NAME

rf —

alternative reference system for (t)roff

DESCIPTION

rf is a reference system for troff and other roff derivatives. It differs from refer(1), the traditional troff reference system, in a couple important ways:

References are not stored in a separate file. They are defined via macros in the troff document itself, usually at the end.
This means that you can move, copy and share your troff document without needing to worry about an additional reference file. Furthermore, you never run the risk of accidentally losing the references attached to a document.
rf is around 150 lines of Perl. If you find a bug or an (in your opinion) undesirable behavior in rf, you can easily patch it.
Finally, rf is much more simple and offers much more basic functionality than refer(1). This means that you can learn all of it in five minutes.

The performance of rf primarily depends on the number of entries in the reference list at the end of the document. On my HP Compaq dc5700 from 2007, the relationship between number of entries in the reference list and total execution time is roughly the following:

Entries	Time
3	0.03s
50	0.09s
107	0.15s
182	0.24s

I would deem it rare to have more than a couple of hundred unique references in a troff document.

USAGE

rf is controlled by several macros, all consisting of one uppercase and one lowercase letter, beginning with either an ‘F’ (format macros) or an ‘R’ (inline reference and reference list macros). These are listed below in alphabetical order.

Format macros

Ff: Defines the format for “full” inline references, which usually contain both author and year.
Default: (%a %y)
Fl: Defines the format for the reference list, which is usually located at the end of the document.
Default: %a (%y). {\fI%t\fR}. {\*Q%q\*U}. %n, %d. %c: %p. {Available: %w.}
Fx: Defines the format for “alternate” inline references, which usually contain only the year.
Default: (%y)

For a description of the format syntax, see FORMAT SYNTAX.

Inline reference macros

Rf: Inserts a “full” inline reference, which usually contains both author and year.
Rx: Inserts an “alternate” inline reference, which usually contains only the year.

What reference to refer to is specified by the rest of the line. It is matched against the author, year and title of all references to find a match. If only a weak match is found, a warning is printed on standard error.

To include some punctuation character immediately after the inline reference, add a space before it:

.Rf Johnson 92 .

To wrap the inline reference in parentheses, use the following syntax:

.Rf Johnson 92 ) (

Additionally, any instance of '' is replaced with the last word on the preceding line. This allows the following shortcut:

According to Johnson
.Rx '' 92 ,
there has been a gradual change in attitudes towards ...

Reference list macros

Ra: Adds to the list of authors of the current reference. Additionally, Ra marks the beginning of a new reference.
Format: Surname(s), Forename(s)
Rc: Defines the city of publication.
Rd: Defines the (detailed) date of publication, not as a substitute for Ry, but as a further specification. For example, the day and month a newspaper article was published.
Rn: Defines the newspaper in which an article was published.
Rp: Defines the publisher of a book.
Rq: Defines the (quoted) title of an article.
Rt: Defines the title of a book. Defines the (web) address of an online resource.
Ry: Defines the year of publication.

In the final output, rf prints a formatted version of each reference entry in place of its definition. rf does not change the order of reference entries. This means that you can arrange your references freely.

FORMAT SYNTAX

In a format definition, use a percent (%) sigil followed by a single letter to interpolate any given field of the reference. The letter following the percent sign corresponds to the second letter of the reference list macros described above. For example:

.Ff (%a, %y)      \" (Author, Year)

By wrapping an interpolation in braces, you can specify a prefix and/or suffix that should be included only if the interpolation is successful. For example:

.Ff (%a{, %y}).   \" Here, ', ' is removed if there is no year.

You can include a newline in your format by ending the line with a backslash and continuing on the next line. If you add a backslash immediately following the macro name, the interpolated format will be joined to the preceding line. By using backslashes, you can implement footnote-based references. For example, using the ms macro package:

.Fx\ \**\
.FS\
%A, {\fI%t\fR}, {\*Q%q\*U}, %y.\
.FE

As you can see above, you can use troff requests and other macros in your format. This will expand to a valid request/macro in the output of rf.

Note that all fields are inserted literally, with one exception: when %a is used in an inline reference format, the forenames of the authors are automatically removed. To include the forenames, use %A instead.

Finally, you usually don't need to worry about excessive spaces and stray punctuation marks. rf removes common punctuation immediately preceding and following an unsuccessful interpolation.

EXAMPLE

Below is an example of an ms-based troff document using rf references.

.de noop
..
.blm noop

.SH
Previous work

.LP
Davidson
.Rx '' 1991
has performed a study [...]

.PP
[...] which leads to a higher total cholesterol level
.Rf Smith 2007 .

.SH
Literature

.XP
.Ra Davidson, H.
.Ry 1991
.Rt Seminal Work
.Rc London
.Rp Another Press

.XP
.Ra Smith, P.
.Ry 2007
.Rt Modern Society
.Rc New York
.Rp Some Press

When given the above file, rf will output the following code:

.de noop
..
.blm noop

.SH
Previous work

.LP
Davidson
(1991)
has performed a study [...]

.PP
[...] which leads to a higher total cholesterol level
(Smith 2007).

.SH
Literature

.XP
Davidson, H. (1991). \fISeminal Work\fR. London: Another Press.

.XP
Smith, P. (2007). \fIModern Society\fR. New York: Some Press.

AUTHORS

rf was written by John Ankarström <john (at) ankarstrom.se>.