indxbib makes an inverted index to the named database-file (which must reside within the current directory), typically for use by lookbib(1) and refer(1). A database contains bibliographic references (or other kinds of information) separated by blank lines.

A bibliographic reference is a set of lines, constituting fields of bibliographic information. Each field starts on a line beginning with a `%', followed by a key-letter, then a blank, and finally the contents of the field, which may continue until the next line starting with `%'.

indxbib is a shell script that calls two programs: /usr/lib/refer/mkey and /usr/lib/refer/inv. mkey truncates words to 6 characters, and maps upper case to lower case. It also discards words shorter than 3 characters, words among the 100 most common English words, and numbers (dates) < 1000 or > 2099. These parameters can be changed.

indxbib creates an entry file (with a .ia suffix), a posting file (.ib), and a tag file (.ic), in the working directory.

/usr/lib/refer/mkey

/usr/lib/refer/inv

x.ia

entry file

x.ib

posting file

x.ic

tag file

x.ig

reference file

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

addbib(1), lookbib(1), refer(1), roffbib(1), sortbib(1), attributes(5)

All dates should probably be indexed, since many disciplines refer to literature written in the 1800s or earlier.

indxbib does not recognize pathnames.