I know this sounds weird, so let me tell you the background. I've been sent some third party Latex files. The author is reluctant to send me the .bib file and so has sent me the .bbl file he produced instead.
When I run PDFLatex, unsurprisingly, I get a load of empty references. Is there some way of wangling this so I get the full list of references without the author sending me the original .bib file?
As always, your time is appreciated, even if it's just to tell me to tell the author to send me the file!
BibTeX, biblatex and biber ⇒ Generating bibliography with only .bbl file, not .bib file
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pandammonium
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curiouslearn
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Re: Generating bibliography with only .bbl file, not .bib file
The following might work. Not sure though.
What editor are you using and how does your file compile? Do you have to run Bibtex manually (by issuing the command or pressing a button for bibtex) or do you use a script such as Latexmk.pl which takes care of running Bibtex for you whenever you hit compile? I think if the latter is the case, then you should disable that because during compilation it tries to recreate the .bbl file. Save the original .bbl file sent to you in the same folder where the .tex file is and compile it in such a way that bibtex is NOT run automatically. That might work.
What editor are you using and how does your file compile? Do you have to run Bibtex manually (by issuing the command or pressing a button for bibtex) or do you use a script such as Latexmk.pl which takes care of running Bibtex for you whenever you hit compile? I think if the latter is the case, then you should disable that because during compilation it tries to recreate the .bbl file. Save the original .bbl file sent to you in the same folder where the .tex file is and compile it in such a way that bibtex is NOT run automatically. That might work.
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pandammonium
- Posts: 55
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Re: Generating bibliography with only .bbl file, not .bib file
Thanks for the reply.
I'm currently using WinEdt and MiKTeX, although I interchange with Kile on Ubuntu with whatever comes with Ubuntu by default. WinEdt does allow PDFLatex to be run without running bibtex, but that doesn't work, either. On Ubuntu, I can't remember what Kile does (less familiar with it and I'm on Windows now, so I can't check), but I can run latex from the command line there.
I think what might be required is some third party command-line parser that you can run, giving it as arguments the name of the .bbl file produced by latex and the name of a new .bib file that it outputs all the info it found in the .bbl file into, in the correct format, of course. I could probably write one myself, if I had the inclination
Still, not to worry - the author is going to send me the .bib file.
I'm currently using WinEdt and MiKTeX, although I interchange with Kile on Ubuntu with whatever comes with Ubuntu by default. WinEdt does allow PDFLatex to be run without running bibtex, but that doesn't work, either. On Ubuntu, I can't remember what Kile does (less familiar with it and I'm on Windows now, so I can't check), but I can run latex from the command line there.
I think what might be required is some third party command-line parser that you can run, giving it as arguments the name of the .bbl file produced by latex and the name of a new .bib file that it outputs all the info it found in the .bbl file into, in the correct format, of course. I could probably write one myself, if I had the inclination
Still, not to worry - the author is going to send me the .bib file.