BibTeX Extract and Populate

This utility extracts BibTeX references (a.k.a markers) from a (La)TeX file and copies entries from a source, which the master BibTeX file. It also provides easy customization to massage the entries of the BibTeX files (see features). The use case is exporting all BetterBibtex entries to a file on your file system, usually one that is updated as you add, remove and modify papers in Zotero. While the use case was intended for use with Zoter and BetterBibtex, it will work on any BibTeX system.

The program does the following:

1. Parses some large master source BibTeX file.
2. Parses a file or recursively all .tex, .sty, and .cls files recursively in a directory.
3. Copies the matching entries from the master source BibTeX to standard out.

The program makes the assumption that the BibTeX entry IDs are unique as the matches are very loose when parsing the (La)TeX file.

Features

Many features relate to modifying older entries to accommodate newer systems (i.e. BibLATEX) or modifying newer entries to accommodate older systems (i.e. BibTex).

Features:

• Replace or edit Unicode characters, which is useful when \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} has no effect.
• Massage date strings.
• Remove certain entries that cause bibliography systems issues (useful for BibLATEX).
• Modify entries to normalize arXiv entries.

Obtaining

The easiest way to install the command line program is via the pip installer:

pip3 install zensols.bibstract

Binaries are also available on pypi.

Usage

This is a command line program written that has the following usage (also use --help):

• Print IDs in a master source file BibTeX file: bibstract showbib.
• Print cite references in a (La)TeX file: bibstract showtex <file|directory>
• Print IDs that will be exported from the BibTeX file: bibstract showexport <file|directory>
• Export the matching entries to standard out: bibstract export <file|directory>

Converters

A set of converters can be specified in the configuration file, which modify each parsed BibTeX entry in succession. Currently there the following:

• date_year: Converts the year part of a date field to a year. This is useful when using Zotero's Better Biblatex extension that produces BibLatex formats, but you need BibTeX entries.
• copy: Copy or move one or more fields in the entry. This is useful when your bibliography style expects one key, but the output (i.e.BibLatex) outputs a different named field). When destructive is set to True, this copy operation becomes a move.

Converters can be set be set and configured in the configuration file. See the test cases for more examples.

Configuration

A configuration file must be given, whose location is either given with a -c command line argument, or set in the environment variable BIBSTRACTRC.

An example configuration file is available, which has only one INI section default with option master_bib with the master BibTeX file.

Example Configuration File

The following example configuration file points to the a home directory file where you tell where BetterBibtex to export. It then specifies to convert dates with years (deleting the date field after)when creating the output.

In addition, it copies the journaltitle (exported by BetterBibtex) to journal, which is used by BibTeX. This converter, called replace is configured the replace_converter entry.

[default]
master_bib = ${env:home}/.zotero-betterbib.bib
converters = date_year_destructive, replace

[replace_converter]
class_name = zensols.bibstract.CopyOrMoveConverter
fields = dict: {'journaltitle': 'journal'}
destructive = False

Documentation

See the full documentation. The API reference is also available.

Changelog

An extensive changelog is available here.

Community

Please star this repository and let me know how and where you use this API. Contributions as pull requests, feedback and any input is welcome.

License

Copyright (c) 2020 - 2023 Paul Landes

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.