REFER(1)                             BSD                              REFER(1)



NAME
     refer - find and insert literature references in documents

SYNOPSIS
     refer [ options ] [ 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 standalone
     bibliographies, 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. These delimiters are assumed to contain keywords, and
     are replaced by information from the bibliographic database.  You 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.

     References can 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.

     To use your own references, put them in the format described below.  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 percent sign (%), followed by a key-
     letter, then a blank, and finally the contents of the field, and continue
     until the next line starting with a percent sign. The output ordering and
     formatting of fields is controlled by the macros specified for
     nroff/troff (for footnotes and endnotes) or roffbib (for stand-alone
     bibliographies).  For a list of the most common key-letters and their
     corresponding fields, see addbib(1).

OPTIONS
     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 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 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.



EXAMPLE
     The following example shows the format of a refer entry.

     %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

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

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