


BIBCHECK(1)		  User Commands		      BIBCHECK(1)



NAME
     bibcheck -	check a	BibTeX bibliography file

SYNOPSIS
     bibcheck [	-author	] [ -copyright ] [ -debug ] [ -help ] [	-
     version ] <infile >outfile
     or
     bibcheck [	-author	] [ -copyright ] [ -debug ] [ -help ] [	-
     version ] BibTeXfile(s) >outfile

DESCRIPTION
     bibcheck applies heuristic	checks to BibTeX files to  ferret
     out  possible  errors,  portability  problems, and	stylistic
     problems, often finding ones that	are  quite  difficult  to
     spot by manual proofreading.

     Some of the checks	made are

     o	unrecognized token;

     o	duplicate @String abbreviations;

     o	duplicate citation labels;

     o	duplicate keywords in a	single bibliographic entry;

     o	unbalanced braces in value strings;

     o	use of comma instead of	and in author/editor names;

     o	ellipses represented by	consecutive dots, rather than  by
       a TeX control sequence;

     o	horizontal tabs	instead	of spaces;

     o	unprotected special characters (ampersand, percent, sharp
       sign) that would	have special significance to TeX;

     o	subscripts or superscripts outside of math mode;

     o	unclosed math mode;

     o	space before punctuation;

     o	spaces or periods missing after	initials;

     o	tildes (TeX's tie command should be rare in BibTeX files,
       because BibTeX normally supplies	needed ones);

     o	non-standard characters	in citation labels;

     o	spurious blank lines;



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BIBCHECK(1)		  User Commands		      BIBCHECK(1)



     o	braced partial words;

     o	unbraced mixed-case words in titles;

     o	hyphens	instead	of en-dashes in	page-number ranges;

     o	typewriter quotation marks inside strings;

     o	omitted	protecting braces inside quotation marks;

     o	trailing white space.

     Warning messages identify the file	name and line number,  in
     a	format	recognized  by	the GNU	Emacs compile command, so
     that you can run it from within  an  emacs(1)  session,  and
     then position rapidly to the source file locations	where the
     messages were raised.

     lacheck(1)	performs similar checks	on LaTeX files;	its great
     utility was the inspiration for this program.

OPTIONS
     Command-line options may be abbreviated to	a unique  leading
     prefix, and letter	case is	ignored.

     To	avoid confusion	with options, if a filename begins with	a
     hyphen,  it must be disguised by a	leading	absolute or rela-
     tive directory path, e.g.	/tmp/-foo.bib or ./-foo.bib.

     -author	   Display an author credit on stdout.

     -copyright	   Display a copyright message on stdout.

     -debug	   Display a token stream on stdout, suitable for
		  possible input to bibunlex(1), or for	identify-
		  ing the cause	of a reported parsing error.

     -help	   Display a usage message on stdout.

     -version	   Display a program version message on	stdout.

SEE ALSO
     bibclean(1),  bibdup(1),  bibextract(1),  bibindex(1),  bib-
     join(1),  biblabel(1),  biblex(1),	 biblook(1), biborder(1),
     bibparse(1), bibsort(1), bibtex(1),  bibunlex(1),	emacs(1),
     lacheck(1);

AUTHOR
     Nelson H. F. Beebe, Ph.D.
     Center for	Scientific Computing
     Department	of Mathematics
     University	of Utah



Version	0.08	  Last change: 25 November 1994			2






BIBCHECK(1)		  User Commands		      BIBCHECK(1)



     Salt Lake City, UT	84112
     Tel: +1 801 581 5254
     FAX: +1 801 581 4148
     Email: <beebe@math.utah.edu>



















































Version	0.08	  Last change: 25 November 1994			3



