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# 7. BibTeX: Bibliographies

BibTeX automates much of the job of typesetting bibliographies, and makes bibliography entries reusable in many different contexts.

- bibtex invocation
- Basic BibTeX style files: The standard and semi-standard styles.

## 7.1 BibTeX invocation

BibTeX creates a printable bibliography (``.bbl'`) file from references in a ``.aux'` file, generally written by TeX or LaTeX. The ``.bbl'` file is then incorporated on a subsequent run. The basic bibliographic information comes from ``.bib'` files, and a BibTeX style (``.bst'`) file controls the precise contents of the ``.bbl'` file. Synopsis:

    bibtex [option]... auxfile[.aux]

The output goes to the basename of auxfile extended with ``.bbl'`; for example, ``bibtex /wherever/foo.aux'` creates ``./foo.bbl'`. BibTeX also writes a log file to the basename of auxfile extended with ``.blg'`.

The names of the ``.bib'` and ``.bst'` files are specified in the ``.aux'` file as well, via the ``\bibliography'` and ``\bibliographystyle'` (La)TeX macros. BibTeX searches for ``.bib'` files using the `BIBINPUTS` and `TEXBIB` paths, and for ``.bst'` files using `BSTINPUTS` (see section `Supported file formats' in Kpathsea). It does no path searching for ``.aux'` files.

The program accepts the following options, as well as the standard ``-help'` and ``-version'` (see section 3.2 Common options):

``-terse'`
  Suppress the program banner and progress reports normally output.
``-min-crossrefs=n'`
  If at least n (2 by default) bibliography entries refer to another entry e via their `crossref` field, include e in the `.bbl` file, even if it was not explicitly referenced in the `.aux` file. For example, e might be a conference proceedings as a whole, with the cross-referencing entries being individual articles published in the proceedings. In some circumstances, you may want to avoid these automatic inclusions altogether; to do this, make n a sufficiently large number.

See also:

``btxdoc.tex'`
  Basic LaTeXable documentation for general BibTeX users.
``btxhak.tex'`
  LaTeXable documentation for style designers.
``btxdoc.bib'`
  BibTeX database file for the two above documents.
``xampl.bib'`
  Example database file with all the standard entry types.
``ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/'`
  A very large ``.bib'` and ``.bst'` collection, including references for all the standard TeX books and a complete bibliography for TUGboat.

## 7.2 Basic BibTeX style files

Here are descriptions of the four standard and four semi-standard basic BibTeX styles. ``CTAN:/biblio/bibtex'` contains these and many more (for CTAN info, see section `unixtex.ftp' in Kpathsea).

`plain`
  Sorts entries alphabetically, with numeric labels. Generally formatted according to van Leunen's A Handbook for Scholars. The other style files listed here are based on `plain`.
`abbrv`
  First names, month names, and journal names are abbreviated.
`acm`
  Names are printed in small caps.
`alpha`
  Alphanumeric labels, e.g., ``Knu66'`.
`apalike`
  No labels at all; instead, the year appears in parentheses after the author. Should be used in conjunction with ``apalike.tex'` (plain TeX) or ``apalike.sty'` (LaTeX), which also changes the citations in the text to be ``(author, year)'`.
`ieeetr`
  Numeric labels, entries in citation order, IEEE abbreviations, article titles in quotes.
`siam`
  Numeric labels, alphabetic order, Math. Reviews abbreviations, names in small caps.
`unsrt`
  Lists entries in citation order, i.e., unsorted.
`btxbst.doc`
  The template file and documentation for the standard styles.

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