bib.awk

Bibliography manager written in awk

Just like shbib, but better.

• Minimal (only require POSIX compliant awk)
• Search BibTeX on crossref and google scholar
• Create and modify bib file on the fly
• Automatically and manually rename and encode metadata to pdf file
• Create, view and edit sublibrary
• Write notes for BibTeX entry

Table of Content

• Preview
  • bib.awk Preview
• Installation guide
• Configuration
• Requirement
• Actions explained
• Alternatives

Preview

bib.awk Preview

Installation guide

Contribution to use it in repository in distro is welcome. Here is a simple guide for manual installation:

1. git clone https://github.com/huijunchen9260/bib.awk to download bib.awk to directory.
2. To install on linux:
   • Run sudo make install to install both bib.awk.
3. Configuration is necessary. You definitely need to set BIBFILE and PDFPATH for basic function to work. For detailed explanation, see Configuration.

Configuration

Configuration is done within the first section of bib.awk file.

Configuration explanation:

• If you want to use environment variable VAR: ENVIRON["VAR"]
• BIBFILE defines the location of your .bib file
• BIBUKEY defines the university url for journal authentication
• PDFPATH defines the location of all your research papers - needs to have slash at the BEGINNING and the END of the string
• OPENER defines the system default file opener
• READER defines the pdf file opener
• EDITOR defines the text file opener
• BROWSER defines the browser to open url
• TEXTEMP defines the location for tex template for Notes
  • needs to have slash at the BEGINNING of the string
• CLIPINW defines the command to copy into clipboard
• CLIPOUT defines the command to copy out from clipboard

Requirement

• clipboard: xclip or xsel for linux (require configuration), pbcopy and pbpaste for Mac OS
• file opener: xdg-open for linux, open for Mac OS
• gs (ghostscript) for pdf metadata encoding, [MacOS], [Linux and Windows]
• curl to search on Internet
• xdotool to hide / show terminal when open graphical software, not necessary
• other shell utilities: rm, mv, file, printf, mkdir, stty

Actions explained

• search on crossref by text
  • search on crossref using the following shell command:

    curl -s "https://api.crossref.org/works? \
        query.bibliographic=string+to+search \
        &select=indexed,title,author,type,DOI, \
        published-print,published-online,container-title"

    read the API manual!
    • directly pull out field needed.
    • If search text is DOI, then directly pull out bibtex.
• search on crossref by metadata
• search on google scholar
  • search using following url: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=string+to+search 2>&1 1>/dev/null &
• open research paper
  • configure PDFPATH variable in bib.awk
• open research paper website
• copy BibTeX label
• write note
  • Notes stored in PDFPATH/Notes
• open research appendices
  • Appendices stored in PDFPATH/appendices
• edit existing BibTeX entry
• manually create file hierarchy
  • create PDFPATH/Notes, PDFPATH/appendices, and PDFPATH/Libs for selected BibTeX entry
• automatically create file hierarchy
  • create PDFPATH/Notes, PDFPATH/appendices, and PDFPATH/Libs for all pdf files in PDFPATH
• manually build database
  • encode metadata in chosen pdf file using gs.
• automatically update database
  • loop over pdf files in PDFPATH and encode metadata if missing.
• open sublibraries
  • Libraries stored in PDFPATH/Libs
• create sublibraries
• edit sublibraries
  • add/delete BibTeX entry
  • remove the chosen sublibrary

Alternatives

• papis
• pubs