








                           UUrrllbbsstt



                          _A_B_S_T_R_A_C_T

          A script to add a wweebbppaaggee BibTeX entry type,
     and add support for general uurrll and llaassttcchheecckkeedd
     fields, to (most) BibTeX ..bbsstt files.  Optionally
     adds basic support for eepprriinntt , ddooii and ppuubbmmeedd
     fields, and hypertex/hyperref support.

          The Persistent URL for this page is
     hhttttpp::////ppuurrll..oorrgg//nnxxgg//ddiisstt//uurrllbbsstt &.

          Version 0.7, 2011 July 20.


     Contents

*    Usage

*    For example...

*    Download and installation

*    Further Information

*    Version history

     The standard BibTeX styles have no explicit support for
the web, in that they include no ‘webpage’ type, and have no
support for adding URLs to references.  There are rumours
that such support might appear in BibTeX 1.0, but there is
no estimate of when that is likely to arrive.

     The Perl script uurrllbbsstt can be used to add this support
to an arbitrary ..bbsstt file which has a reasonably ‘conven‐
tional’ structure.  The result is meant to be robust rather
than pretty.

     It has a different goal from Patrick Daly’s ‘custom‐
bib’ package ‐‐ that is intended to create a BibTeX style
.bst file from scratch, and supports ‘url’ and ‘eprint’
fields.  This package, on the other hand, is intended for
the case where you already have a style file that works (or
at least, which you cannot or will not change), and edits it
to add the new webpage entry type, plus the url, lastchecked
and eprint fields.  Fuller details are in the manual.

11..  UUssaaggee

     uurrllbbsstt [[‐‐‐‐[[nnoo]]eepprriinntt]] [[‐‐‐‐[[nnoo]]ddooii]] [[‐‐‐‐[[nnoo]]ppuubbmmeedd]]
     [[‐‐‐‐iinnlliinneelliinnkkss]] [[‐‐‐‐nnoohhyyppeerrlliinnkkss]] [[‐‐‐‐hhyyppeerrtteexx]] [[‐‐‐‐hhyyppeerr‐‐
     rreeff]] [[‐‐‐‐lliitteerraall kkeeyy==vvaalluuee]] [[iinnppuutt‐‐ffiillee [[oouuttppuutt‐‐ffiillee]]]]

     If either the input‐file or the output‐file is omitted,
they default to stdin and stdout respectively.  If the input
file already has a URL entry type, then the script objects.
By default (in the current version), the output includes
support for eprint, doi and pubmed, but these can be dis‐
abled by ‐‐‐‐nnooeepprriinntt , ‐‐‐‐nnooddooii and ‐‐‐‐nnooppuubbmmeedd , respectively.

     The added fields are:

*    uurrll and llaassttcchheecckkeedd , to associate a URL with a refer‐
     ence, along with the date at which the URL was last
     checked to exist;

*    ddooii , for a reference’s DOI;

*    eepprriinntt , for an arXiv eprint reference; and

*    ppuubbmmeedd for a reference’s PubMed identifier (PMID).

     If either of the ‐‐‐‐hhyyppeerrtteexx or ‐‐‐‐hhyyppeerrrreeff options is
present, then the generated ..bbsstt file includes support for
hyperlinks in the generated eprint entries in the bibliogra‐
phy, with the format being either HyperTeX (see arXiv,
again), supported by xdvi, dvips and others, or using the
support available from the hyperref package.  These options
have no effect unless one of the ‐‐‐‐eepprriinntt or ‐‐‐‐ddooii options
is given: when URLs are included in the bibliography, they
are written out using the rrll{{......}} command, and hyperref
automatically processes that in the correct way to include a
hyperlink.

     The ‐‐‐‐iinnlliinneelliinnkkss option tells urlbst not to write out
the URL as text within the bibliography entry.  Instead,
urlbst will produce a more conventional‐looking and compact
bibliography entry, but the entry’s title will now be a
hyperlink to that URL.  This hyperlink may be useful to any‐
one who reads your document online (this option can only be
used with ‐‐‐‐hhyyppeerrrreeff or ‐‐‐‐hhyyppeerrtteexx ).  Any DOI or eprint
text which would be produced as a result of the appropriate
option will still appear in this mode.

     You may adjust various literal strings, either for the
purposes of internationalisation, or simply because you pre‐
fer different text.  To do this, give the ‐‐‐‐lliitteerraall option,
followed by a kkeeyy==vvaalluuee pair, for example ‐‐‐‐lliitteerraall
oonnlliinnee==""oonn tthh’’iinntteerrtt0000bbss"" , to replace the default UURRLL::
text.  The possible values, and their defaults, are below
(say ‐‐‐‐lliitteerraall hheellpp to get this list printed out): keyword‐
defaultmeaning citedcitedindicator of citation, or "last
checked", date doiprefixdoi:text printed before DOI eprint‐
prefixarXiv:text printed before eprint ref link‐
text[link]fallback link text pubmedprefixPMID:text printed
before PUBMED reference onlineonlineindication that resource
is online urlintroURL:location of online resource (an alter‐
native is "Available from:")

     The distribution includes preconverted versions of the
four standard BibTeX .bst style files.

     Only the style files which result from conversion of
the standard styles are checked in the regression tests.
Other style files which are known to work include acm.bst,
amsalpha.bst, amsplain.bst, apalike.bst, gerabbrv.bst, ger‐
alpha.bst, gerapali.bst, gerplain.bst, gerunsrt.bst,
ieeetr.bst, siam.bst, mla.bst

     Style files which are known to fail:

*    Currently (as of at least v0.5), there exists a style
     aacchhiiccaaggoo..bbsstt which seems to fox uurrllbbsstt ; it turns out
     that there’s a simpler but almost equivalent style
     cchhiiccaaggoo..bbsstt which works.

*    Some APA‐like styles, including at least aappaaggeerr..bbsstt ,
     seem to be sufficiently different from the most common
     styles, that they confuse uurrllbbsstt completely.

*    The _k_o_m_a_‐_s_c_r_i_p_t styles and the _r_e_f_e_r styles are not
     designed to produce conventional ..bbbbll files, and uurrllbbsstt
     does not aim to produce anything useful from these.

     This might be a good time for me to revisit the rather
convoluted logic within the script, to make it a little more
robust in the face of variants like these, but don’t hold
your breath.  The logic within the script is pretty hideous
(it essentially works by spotting patterns in the input
style file, and replacing or extending bits of BibTeX style‐
file code.  This is a fragile technique, and is probably at
the limits of its usefulness, therefore I’d take some per‐
suading to add significant extra functionality to the
script.

     The natbib and revtex style files already have URL
fields.  If you have a BibTeX style file which you think
ought to work, but with which the script fails, send it to
me, and I’ll try to work out what I’ve missed (no promises,
though).

     Note that the command to invoke the script changed from
‘urlbst.pl’ to plain ‘urlbst’ between versions 0.3 and 0.4.

22..  FFoorr eexxaammppllee......

     To add URL support to the standard ssiiaamm..bbsstt file, you
can give the command

     %% uurrllbbsstt //ppaatthh//ttoo//oorriiggiinnaall//ssiiaamm..bbsstt ssiiaammuurrll..bbsstt

     Your TeX installation will likely have some way of
helping you find where the original ..bbsstt files are.  On
teTeX‐based systems, for example, the command kkppsseewwhhiicchh
ssiiaamm..bbsstt returns the full path of the ssiiaamm..bbsstt file which
BibTeX would find.

     The distributed files aabbbbrrvvuurrll..bbsstt , aallpphhaauurrll..bbsstt ,
ppllaaiinnuurrll..bbsstt and uunnssrrttuurrll..bbsstt are versions of the standard
style files which have been pre‐converted.

     There is more general discussion of including URLs in
bibliographies in the UK TeX FAQ.

33..  DDoowwnnllooaadd aanndd iinnssttaallllaattiioonn

     Download the file as a tarball or zip file and unpack
it.  Or you can clone the source repository at bit‐
bucket.org.

     To install, you should simply copy the distributed
uurrllbbsstt script to someplace on the path (such as
//uussrr//llooccaall//bbiinn , or ~~//llooccaall//bbiinn , depending on your privi‐
leges and tastes).

     If you (might) want to use the pre‐converted standard
..bbsstt files, then you’ll need to copy these to somewhere in
the BibTeX search path.  Type kpsepath bst on Unix to find
out the list of places BibTeX searches, and pick either one
of the user‐local locations, or a system‐wide one.  If
you’re installing in a system‐wide location, you’ll need
admin privileges, obviously, and you will probably need to
use tteexxhhaasshh , mmkktteexxllssrr or its equivalent, to update LaTeX’s
filename cache.  For further hints here, see the TeX FAQ
entries on installing a package and where LaTeX puts files.

     That should be all you have to do.

     The urlbst script is distributed with a path which
should just work, as long as the Perl binary is in your
path, but if you have problems here, then you might want to
change the first line to something like

     ##!! //uussrr//llooccaall//bbiinn//ppeerrll

     if that’s where your Perl binary is.

     You can also use the conventional ..//ccoonnffiigguurree;; mmaakkee;;
mmaakkee iinnssttaallll to configure and install the package (as root,
or using ssuuddoo if you’re installing it in a system location),
though you still have to install the ..bbsstt files by hand.
This is rather heavyweight for the trivial amount of config‐
uration required, so it’s almost always simpler just to do
things by hand.

     If you need to change some of the uurrllbbsstt defaults, how‐
ever, or if your fingers type ..//ccoonnffiigguurree spontaneously,
then you can be reassured that the configure script supports
the standard ‐‐‐‐pprreeffiixx option, plus the following options
setting defaults:

     ‐‐‐‐wwiitthh‐‐eepprriinnttss==uurrll , ‐‐‐‐wwiitthhoouutt‐‐eepprriinnttss This makes the
     ‐‐‐‐eepprriinnttss option to urlbst available by default, and
     allows you to optionally specify a prefix for creating
     URLs from eprint numbers.  The default for this URL is
     hhttttpp::////aarrxxiivv..oorrgg//aabbss// ‐‐ this is appropriate for arXiv,
     obviously, but there are now a variety of other pre‐
     print archives appearing, for which this might be inap‐
     propriate.  If you have comments on this default, or
     alternatives, please let me know.  This option is
     enabled by default; if you have some reason for dis‐
     abling the ‐‐‐‐eepprriinnttss option for urlbst, the give the
     configure option ‐‐‐‐wwiitthhoouutt‐‐eepprriinnttss

     ‐‐‐‐wwiitthh‐‐ddooii==uurrll , ‐‐‐‐wwiitthhoouutt‐‐ddooii This makes available the
     ‐‐‐‐ddooii option to urlbst and, as with the ‐‐‐‐wwiitthh‐‐eepprriinnttss
     option, allows you to customise the DOI resolver URL.
     The ‐‐‐‐ddooii option to urlbst is on by default.

     ‐‐‐‐wwiitthh‐‐hhrreeff==00//11//22 This allows you to specify the type
     of hyperlinks which are inserted in the bibliography.
     Values 0, 1 and 2, indicating no hyperlinks, hypertex‐
     style links, and hyperref‐style links, respectively.
     The default is ‐‐‐‐wwiitthh‐‐hhrreeff==00 &.  The hhyyppeerrrreeff ‐style
     option is intended to complement the increasingly stan‐
     dard hhyyppeerrrreeff package.

     The first two options simply change defaults, and if
you never use the new eepprriinnttss or ddooii fields, then the
defaults don’t matter to you.

     Since the modified style generates URLs wrapped in the
rrll{{}} macro, it is useful to use the resulting bibliography
style alongside the uurrll package.  Since this tends to work
with hhyyppeerrrreeff anyway, where possible, you don’t get any
extra goodness by changing the ‐‐‐‐wwiitthh‐‐hhrreeff default at con‐
figuration time.

33..11..  DDooccuummeennttaattiioonn

     Basic documentation is in the file uurrllbbsstt..tteexx &.  This
is distributed as a PDF file, but if you want to regenerate
it, use

     %% llaatteexx uurrllbbsstt %% bbiibbtteexx uurrllbbsstt %% llaatteexx uurrllbbsstt %% llaatteexx
     uurrllbbsstt

44..  FFuurrtthheerr IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn aanndd aacckknnoowwlleeddggeemmeennttss

     uurrllbbsstt is archived on CTAN at bbiibblliioo//bbiibbtteexx//ccoonn‐‐
ttrriibb//uurrllbbsstt// , and discussed in the TeX FAQ.

     The source code for the package is maintained at bit‐
bucket.org, which also includes an issue tracker, where you
can report bugs (or just mail me).

     The home page of urlbst might possibly have more recent
versions than the one you’re looking at now.

     Thanks are due to many people for suggestions and
requests, and to ’ijvm’ for code contributions.

     Copyright 2002‐11, Norman Gray.  Released under the
terms of the GNU General Public Licence.

55..  VVeerrssiioonn hhiissttoorryy

     _0_._7_, Add ‐‐nodoi, ‐‐noeprints and ‐‐nopubmed options
     (which defaulted on, and couldn’t otherwise be turned
     off)

     00..77bb11,, 22001111 MMaarrcchh 1177 Allow parameterisation of literal
     strings, with option ‐‐‐‐lliitteerraall &.

     00..66‐‐55,, 22001111 MMaarrcchh 88 Adjust support for inline links
     (should now work for arXiv, DOI and Pubmed)

     00..66‐‐44,, 22000099 AApprriill 2288 Work around BibTeX linebreaking
     bug (thanks to Andras Salamon for the bug report).

     00..66‐‐33,, 22000099 AApprriill 1199 Fix inline link generation (thanks
     to Eric Chamberland for the bug report).

     00..66‐‐22,, 22000088 NNoovveemmbbeerr 1177 We now turn on inlinelinks when
     we spot format.vol.num.pages, which means we include
     links for those styles which don’t include a title in
     the citation (common for articles in physical science
     styles, such as aip.sty).

     00..66‐‐11,, 22000088 JJuunnee 1166 Fixed some broken links to the var‐
     ious citation standards (I think in this context this
     should probably _n_o_t be happening, yes?).  The distrib‐
     uted **uurrll..bbsstt no longer have the ‐‐‐‐iinnlliinneelliinnkkss option
     turned on by default.

     _0_._6_, _2_0_0_7 _M_a_r_c_h _2_6

     Added the option ‐‐‐‐iinnlliinneelliinnkkss , which adds inline
hyperlinks to any bibliography entries which have URLs, but
does so inline, rather than printing the URL explicitly in
the bibliography.  This is (primarily) useful if you’re pre‐
paring a version of a document which will be read on‐screen.
Thanks to Jason Eisner for the suggestion, and much testing.

     Incorporate hyperref bugfixes from PaweÅ Widera.

     00..66bb33 Further reworkings of the inlinelinks support, so
     that it’s now fired by a format.title (or format.bti‐
     tle) line, with a fallback in fin.entry.  This should
     be more robust, and allows me to delete some of the
     previous version’s gymnastics.

     00..66bb22 Reworked iinnlliinneelliinnkkss support; should now be more
     robust.  Incorporate hyperref bugfixes from PaweÅ
     Widera.

     00..66bb11 Added the option iinnlliinneelliinnkkss , which adds inline
     hyperlinks to any bibliography entries which have URLs,
     but does so inline, rather than printing the URL
     explicitly in the bibliography.  This is (only) useful
     if you’re preparing a version of a document which will
     be read on‐screen.

     00..55..22,, 22000066 SSeepptteemmbbeerr 66 Another set of documentation‐
     only changes, hopefully clarifying installation.

     00..55..11,, 22000066 JJaannuuaarryy 1100 No functionality changes.  Docu‐
     mentation and webpage changes only, hopefully clarify‐
     ing usage and configuration

     _0_._5_, _2_0_0_5 _J_u_n_e _3 Added support for Digital Object Iden‐
     tifiers (DOI) fields in bibliographies.

     00..44‐‐11,, 22000055 AApprriill 1122 Documentation improvements ‐‐
     there are now examples in the help text!

     _0_._4_, _2_0_0_4 _D_e_c_e_m_b_e_r _1 Bug fixes: now compatible with
     mla.bst and friends.  Now uses ..//ccoonnffiigguurree (option‐
     ally).  Assorted reorganisation.

     _0_._3_, _2_0_0_3 _J_u_n_e _4 Added ‐‐eprint, ‐‐hypertex and
     ‐‐hyperref options.

     _0_._2_, _2_0_0_2 _O_c_t_o_b_e_r _2_3 The ‘editor’ field is now sup‐
     ported in the webpage entry type.  Basic documentation
     added.

     _0_._1_, _2_0_0_2 _A_p_r_i_l Initial version

     Norman Gray 2011 July 20

