indxbib(1) General Commands Manual indxbib(1)
Name
indxbib - make inverted index of bibliographic databases
Synopsis
indxbib [-w] [-c common-words-file] [-d dir] [-f list-file]
[-h min-hash-table-size] [-i excluded-fields]
[-k max-keys-per-record] [-l min-key-length] [-n threshold]
[-o file] [-t max-key-length] [file ...]
indxbib --help
indxbib -v
indxbib --version
Description
indxbib makes an inverted index of the bibliographic databases in each
file to speed their access by refer(1), lookbib(1), and lkbib(1). The
program writes to a temporary file that it later renames to file.i. If
no file operands are present and no -o option is given, indxbib names
the index Ind.i.
Bibliographic databases are divided into records by blank lines.
Within a record, each field starts with a % character at the beginning
of a line. Fields have a one-letter name that follows the % character.
indxbib stores the values set by the -c, -l, -n, and -t options in the
index: programs that search the index interpret them, discarding and
truncating keys appropriately, and using the original keys to verify
that any record found using the index actually contains the keys. This
means that a user of an index need not know whether these options were
used in the creation of the index, provided that not all the keys to be
searched for would have been discarded during indexing and that the
user supplies at least the part of each key that would have remained
after being truncated during indexing. indxbib also stores the value
set by the -i option in the index for use in verifying records found
using it.
Options
--help displays a usage message, while -v and --version show version
information; all exit afterward.
-c common-words-file
Read the list of common words from common-words-file instead of
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/eign.
-d dir Use dir as the name of the directory to store in the index,
instead of that returned by getcwd(2). Typically, dir will be
a symbolic link whose target is the current working directory.
-f list-file
Read the files to be indexed from list-file. If list-file is
-, files will be read from the standard input stream. The -f
option can be given at most once.
-h min-hash-table-size
Use the first prime number greater than or equal to the
argument for the size of the hash table. Larger values will
usually make searching faster, but will make the index file
larger and cause indxbib to use more memory. The default hash
table size is 997.
-i excluded-fields
Don't index the contents of fields whose names are in
excluded-fields. Field names are one character each. If this
option is not present, indxbib excludes fields X, Y, and Z.
-k max-keys-per-record
Use no more keys per input record than specified in the
argument. If this option is not present, the maximum is 100.
-l min-key-length
Discard any key whose length in characters is shorter than the
value of the argument. If this option is not present, the
minimum key length is 3.
-n threshold
Discard the threshold most common words from the common words
file. If this option is not present, the 100 most common words
are discarded.
-o basename
Name the index basename.i.
-t max-key-length
Truncate keys to max-key-length in characters. If this option
is not present, keys are truncated to 6 characters.
-w Index whole files. Each file is a separate record.
Exit status
indxbib exits with status 0 on successful operation, status 2 if the
program cannot interpret its command-line arguments, and status 1 if it
encounters an error during operation.
Files
file.i index for file
Ind.i default index name
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/eign
contains the list of common words. The traditional name,
"eign", is an abbreviation of "English ignored [word list]".
indxbibXXXXXX
temporary file
See also
"Some Applications of Inverted Indexes on the Unix System", by M. E.
Lesk, 1978, AT&T Bell Laboratories Computing Science Technical Report
No. 69.
refer(1), lkbib(1), lookbib(1)
groff 1.24.1 2026-05-15 indxbib(1)
groff 1.24.1 - Generated Mon May 18 13:04:01 CDT 2026