sortbib(1) — bsd

SORTBIB(1)                           BSD                            SORTBIB(1)



NAME
     sortbib - sort bibliographic database

SYNOPSIS
     sortbib [ -sKEYS ] database

DESCRIPTION
     sortbib sorts files of records containing refer(1) key-letters 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 will sort by author, title, and date, while
     -sA+D will sort by all authors and by date.

     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.", will be 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 (of any modern European language) when sorting
     by titles in the %T or %J field.  If a sort-significant field is absent
     from a record, sortbib places that record before other records containing
     that field.

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

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

     Sort keys past the fourth one specified are not meaningful.

     No more than 16 databases may be sorted together at one time.  Records
     longer than 4096 characters will be truncated.
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