.TH BIBTEX 1 "15 January 2026" "bibtex 0.99e" "Web2C 2026"
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.\"=====================================================================
.SH NAME
bibtex \- make a bibliography for (La)TeX
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B bibtex
.RB [ -min-crossrefs=\fInumber\fP ]
.RB [ -terse ]
.IR auxname [ \fB.aux\fP ]
.\"=====================================================================
.SH DESCRIPTION
\*(BX reads the top-level auxiliary
.RB ( .aux )
file
.I auxname
that was output during (typically) the running of
.BR latex (1)
or
.BR tex (1),
and creates a bibliography
.RB ( .bbl )
file that will be incorporated into the document on subsequent runs of
\*(LX or \*(TX.
.PP
\*(BX looks up, in bibliographic database
.RB ( .bib )
files specified by the \ebibliography command,
the entries specified by the \ecite and \enocite commands
in the \*(LX or \*(TX source file.
It formats the information from those entries
according to instructions in a bibliography style
.RB ( .bst )
file (specified by the \ebibliographystyle command),
and it outputs the results to the
.B .bbl
file.
.PP
The \*(LX manual
explains what a \*(LX source file must contain to work with \*(BX.
Appendix B of the manual describes the format of the
.B .bib
files.
.PP
The short `\*(BXing' (``btxdoc'') document describes extensions and
details of this format, and gives other useful hints for using \*(BX.
.PP
\*(BX can also be used with plain TeX, via \\input btxmac; the
interface is essentially the same as \*(LX.  The support is included in
.BR eplain (1),
and the Eplain manual explains the usage, which is essentially the same
as in \*(LX: https://tug.org/eplain/doc/eplain.html#Citations
.\"=====================================================================
.SH OPTIONS
See
.BR tex (1)
for details of command-line parsing.
.PP
The
.B -min-crossrefs
option defines the minimum number of
.B crossref
required for automatic inclusion of the crossref base entry in the citation
list; the default is two.
To avoid these automatic inclusions altogether, give this option
a sufficiently large number, and be sure to remove any
previous
.B .aux
and
.B .bbl
files.  Otherwise the option may
appear to have no effect, since \*(BX will have added the citation
for the base entry to the
.B .aux
file, and nothing will remove it.
.PP
With the
.B -terse
option, \*(BX operates silently.  Without it, a banner and progress
reports are printed on stdout.
.PP
The standard
.B -help
and
.B -version
options are also supported.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH ENVIRONMENT
\*(BX searches the directories in the
path defined by the BSTINPUTS environment variable for
.B .bst
files.
If BSTINPUTS is not set, it uses the system default.
For
.B .bib
files, it uses the BIBINPUTS environment variable if that is set,
otherwise the default.
See
.BR tex (1)
for the details of the searching.
.PP
If the environment variable
TEXMFOUTPUT is set, \*(BX attempts to put its output
files in it, if they cannot be put in the current directory.  Again, see
.BR tex (1).
No special searching is done for the
.B .aux
file.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH FILES
.TP 10n
.I *.bst
Bibliography style files.
.TP
.I btxdoc.tex
``\*(BXing'' \- documentation for \*(BX users
.TP
.I btxhak.tex
``Designing \*(BX Styles'' \- documentation for .bst writers
.TP
.I btxdoc.bib
database file for those two documents
.TP
.I xampl.bib
database file giving examples of all standard entry types
.TP
.I btxbst.doc
template file and documentation for the standard styles
.TP
.I btxmac.tex
\*(BX for plain TeX
.PP
All those files should be available somewhere on your system. Running
.I texdoc btxdoc
(or \fIbtxhak\fR) may display the above documents.
.\"=====================================================================
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR latex (1),
.BR eplain (1),
.BR tex (1).
.PP
\*(BX home page: https://tug.org/bibtex
.br
Bib-related CTAN topics: https://ctan.org/topic/:B
.br
\*(BX package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/bibtex
.br
(which has links to the above documents, among others).
.PP
Leslie Lamport,
.IR "\*(OL: A Document Preparation System" ,
Addison-Wesley.
.PP
Bibliography support in plain TeX:
https://tug.org/eplain/doc/eplain.html#Citations
.PP
\*(BX chapter in the Web2c manual:
https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#BibTeX
.PP
Typeset source code for \*(BX:
https://ctan.org/pkg/knuth-pdf
.PP
Thanks to Nelson Beebe, the University of Utah has a vast collection of
.I .bib
files available, including entries for all the standard \*(TX
books and a complete bibliography for \fITUGboat\fP.  Nelson also provides
this information page on \*(BX:
.br
https://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/bibnet/bibtex-info.html
.br
and a large collection of \*(BX-related tools:
.br
https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/software/bibtex-bibliography-tools.html
.\"=====================================================================
.SH AUTHOR
Oren Patashnik, Stanford University. This man page describes the Web2c
(\*(TX Live) version of \*(BX. Other ports of \*(BX do not have the same
path searching implementation or the same command-line options.
.PP
Public discussion list and bug reports: https://lists.tug.org/biblio