NAME

addbib — create or extend bibliographic database

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

When this program starts up, answering ‘y’ to the initial “Instructions?” prompt yields directions; typing ‘n’ or RETURN skips them. addbib then prompts for various bibliographic fields, reads responses from the terminal, and sends output records to a database. A null response ⟨just RETURN⟩ means to leave out that field. A minus sign ⟨-⟩ means to go back to the previous field. A trailing backslash allows a field to be continued on the next line. The repeating “Continue?” prompt allows the user either to resume by typing ‘y’ or RETURN, to quit the current session by typing ‘n’ or ‘q’, or to edit the database with any system editor ⟨vi, ex, edit, ed⟩,

The -a option suppresses prompting for an abstract; asking for an abstract is the default. Abstracts are ended with a CTRL-d. The -p option causes addbib to use a new prompting skeleton, defined in promptfile. This file should contain prompt strings, a tab, and the key-letters to be written to the database.

The most common key-letters and their meanings are given below. addbib insulates you from these key-letters, since it gives you prompts in English, but if you edit the bibliography file later on, you will need to know this information.

Except for ‘A’, each field should be given just once. Only relevant fields should be supplied. An example is:

FILES

promptfile

optional file to define prompting

SEE ALSO

indxbib(1), lookbib(1), refer(1), roffbib(1), sortbib(1)

NOTES

Written by Al Stangenberger & Bill Tuthill.