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refer(1)

NAME

       refer - preprocess bibliographic references for groff

SYNOPSIS

       refer [ -benvCPRS ] [ -an ] [ -cfields ] [ -fn ] [ -ifields ]
	     [ -kfield ] [ -lm,n ] [ -pfilename ] [ -sfields ] [ -tn ]
	     [ -Bfield.macro ] [ filename... ]

       It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and its
       parameter.

DESCRIPTION

       This file documents the GNU version of refer,  which  is  part  of  the
       groff  document	formatting system.  refer copies the contents of file-
       name... to the standard output, except that lines  between  .[  and  .]
       are  interpreted as citations, and lines between .R1 and .R2 are inter-
       preted as commands about how citations are to be processed.

       Each citation specifies a reference.  The citation can specify a refer-
       ence  that  is contained in a bibliographic database by giving a set of
       keywords that only that reference contains.  Alternatively it can spec-
       ify a reference by supplying a database record in the citation.	A com-
       bination of these alternatives is also possible.

       For each citation, refer can produce a mark in  the  text.   This  mark
       consists  of  some  label which can be separated from the text and from
       other labels in various ways.  For each reference it also outputs groff
       commands  that  can  be	used by a macro package to produce a formatted
       reference for each citation.  The output of  refer  must  therefore  be
       processed  using  a suitable macro package.  The -ms and -me macros are
       both suitable.  The commands to format a citation's  reference  can  be
       output immediately after the citation, or the references may be accumu-
       lated, and the commands output at some later point.  If the  references
       are  accumulated,  then	multiple  citations of the same reference will
       produce a single formatted reference.

       The interpretation of lines between .R1 and .R2 as commands  is	a  new
       feature	of  GNU refer.	Documents making use of this feature can still
       be processed by Unix refer just by adding the lines

	      .de R1
	      .ig R2
	      ..
       to the beginning of the document.  This	will  cause  troff  to	ignore
       everything  between  .R1 and .R2.  The effect of some commands can also
       be achieved by options.	These options are supported mainly for compat-
       ibility	with  Unix  refer.   It is usually more convenient to use com-
       mands.

       refer generates .lf lines so that filenames and line  numbers  in  mes-
       sages  produced	by commands that read refer output will be correct; it
       also interprets lines beginning with .lf so  that  filenames  and  line
       numbers in the messages and .lf lines that it produces will be accurate
       even if the input has been preprocessed by a command such as soelim(1).

       -n     no-default-database

       -C     compatible

       -P     move-punctuation

       -S     label "(A.n|Q) ', ' (D.y|D)"; bracket-label " (" ) "; "

       -an    reverse An

       -cfields
	      capitalize fields

       -fn    label %n

       -ifields
	      search-ignore fields

       -k     label L~%a

       -kfield
	      label field~%a

       -l     label A.nD.y%a

       -lm    label A.n+mD.y%a

       -l,n   label A.nD.y-n%a

       -lm,n  label A.n+mD.y-n%a

       -pfilename
	      database filename

       -sspec sort spec

       -tn    search-truncate n

       These options are equivalent to the following commands with  the  addi-
       tion  that the filenames specified on the command line are processed as
       if they were arguments to the bibliography command instead  of  in  the
       normal way:

       -B     annotate X AP; no-label-in-reference

       -Bfield.macro
	      annotate field macro; no-label-in-reference

       The following options have no equivalent commands:

       -v     Print the version number.

       -R     Don't recognize lines beginning with .R1/.R2.

USAGE

   Bibliographic databases
       The  bibliographic  database is a text file consisting of records sepa-
       rated by one or more blank lines.  Within each record fields start with
	      at  the  end,  it  should  be  separated from the last name by a
	      comma.  There can be multiple occurrences of the A  field.   The
	      order  is  significant.  It is a good idea always to supply an A
	      field or a Q field.

       B      For an article that is part of a book, the title of the book.

       C      The place (city) of publication.

       D      The date of publication.	The year should be specified in  full.
	      If  the  month  is specified, the name rather than the number of
	      the month should be used, but only the first three  letters  are
	      required.   It is a good idea always to supply a D field; if the
	      date is unknown, a value such as in  press  or  unknown  can  be
	      used.

       E      For  an article that is part of a book, the name of an editor of
	      the book.  Where the work has editors and no authors, the  names
	      of the editors should be given as A fields and , (ed) or , (eds)
	      should be appended to the last author.

       G      US Government ordering number.

       I      The publisher (issuer).

       J      For an article in a journal, the name of the journal.

       K      Keywords to be used for searching.

       L      Label.

       N      Journal issue number.

       O      Other information.  This is usually printed at the  end  of  the
	      reference.

       P      Page number.  A range of pages can be specified as m-n.

       Q      The  name  of  the  author, if the author is not a person.  This
	      will only be used if there are no A fields.  There can  only  be
	      one Q field.

       R      Technical report number.

       S      Series name.

       T      Title.   For an article in a book or journal, this should be the
	      title of the article.

       V      Volume number of the journal or book.

       X      Annotation.

       For all fields except A and E, if there is more than one occurrence  of
       a  particular field in a record, only the last such field will be used.

       If accent strings are used, they should	follow	the  character	to  be
       accented.   This  means	that  the  AM  macro must be used with the -ms
	      .]closing-text

       The opening-text, closing-text and flags components are optional.  Only
       one of the keywords and fields components need be specified.

       The keywords component says to search the bibliographic databases for a
       reference  that	contains all the words in keywords.  It is an error if
       more than one reference if found.

       The fields components specifies additional fields to replace or supple-
       ment those specified in the reference.  When references are being accu-
       mulated and the keywords component is non-empty, then additional fields
       should be specified only on the first occasion that a particular refer-
       ence is cited, and will apply to all citations of that reference.

       The opening-text and closing-text component  specifies  strings	to  be
       used  to  bracket  the  label  instead  of the strings specified in the
       bracket-label command.  If either of these components is non-empty, the
       strings	specified  in the bracket-label command will not be used; this
       behaviour can be altered using the [ and ] flags.   Note  that  leading
       and trailing spaces are significant for these components.

       The  flags  component  is a list of non-alphanumeric characters each of
       which modifies the treatment of this particular citation.   Unix  refer
       will  treat these flags as part of the keywords and so will ignore them
       since they are non-alphanumeric.  The  following  flags	are  currently
       recognized:

       #      This says to use the label specified by the short-label command,
	      instead of that specified by the label  command.	 If  no  short
	      label  has been specified, the normal label will be used.  Typi-
	      cally the short label is used with author-date labels  and  con-
	      sists of only the date and possibly a disambiguating letter; the
	      # is supposed to be suggestive of a numeric type of label.

       [      Precede opening-text with the  first  string  specified  in  the
	      bracket-label command.

       ]      Follow  closing-text  with  the  second  string specified in the
	      bracket-label command.

       One advantages of using the [ and ] flags  rather  than	including  the
       brackets  in  opening-text  and closing-text is that you can change the
       style of bracket used in the document just  by  changing  the  bracket-
       label  command.	Another advantage is that sorting and merging of cita-
       tions will not necessarily be inhibited if the flags are used.

       If a label is to be inserted into the text, it will be attached to  the
       line  preceding	the  .[ line.  If there is no such line, then an extra
       line will be inserted before the .[ line and a warning will be given.

       There is no special notation for making a citation to  multiple	refer-
       ences.	Just  use  a  sequence	of  citations, one for each reference.
       Don't put anything between the citations.  The labels for all the cita-
       tions  will  be attached to the line preceding the first citation.  The
       labels may also be sorted or merged.  See the  description  of  the  <>
       label expression, and of the sort-adjacent-labels and abbreviate-label-
       ranges command.	A label will not be merged if its citation has a  non-
       Commands are contained between lines starting with .R1 and .R2.	Recog-
       nition  of  these  lines can be prevented by the -R option.  When a .R1
       line is recognized any accumulated references are flushed out.  Neither
       .R1 nor .R2 lines, nor anything between them is output.

       Commands  are separated by newlines or ;s.  # introduces a comment that
       extends to the end of the line (but  does  not  conceal	the  newline).
       Each command is broken up into words.  Words are separated by spaces or
       tabs.  A word that begins with " extends to the next " that is not fol-
       lowed  by another ".  If there is no such " the word extends to the end
       of the line.  Pairs of " in a word beginning with " collapse to a  sin-
       gle  ".	 Neither # nor ; are recognized inside "s.  A line can be con-
       tinued by ending it with \; this works everywhere except after a #.

       Each command name that is marked with * has an associated negative com-
       mand  no-name that undoes the effect of name.  For example, the no-sort
       command specifies that references should not be sorted.	 The  negative
       commands take no arguments.

       In the following description each argument must be a single word; field
       is used for a single upper or lower case letter naming a field;	fields
       is used for a sequence of such letters; m and n are used for a non-neg-
       ative numbers; string is used for an arbitrary string; filename is used
       for the name of a file.

       abbreviate* fields string1 string2 string3 string4
				Abbreviate the first names of fields.  An ini-
				tial letter will  be  separated  from  another
				initial  letter by string1, from the last name
				by string2, and from anything else (such as  a
				von  or  de)  by  string3.  These default to a
				period followed by a space.  In  a  hyphenated
				first  name,  the initial of the first part of
				the name will be separated from the hyphen  by
				string4;   this  defaults  to  a  period.   No
				attempt is made to handle any ambiguities that
				might  result  from  abbreviation.   Names are
				abbreviated before sorting  and  before  label
				construction.

       abbreviate-label-ranges* string
				Three  or  more  adjacent labels that refer to
				consecutive references will be abbreviated  to
				a  label  consisting  of the first label, fol-
				lowed by string followed by  the  last	label.
				This is mainly useful with numeric labels.  If
				string is omitted it defaults to -.

       accumulate*		Accumulate references instead of  writing  out
				each  reference as it is encountered.  Accumu-
				lated references will be written out  whenever
				a reference of the form

				       .[
				       $LIST$
				       .]

				is encountered, after all input files hve been

				If  macro is omitted it will default to AP; if
				field is also omitted it will  default	to  X.
				Only one field can be an annotation.

       articles string...	string...   are  definite  or indefinite arti-
				cles, and should be ignored at	the  beginning
				of  T  fields when sorting.  Initially, the, a
				and an are recognized as articles.

       bibliography filename... Write out all the references contained in  the
				bibliographic databases filename...

       bracket-label string1 string2 string3
				In  the  text, bracket each label with string1
				and string2.  An occurrence of string2 immedi-
				ately  followed by string1 will be turned into
				string3.  The default behaviour is

				       bracket-label \*([. \*(.] ", "

       capitalize fields	Convert fields to caps and small caps.

       compatible*		Recognize .R1 and .R2 even when followed by  a
				character other than space or newline.

       database filename...	Search the bibliographic databases filename...
				For each filename if an index filename.i  cre-
				ated  by  indxbib(1)  exists,  then it will be
				searched instead; each index can cover	multi-
				ple databases.

       date-as-label* string	string	is a label expression that specifies a
				string with which to replace the D field after
				constructing the label.  See the Label expres-
				sions subsection for a	description  of  label
				expressions.  This command is useful if you do
				not want  explicit  labels  in	the  reference
				list, but instead want to handle any necessary
				disambiguation by qualifying the date in  some
				way.   The  label used in the text would typi-
				cally be some combination of  the  author  and
				date.	In  most cases you should also use the
				no-label-in-reference command.	For example,

				       date-as-label D.+yD.y%a*D.-y

				would attach a disambiguating  letter  to  the
				year part of the D field in the reference.

       default-database*	The default database should be searched.  This
				is the default behaviour, so the negative ver-
				sion  of  this	command is more useful.  refer
				determines whether the default database should
				be  searched  on  the  first  occasion that it
				needs to do a search.  Thus a no-default-data-
				base  command  must  be  given before then, in
				order to be effective.
				sequence unambiguous is u and the total number
				of authors is t then the last t-u authors will
				be replaced by string provided that t-u is not
				less than m and t is not  less	than  n.   The
				default behaviour is

				       et-al " et al" 2 3

       include filename 	Include filename and interpret the contents as
				commands.

       join-authors string1 string2 string3
				This  says  how  authors  should   be	joined
				together.  When there are exactly two authors,
				they will be joined with string1.  When  there
				are  more  than  two authors, all but the last
				two will be joined with string2, and the  last
				two  authors  will be joined with string3.  If
				string3  is  omitted,  it  will   default   to
				string1;  if  string2  is also omitted it will
				also default to string1.  For example,

				       join-authors " and " ", " ", and "

				will restore the default  method  for  joining
				authors.

       label-in-reference*	When  outputting  the  reference,  define  the
				string [F to be the reference's  label.   This
				is the default behaviour; so the negative ver-
				sion of this command is more useful.

       label-in-text*		For each reference output a label in the text.
				The label will be separated from the surround-
				ing text as  described	in  the  bracket-label
				command.   This  is  the default behaviour; so
				the negative version of this command  is  more
				useful.

       label string		string is a label expression describing how to
				label each reference.

       separate-label-second-parts string
				When merging  two-part	labels,  separate  the
				second part of the second label from the first
				label with string.  See the description of the
				<> label expression.

       move-punctuation*	In  the  text, move any punctuation at the end
				of line past the label.  It is usually a  good
				idea to give this command unless you are using
				superscripted numbers as labels.

       reverse* string		Reverse the fields whose names are in  string.
				Each  field  name  can be followed by a number
				which says how	many  such  fields  should  be
				reversed.   If no number is given for a field,
				all such fields will be reversed.
				to the maximum of n and the length of the key.
				Initially n is 6.

       short-label* string	string is a label expression that specifies an
				alternative  (usually shorter) style of label.
				This is used when the # flag is given  in  the
				citation.    When   using   author-date  style
				labels, the identity of the author or  authors
				is sometimes clear from the context, and so it
				may be desirable to omit the author or authors
				from  the label.  The short-label command will
				typically be used to specify a label  contain-
				ing  just a date and possibly a disambiguating
				letter.

       sort* string		Sort references according to  string.	Refer-
				ences	will   automatically  be  accumulated.
				string should be a list of field  names,  each
				followed  by  a  number,  indicating  how many
				fields with the name should be used for  sort-
				ing.   +  can be used to indicate that all the
				fields with the name should be used.   Also  .
				can  be used to indicate the references should
				be sorted using the (tentative)  label.   (The
				Label  expressions  subsection	describes  the
				concept of a tentative label.)

       sort-adjacent-labels*	Sort labels that  are  adjacent  in  the  text
				according  to  their position in the reference
				list.  This command should usually be given if
				the  abbreviate-label-ranges  command has been
				given, or if the label expression  contains  a
				<>  expression.   This	will  have  no	effect
				unless references are being accumulated.

   Label expressions
       Label expressions can be evaluated both normally and tentatively.   The
       result  of  normal evaluation is used for output.  The result of tenta-
       tive evaluation, called the tentative label,  is  used  to  gather  the
       information  that  normal  evaluation  needs to disambiguate the label.
       Label expressions specified by the date-as-label and  short-label  com-
       mands  are  not evaluated tentatively.  Normal and tentative evaluation
       are the same for all types of expression other than @, *, and % expres-
       sions.	The  description  below  applies  to normal evaluation, except
       where otherwise specified.

       field
       field n
	      The n-th part of field.  If n is omitted, it defaults to 1.

       'string'
	      The characters in string literally.

       @      All the authors joined as specified by the join-authors command.
	      The  whole  of each author's name will be used.  However, if the
	      references are sorted by author (that is the sort  specification
	      starts  with A+), then authors' last names will be used instead,
	      provided that this does not introduce  ambiguity,  and  also  an
	      be ambiguous if there is a reference with some other sequence of
	      authors which also has that subsequence as a proper initial sub-
	      sequence.   When	an initial subsequence of authors is used, the
	      remaining authors are replaced by the string  specified  by  the
	      et-al command; this command may also specify additional require-
	      ments that must be met before  an  initial  subsequence  can  be
	      used.   @ tentatively evaluates to a canonical representation of
	      the authors, such that authors that compare equally for  sorting
	      purpose will have the same representation.

       %n
       %a
       %A
       %i
       %I     The  serial  number  of the reference formatted according to the
	      character following the %.  The serial number of a reference  is
	      1  plus  the  number  of	earlier references with same tentative
	      label as this reference.	These expressions tentatively evaluate
	      to an empty string.

       expr*  If  there  is another reference with the same tentative label as
	      this reference, then expr, otherwise an empty string.  It tenta-
	      tively evaluates to an empty string.

       expr+n
       expr-n The  first (+) or last (-) n upper or lower case letters or dig-
	      its of expr.  Troff special characters (such as \('a) count as a
	      single  letter.	Accent	strings  are retained but do not count
	      towards the total.

       expr.l expr converted to lowercase.

       expr.u expr converted to uppercase.

       expr.c expr converted to caps and small caps.

       expr.r expr reversed so that the last name is first.

       expr.a expr with first names abbreviated.  Note that  fields  specified
	      in  the abbreviate command are abbreviated before any labels are
	      evaluated.  Thus .a is useful only when you want a field	to  be
	      abbreviated in a label but not in a reference.

       expr.y The year part of expr.

       expr.+y
	      The  part  of  expr  before the year, or the whole of expr if it
	      does not contain a year.

       expr.-y
	      The part of expr after the year, or an empty string if expr does
	      not contain a year.

       expr.n The last name part of expr.

       expr1~expr2
	      expr1  except  that  if the last character of expr1 is - then it
	      will be replaced by expr2.
	      If expr1 is non-empty then expr2 otherwise an empty string.

       expr1?expr2:expr3
	      If expr1 is non-empty then expr2 otherwise expr3.

       <expr> The label is in two parts, which are  separated  by  expr.   Two
	      adjacent	two-part labels which have the same first part will be
	      merged by appending the second part of the second label onto the
	      first  label  separated by the string specified in the separate-
	      label-second-parts command (initially, a	comma  followed  by  a
	      space);  the  resulting label will also be a two-part label with
	      the same first part as before merging, and so additional	labels
	      can  be  merged  into  it.   Note that it is permissible for the
	      first part to be empty; this  maybe  desirable  for  expressions
	      used in the short-label command.

       (expr) The same as expr.  Used for grouping.

       The  above  expressions	are  listed  in  order	of precedence (highest
       first); & and | have the same precedence.

   Macro interface
       Each reference starts with a call to the macro ]-.  The string [F  will
       be  defined to be the label for this reference, unless the no-label-in-
       reference command has been given.   There  then	follows  a  series  of
       string  definitions, one for each field: string [X corresponds to field
       X.  The number register [P is set to 1 if the P field contains a  range
       of pages.  The [T, [A and [O number registers are set to 1 according as
       the T, A and O fields end with one of the characters .?!.  The [E  num-
       ber  register  will be set to 1 if the [E string contains more than one
       name.  The reference is followed by a call to the ][ macro.  The  first
       argument to this macro gives a number representing the type of the ref-
       erence.	If a reference contains a J field, it will  be	classified  as
       type  1,  otherwise if it contains a B field, it will type 3, otherwise
       if it contains a G or R field it will be type 4, otherwise if  contains
       a  I  field it will be type 2, otherwise it will be type 0.  The second
       argument is a symbolic name for the type: other, journal-article, book,
       article-in-book	or  tech-report.   Groups of references that have been
       accumulated or are produced by the bibliography command are preceded by
       a call to the ]< macro and followed by a call to the ]> macro.

FILES

       /usr/share/dict/papers/Ind  Default database.

       file.i			   Index files.

ENVIRONMENT

       REFER  If set, overrides the default database.

SEE ALSO

       indxbib(1), lookbib(1), lkbib(1)

BUGS

       In  label  expressions, <> expressions are ignored inside .char expres-
       sions.

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