sortbib(1)                                             sortbib(1)



     NAME
          sortbib - sort bibliographic database

     SYNOPSIS
          sortbib [-sKEYS] 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 fC.] 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.

          By default, sortbib alphabetizes by the first %A and the %D
          fields, which contain the senior author and date.  The -s
          flag 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 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 %Tor%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.

     FILES
          /usr/ucb/sortbib

     SEE ALSO
          refer(1), addbib(1), roffbib(1).  Records with missing
          author fields should probably be sorted by title.








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