refer

refer [-e] [-n] [-p database] [-a] [-b] [-c flag] [-i] [-l field] [-k field] [-s fields] [files]

-a
    Reverse the order of appearance of citations in the document.

-b
    Bare mode; do not insert any formatting commands, just output the references.

-c flag
    Set citation formatting flag.

-e
    Accumulate references in the order they appear in the input, using the last matching item in the database. Errors are reported.

-i
    Ignore case when searching the database.

-k field
    Accumulate references in the order they appear in the input, but only use the specified field.

-l field
    Specify the default label field.

-n
    Do not sort references.

-p database
    Specify a bibliographic database to search. If not specified, the environment variable REFER will be used; otherwise the file 'refer' will be used.

-s fields
    Sort references by the specified fields. Example: -s AU,TI sorts by author and then title.

files
    Input files containing citations.

The refer command is a preprocessor for formatting references in documents. It searches a bibliographic database for references matching citations in a document, and formats them according to a specified style. It is commonly used in conjunction with troff or nroff to create formatted documents with bibliographies.

Citations in the document are typically enclosed in `.[` and `.]' delimiters. The contents within these delimiters are used to query the bibliographic database. The refer command then replaces the citation with the formatted reference.

Bibliographic databases typically follow a specific format, with fields like author, title, journal, etc. identified by specific markers or delimiters.

roff(1), troff(1), nroff(1), sortbib(1), lookbib(1)