LOOKBIB(1)

NAME
indxbib, lookbib - build inverted index for a bibliography, find references in a bibliography

SYNOPSIS
indxbib database ...
lookbib [ -n ] database

DESCRIPTION
Indxbib makes an inverted index to the named databases (or files) for use by lookbib(1) and refer(1). These files contain bibliographic references (or other kinds of information) separated by blank lines.

A bibliographic reference is a set of lines, constituting fields of bibliographic information. Each field starts on a line beginning with a ``%'', followed by a key-letter, then a blank, and finally the contents of the field, which may continue until the next line starting with ``%''.

Indxbib is a shell script that calls /usr/libexec/refer/mkey and /usr/libexec/refer/inv. The first program, mkey, truncates words to 6 characters, and maps upper case to lower case. It also discards words shorter than 3 characters, words among the 100 most common English words, and numbers (dates) < 1900 or > 2000. These parameters can be changed; see page 4 of the Refer document by Mike Lesk. The second program, inv, creates an entry file (.ia), a posting file (.ib), and a tag file (.ic), all in the working directory.

Lookbib uses an inverted index made by indxbib to find sets of bibliographic references. It reads keywords typed after the ``>'' prompt on the terminal, and retrieves records containing all these keywords. If nothing matches, nothing is returned except another ``>'' prompt.

Lookbib will ask if you need instructions, and will print some brief information if you reply ``y''. The ``-n'' flag turns off the prompt for instructions.

It is possible to search multiple databases, as long as they have a common index made by indxbib. In that case, only the first argument given to indxbib is specified to lookbib.

If lookbib does not find the index files (the .i[abc] files), it looks for a reference file with the same name as the argument, without the suffixes. It creates a file with a '.ig' suffix, suitable for use with fgrep. It then uses this fgrep file to find references. This method is simpler to use, but the .ig file is slower to use than the .i[abc] files, and does not allow the use of multiple reference files.

FILES
x.ia, x.ib, x.ic, where x is the first argument, or if these are not present, then x.ig, x

SEE ALSO
refer(1), addbib(1), sortbib(1), roffbib(1), lookbib(1)

BUGS
Probably all dates should be indexed, since many disciplines refer to literature written in the 1800s or earlier.