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     %R    Report, paper, or thesis (unpublished)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 `\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 (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  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       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.