BibTeX Tools

This repository contains a collection of functions that might be helpful when working with BibTeX files (*.bib).

The main purpose is to clean up bib files such that match the format for the biblatex package.

Usage

Right now, the following functions are available

• Modernizing bib files: modernize
• Cleaning bib files: clean
• Combining bib files: combine

Use bibtex-tools --help to list the possible commands and bibtex-tools <command> --help to list the possible options for the sub-command <command>.

Modernizing Bib Files

The command bibtex-tools modernize allows to update the format of several fields in a bib-file. This includes replacing the deprecated month strings with the proper number entry, e.g., month=jan --> month={1}. There also is an option to download information from arXiv, if the eprint field is available.

Example

If you want to add all relevant information from arXiv (with existing eprint field) in your bib file literature.bib, you could use the following command

bibtex-tools modernize --arxiv literature.bib

Cleaning Bib Files

The command bibtex-tools clean allows to clean a bib-files. This includes replacing unicode characters by the LaTeX version. It is also possible to pass an additional file containing abbreviations, e.g., the IEEEabbr.bib file that is often used by authors publishing in IEEE journals.

Example

If you want to remove the fields abstract and isbn from your bib file literature.bib, you could use the following command

bibtex-tools clean -r abstract isbn literature.bib

Combining Bib Files

The command bibtex-tools combine allows combining multiple bib-files into a single one. By default, it automatically renames duplicate entry IDs that might occur after merging the files.

Example

If you want to combine the files 1.bib, 2.bib, and 3.bib into a single file called literature.bib, you can use the following command

bibtex-tools combine -o literature.bib 1.bib 2.bib 3.bib

Installation

You can install the package from PyPI using

pip3 install bibtextools

You can also install the (possibly unstable) development version from the Git repository using

git clone https://github.com/klb2/bibtex-tools
cd bibtex-tools
git checkout dev # if you want to checkout the development version
pip3 install . # you can use the -e option to track changes