sortbib(1)                                                         User Commands                                                        sortbib(1)

NAME

       sortbib - sort a bibliographic database

SYNOPSIS

       sortbib [-s KEYS] database...

DESCRIPTION

       sortbib sorts files of records containing refer 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.

       The most common key-letters and their meanings are given below.

       %A       Author's name

       %B       Book containing article referenced

       %C       City (place of publication)

       %D       Date of publication

       %E       Editor of book containing article referenced

       %F       Footnote number or label (supplied by refer)

       %G       Government order number

       %H       Header commentary, printed before reference

       %I       Issuer (publisher)

       %J       Journal containing article

       %K       Keywords to use in locating reference

       %L       Label field used by -k option of refer

       %M       Bell Labs Memorandum (undefined)

       %N       Number within volume

       %O       Other commentary, printed at end of reference

       %P       Page number(s)

       %Q       Corporate or Foreign Author (unreversed)

       %R       Report, paper, or thesis (unpublished)

       %S       Series title

       %T       Title of article or book

       %V       Volume number

       %X       Abstract -- used by roffbib, not by refer

       %Y,Z     Ignored by refer

       By default, sortbib alphabetizes by the first %A and the %D fields, which contain the senior author and 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 convention `' 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 (like `A'
       or `The') when sorting by titles in the %T or %J fields; it will ignore articles of any modern European  language.  If  a  sort-significant
       field is absent from a record, sortbib places that record before other records containing that field.

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

OPTIONS

       -sKEYS   Specify  new  KEYS. For instance, -sATD will sort by author, title, and date, while -sA+D will sort by all authors, and date. Sort
                keys past the fourth are not meaningful.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         |      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability                 |SUNWdoc                      |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       addbib(1), indxbib(1), lookbib(1), refer(1), roffbib(1), attributes(5)

BUGS

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

SunOS 5.10                                                          14 Sep 1992                                                         sortbib(1)