Provided by: groff_1.22.3-10_amd64 bug

NAME

       refer - preprocess bibliographic references for groff

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

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

       Each  citation  specifies  a  reference.   The  citation  can  specify a reference that is
       contained in a bibliographic database by giving a set of keywords that only that reference
       contains.   Alternatively it can specify a reference by supplying a database record in the
       citation.  A combination 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 accumulated, 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 compatibility with Unix refer.  It is usually more convenient to  use
       commands.

       refer  generates  .lf  lines  so  that  filenames and line numbers in messages 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).

OPTIONS

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

       Most options are equivalent to commands (for a  description  of  these  commands  see  the
       Commands subsection):

       -b     no-label-in-text; no-label-in-reference

       -e     accumulate

       -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 addition 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 separated by one or more
       blank lines.  Within each record fields start with a % at the beginning of a  line.   Each
       field  has  a  one  character name that immediately follows the %.  It is best to use only
       upper and lower case letters for the names of fields.  The name of  the  field  should  be
       followed  by  exactly  one space, and then by the contents of the field.  Empty fields are
       ignored.  The conventional meaning of each field is as follows:

       %A     The name of an author.  If the name contains a title such as Jr.  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 macros.  Accent strings should not be  quoted:
       use one \ rather than two.

   Citations
       The format of a citation is
              .[opening-text
              flags keywords
              fields
              .]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 supplement those specified
       in the reference.  When references are being accumulated and  the  keywords  component  is
       non-empty,  then  additional  fields should be specified only on the first occasion that a
       particular reference 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.  Typically the short label is used with author-date labels and
              consists 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 citations 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  references.   Just  use  a
       sequence  of citations, one for each reference.  Don't put anything between the citations.
       The labels for all the citations  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-empty opening-text or closing-text.  However,
       the labels for a citation using the  ]  flag  and  without  any  closing-text  immediately
       followed  by  a  citation  using the [ flag and without any opening-text may be sorted and
       merged even though the first citation's opening-text or the second citation's closing-text
       is  non-empty.   (If  you wish to prevent this just make the first citation's closing-text
       \&.)

   Commands
       Commands are contained between lines starting with .R1  and  .R2.   Recognition  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 followed 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 single ".  Neither # nor ;
       are recognized inside "s.  A line can be  continued  by  ending  it  with  \;  this  works
       everywhere except after a #.

       Each  command  name  that is marked with * has an associated negative command 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-negative 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 initial 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, followed 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.   Accumulated  references  will  be  written out
                                whenever a reference of the form

                                       .[
                                       $LIST$
                                       .]

                                is encountered, after all input files have  been  processed,  and
                                whenever .R1 line is recognized.

       annotate* field string   field is an annotation; print it at the end of the reference as a
                                paragraph preceded by the line

                                       .string

                                If string 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  articles,  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...  This command should come last in a .R1/.R2
                                block.

       bracket-label string1 string2 string3
                                In the text, bracket each label with  string1  and  string2.   An
                                occurrence  of  string2  immediately  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 created by indxbib(1) exists, then it will
                                be searched instead; each index can cover multiple 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   expressions   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 typically 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  version  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-database command must be given before then,  in
                                order to be effective.

       discard* fields          When the reference is read, fields should be discarded; no string
                                definitions for fields will be  output.   Initially,  fields  are
                                XYZ.

       et-al* string m n        Control  use of et al in the evaluation of @ expressions in label
                                expressions.  If the number of authors needed to make the  author
                                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 version 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 surrounding 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.

       search-ignore* fields    While  searching for keys in databases for which no index exists,
                                ignore  the  contents  of  fields.   Initially,  fields  XYZ  are
                                ignored.

       search-truncate* n       Only  require  the  first  n  characters of keys to be given.  In
                                effect when searching for a given key words in the  database  are
                                truncated  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  containing  just  a  date  and  possibly  a
                                disambiguating letter.

       sort* string             Sort   references   according   to   string.    References   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 sorting.  + 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 tentative 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 commands are not
       evaluated tentatively.  Normal and tentative evaluation are the  same  for  all  types  of
       expression  other  than  @, *, and % expressions.  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 initial
              subsequence of the authors may be used instead of all the authors,  again  provided
              that this does not introduce ambiguity.  The use of only the last name for the i-th
              author of some reference is considered to be  ambiguous  if  there  is  some  other
              reference, such that the first i-1 authors of the references are the same, the i-th
              authors are not the same, but the i-th authors last names are the same.   A  proper
              initial  subsequence of the sequence of authors for some reference is considered to
              be ambiguous if there is a reference with some other sequence of authors which also
              has  that subsequence as a proper initial subsequence.  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 requirements 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 tentatively evaluates to an empty string.

       expr+n
       expr-n The first (+) or last (-) n upper or lower case letters or digits 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.

       expr1 expr2
              The concatenation of expr1 and expr2.

       expr1|expr2
              If expr1 is non-empty then expr1 otherwise expr2.

       expr1&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 number 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
       reference.   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/dict/papers/Ind  Default database.

       file.i                Index files.

       refer  uses  temporary  files.  See the groff(1) man page for details where such files are
       created.

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 expressions.

COPYING

       Copyright © 1989-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual  provided  the
       copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

       Permission  is  granted  to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the
       conditions for verbatim copying, provided  that  the  entire  resulting  derived  work  is
       distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

       Permission  is  granted  to  copy  and distribute translations of this manual into another
       language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except  that  this  permission
       notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of
       in the original English.