bibtex(1) Web2C 2026 bibtex(1)
NAME
bibtex - make a bibliography for (La)TeX
SYNOPSIS
bibtex [-min-crossrefs=number] [-terse] auxname[.aux]
DESCRIPTION
BibTeX reads the top-level auxiliary (.aux) file auxname that was
output during (typically) the running of latex(1) or tex(1), and
creates a bibliography (.bbl) file that will be incorporated into the
document on subsequent runs of LaTeX or TeX.
BibTeX looks up, in bibliographic database (.bib) files specified by
the \bibliography command, the entries specified by the \cite and
\nocite commands in the LaTeX or TeX source file. It formats the
information from those entries according to instructions in a
bibliography style (.bst) file (specified by the \bibliographystyle
command), and it outputs the results to the .bbl file.
The LaTeX manual explains what a LaTeX source file must contain to work
with BibTeX. Appendix B of the manual describes the format of the .bib
files.
The short `BibTeXing' (``btxdoc'') document describes extensions and
details of this format, and gives other useful hints for using BibTeX.
BibTeX can also be used with plain TeX, via \input btxmac; the
interface is essentially the same as LaTeX. The support is included in
eplain(1), and the Eplain manual explains the usage, which is
essentially the same as in LaTeX:
https://tug.org/eplain/doc/eplain.html#Citations
OPTIONS
See tex(1) for details of command-line parsing.
The -min-crossrefs option defines the minimum number of crossref
required for automatic inclusion of the crossref base entry in the
citation list; the default is two. To avoid these automatic inclusions
altogether, give this option a sufficiently large number, and be sure
to remove any previous .aux and .bbl files. Otherwise the option may
appear to have no effect, since BibTeX will have added the citation for
the base entry to the .aux file, and nothing will remove it.
With the -terse option, BibTeX operates silently. Without it, a banner
and progress reports are printed on stdout.
The standard -help and -version options are also supported.
ENVIRONMENT
BibTeX searches the directories in the path defined by the BSTINPUTS
environment variable for .bst files. If BSTINPUTS is not set, it uses
the system default. For .bib files, it uses the BIBINPUTS environment
variable if that is set, otherwise the default. See tex(1) for the
details of the searching.
If the environment variable TEXMFOUTPUT is set, BibTeX attempts to put
its output files in it, if they cannot be put in the current directory.
Again, see tex(1). No special searching is done for the .aux file.
FILES
*.bst Bibliography style files.
btxdoc.tex
``BibTeXing'' - documentation for BibTeX users
btxhak.tex
``Designing BibTeX Styles'' - documentation for .bst writers
btxdoc.bib
database file for those two documents
xampl.bib database file giving examples of all standard entry types
btxbst.doc
template file and documentation for the standard styles
btxmac.tex
BibTeX for plain TeX
All those files should be available somewhere on your system. Running
texdoc btxdoc (or btxhak) may display the above documents.
SEE ALSO
latex(1), eplain(1), tex(1).
BibTeX home page: https://tug.org/bibtex
Bib-related CTAN topics: https://ctan.org/topic/:B
BibTeX package page on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/bibtex
(which has links to the above documents, among others).
Leslie Lamport, LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, Addison-Wesley.
Bibliography support in plain TeX:
https://tug.org/eplain/doc/eplain.html#Citations
BibTeX chapter in the Web2c manual:
https://tug.org/texinfohtml/web2c.html#BibTeX
Typeset source code for BibTeX: https://ctan.org/pkg/knuth-pdf
Thanks to Nelson Beebe, the University of Utah has a vast collection of
.bib files available, including entries for all the standard TeX books
and a complete bibliography for TUGboat. Nelson also provides this
information page on BibTeX:
https://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/bibnet/bibtex-info.html
and a large collection of BibTeX-related tools:
https://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/software/bibtex-bibliography-
tools.html
AUTHOR
Oren Patashnik, Stanford University. This man page describes the Web2c
(TeX Live) version of BibTeX. Other ports of BibTeX do not have the
same path searching implementation or the same command-line options.
Public discussion list and bug reports: https://lists.tug.org/biblio
bibtex 0.99e 15 January 2026 bibtex(1)
texlive-bin 2026.78235 - Generated Thu Mar 5 15:29:21 CST 2026