Ind. If there is a REFER en-
vironment variable, the specified file will be searched instead of
the default file; in this case the -n flag has no effect.
-pbib
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 indicate 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(1) input. Label l will be
turned into the macro .m with l defaulting to %X and .m defaulting
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(1), neqn(1) or tbl(1) 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-letter, then a
blank, and finally the contents of the field, and continue until the next
line starting with '%'. The output ordering and formatting of fields is
controlled by the macros specified for nroff(1) or troff(1) (for foot-
notes and endnotes) or roffbib(1) (for stand-alone bibliographies). For a
list of the most common key-letters and their corresponding fields, see
addbib(1). An example of a refer entry is given below.
ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variable is used by refer if it exists.
REFER Specify an alternate default search file for publication
lists.
EXAMPLES
%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/share/dict/papers Directory of default publication lists.
/var/db/Ind Default search file (for hunt phase).
/usr/share/dict/eign Contains common words.
/usr/libexec Directory where companion programs reside.
SEE ALSOaddbib(1), sortbib(1), roffbib(1), indxbib(1), lookbib(1)HISTORY
The Refer command appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.
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 refer-
ences causes a core dump.
AT&T 7th Edition August 8, 1991 2
