TexBib

Texbib is a program that helps you to manage your BibTeX references.

Installation

I recommend installing texbib using pipx or a similar tool with the following command

pipx install texbib

Usage

Basics

To add the contents of a BibTeX foo.bib file to the global bibliography type into a shell

$ bib add foo.bib

You can also pipe BibTeX data via stdin:

$ cat paper.bib | bib add -

You can specify as many files as you want in a single command. The entries in the bibliography can be addressed by the ID that is specified in the BibTeX file.

You can also add a reference via its DOI, either in the doi:… format or as URL starting with https://doi.org/.

$ bib add doi:10.1002/andp.19053220806

This will make a request to the crossref API. ISBNs are also supported:

$ bib add 9780123456789

Preprints from arXiv may be added similarly:

$ bib add arXiv:1306.4856

The full-text PDF can be downloaded at the same time (only supported for arXiv at the moment):

$ bib add arXiv:1306.4856 --fulltext

Viewing References

Have a look at the references in the bibliography with:

$ bib show

Sort by ID (-s i), author (-s a), title (-s t), or year (-s d):

$ bib show -s a

Reverse the sort order:

$ bib show -s d -r

Show details for specific entries:

$ bib detail foo2000
$ bib detail foo2000 --format bibtex

Search for references matching patterns:

$ bib find quantum
$ bib find author title -s d
$ bib find -b myBib "search term"    # search in specific bibliography

Modifying references

Edit an entry in your editor ($EDITOR or nano):

$ bib edit foo2000

Link a local PDF file to an entry:

$ bib link-file foo2000 paper.pdf

If the reference was added with the --fulltext flag it will already have been linked. Open the PDF associated with an entry:

$ bib open foo2000

Using Bibliographies

You can group your references into bibliographies. To create one called myBib

$ bib init myBib

After creation it is your new active bibliography. Everything you add and remove will be applied to it instead of the default one.

To see what bibliographies exist and which is active

$ bib list
  default
* myBib

To change the active bibliography to an existing one use the checkout command.

$ bib checkout default

A bibliography can be removed with

$ bib delete myBib

Or renamed:

$ bib rename oldName newName

Exporting

Later you probably want to create a new file with all the references in your document directory. Use the handy dump command for that.

$ bib dump

This will print the full bibliography onto stdout. Dump to a specific file:

$ bib dump myreferences.bib

Removing References

To remove a single item with ID foo2000 from the active bibliography

$ bib rm foo2000