NAME

sortbib − sort bibliographic database

USAGE

sortbib [ −sKEYS ] database ... 

DESCRIPTION

Sortbib sorts files of records containing refer (1) keyletters by user-specified keys.  Records may be separated by blank lines, or by .[ and .] delimiters, but the two styles may not be mixed together.  This program reads through each database and pulls out key fields, which are sorted separately.  The sorted key fields contain the file pointer, byte offset, and length of corresponding records.  These records are delivered using disk seeks and reads, so sortbib may not be used in a pipeline to read standard input. 

By default, sortbib alphabetizes by the first %A and the %D fields, which contain the senior author and date.  The −s option is used to specify new KEYS. For instance, −sATD sorts by author, title, and date, while −sA+D sorts by all authors and the date.  Sort keys past the fourth ones specified are not meaningful.  No more than 16 databases may be sorted together at one time.  Records longer than 4096 characters are truncated. 

Sortbib sorts on the last word on the %A line, which is assumed to be the author’s last name.  A word in the final position, such as “jr.” or “ed.”, is ignored if the name beforehand ends with a comma.  Authors with two-word last names or unusual constructions can be sorted correctly by using the nroff (1) convention “\0” in place of a blank.  A %Q field is considered to be the same as %A, except sorting begins with the first, not the last, word. 

Sortbib sorts on the last word of the %D line, usually the year.  It also ignores leading articles (e.g., A or The) when sorting by titles in the %T or %J fields.  It ignores articles of any modern European language.  If a sort-significant field is absent from a record, sortbib places that record before other records containing the field. 

CAUTIONS

Records with missing author fields should probably be sorted by title. 

RELATED INFORMATION

addbib (1), indxbib (1), lookbib (1) refer (1), roffbib (1).