/makebib

A simple command to generate a bib file from an aux file and a central bib database

Primary LanguagePythonMIT LicenseMIT

Makebib

A simple script to generate a local bib file from a central database so that only items actually cited appear.

Installation

$ pip install makebib

Usage

$ makebib cmd arg

where cmd is either compile or show.

Compile takes as an argument the basename of a TeX-file (i.e. without the .tex extension) and creates a local bib file populating it with items which are cited by the document and can be found in the central database. Then it runs (a python version) of BibTeX on the TeX file.

The filename of the local bib file is extracted from the TeX file by looking for a \bibliography command. The program will refuse to overrite a previously existing bib file unless given the --force-overwrite option or unless it finds a file named .generated_bib in the current directory. Additionally, whenever it creates (or overwrites) a local bib file, it also creates the file named .generated_bib to indicate, that the file was automatically generated.

The show command is used for showing various info. It has several subcommands:

  • cited Lists all the keys which are cited in the TeX-file given by its argument.

  • missing Lists keys which are cited in the TeX-file given by its argument but not present in the central database

  • all Lists all the keys from the central database

  • 'bibentry' Prints out the bibentry from the central database identified by the key given as the argument of this subcommand.

  • cfg Lists the values (or their defaults) of all configuration settings (and/or their defaults).

Additional help is available by running

$ makebib [cmd] --help

Configuration

The program reads its configuration from the files /etc/makebib, ~/.makebib or .makebib in the current directory. If either of the files does not exist, it is skipped. Also, options specified in later files override options specified in the previous files (and defaults). The files follow a simple

    key = val

format with each line specifying a single case-insensitive option. Spaces around = are ignored as is everything following a # sign. Currently the only available option is db which specifies the location of the central BibTeX database.