Text::BibTeX version 0.21 Greg Ward (greg@bic.mni.mcgill.ca) 6 October, 1997 INTRODUCTION ------------ Text::BibTeX is a Perl module (with a couple of helper modules) for reading, parsing, and writing BibTeX files. Currently, the documented interface provides only the lowest level of support needed to process BibTeX bibliographies: parsing the entries and turning them into Perl hashes. (Or rather, Perl objects queried through methods. But it's all done with hashes internally.) No knowledge of BibTeX conventions or requirements is present in the module, both in order to make it more general (i.e. the input files could hold any kind of data that lends itself to a bit of structure) and because I wanted to make this release before adding a whole new layer of code. After installing the module, see the Text::BibTeX man page for a brief introduction to the system, Text::BibTeX::File for a little more material that is essentially introductory, and Text::BibTeX::Entry for the real thing. DEPENDENCIES ------------ Text::BibTeX requires Perl 5.004 or later and an ANSI-compliant C compiler. You must also have the btparse distribution, the C library underlying Text::BibTeX. It is enough to put btparse-0.2.tar.gz in the same directory where you unpack the Text-BibTeX-0.2 archive; or you can put the btparse tar file right into the Text-BibTeX-0.2 directory. BUILDING -------- Start by generating the Makefile and other preparatory steps (most notably, finding and unpacking the btparse distribution): perl Makefile.PL Note that if Perl was built with a non-ANSI C compiler, you will need to specify an ANSI compiler when running Makefile.PL. For instance, if you're running SunOS and Perl was built with 'cc' (non-ANSI), you will need to build Text::BibTeX (and btparse as well, for that matter) with an ANSI compiler such as 'gcc' or Sun's 'acc'. This can be done for Text::BibTeX as follows: perl Makefile.PL CC=gcc # or acc, or whatever works on your system Now, configure btparse (the C library that is the back-end to Text::BibTeX): cd btparse ./configure (Again, you might have to jump through some hoops -- although in a different way -- to build btparse with an appropriate compiler. See the btparse README for more information. The only requirement is that you build both btparse and Text::BibTeX with an ANSI-compliant compiler, but I would recommend that you use the same compiler for both. If possible -- i.e., if you haven't already built Perl with a non-ANSI compiler -- I would also recommend using the same compiler to build Perl itself.) Next, build and test the C library (still in the 'btparse' directory): make make test Return to the main Text::BibTeX distribution directory, and continue as usual: cd .. make make test make install Note that "make install" only installs the Perl modules; if you wish to install the C library, see the btparse README file. Please let me know if anything goes wrong with building either btparse or Text::BibTeX. AVAILABILITY ------------ The latest version of Text::BibTeX and btparse should be available from ftp://ftp.bic.mni.mcgill.ca/pub/users/greg/