NAME

rf —

alternative reference system for (t)roff

SYNOPSIS

`rf`	`<` `file`

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.
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.

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.

Of these macros, Ra and Ry are the most important.

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.

Note that all fields are inserted literally, except %a, from which the forenames of the authors are removed.

Finally, you usually don't need to worry about excessive spaces and stray punctuation marks, as rf removes many of these these automatically.

AUTHORS

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