SORTBIB(1) BSD Reference Manual SORTBIB(1)
sortbib - sort bibliographic database
sortbib [-s KEYS] database ...
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 pro-
gram 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.
Option available:
s 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 date. Sort keys
past the fourth are not meaningful.
No more than 16 databases may be sorted together at one time. Records
longer than 4096 characters will be 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.",
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 "\0" in place of a blank. A %Q field is con-
sidered 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 sort-
ing 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.
refer(1), addbib(1), roffbib(1), indxbib(1), lookbib(1)
Greg Shenaut, Bill Tuthill
Records with missing author fields should probably be sorted by title.
The sortbib command appeared in 4.2BSD.
4.2 Berkeley Distribution September 4, 2020 1