Minibib: BibTeX Entry Extractor for LaTeX

A simple yet powerful Python script to create a clean .bib file containing only the references cited in your .tex document. This is perfect for cleaning up your bibliography before sharing your project or submitting it to a journal.

Features

• Extracts Only Used References: Scans your .tex file and pulls only the cited entries from your master .bib file.

• Handles Various Cite Commands: Correctly identifies keys from a wide range of citation commands, including \cite, \citep, \citet, \citealt, etc.

• Parses Complex Citations: Intelligently handles citations with pre-notes and post-notes, like \citep[see][p. 5]{key}.

• Ignores Commented Citations: The script detects citations in commented-out lines (e.g., % \cite{key}) and excludes them from the final bibliography.

• User-Friendly Warnings:

  • Notifies you if a cited key is present in the .tex file but missing from the .bib file.

  • Lists all the citation keys that were found in comments and therefore ignored.

Prerequisites

• Python 3

No external libraries are needed.

Install

pip install minibib

Usage

Run the script from your terminal using the following command structure:

minibib <path_to_tex_file> <path_to_bib_file> [options]

Arguments

• tex_file: The path to your main .tex file.

• bib_file: The path to your master .bib file.

• -o, --output: (Optional) The name of the new, cleaned .bib file. Defaults to minibib_output.bib.

Example

Imagine you have the following files:

my_paper.tex:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

This paper references the work of \citet{Doe2021}.
We also build on previous results \citep[see Chapter 3]{Smith2019}.


\bibliography{references}
\bibliographystyle{plain}

\end{document}

references.bib:

@article{Doe2021,
    author  = {Doe, John},
    title   = {A Groundbreaking Study},
    journal = {Journal of Important Research},
    year    = {2021},
    volume  = {10},
    pages   = {1-20}
}

@book{Smith2019,
    author    = {Smith, Jane},
    title     = {Foundations of Modern Science},
    publisher = {Academic Press},
    year      = {2019}
}

@misc{Jones2022,
    author = {Jones, Sam},
    title  = {Preliminary Thoughts},
    year   = {2022},
    note   = {Unpublished}
}

To generate your clean bibliography, run:

minibib my_paper.tex references.bib -o final_references.bib

Console Output:

Warning: The following citation keys were found in comments and will be ignored:
  - Jones2022

Found 2 unique active citation keys in 'my_paper.tex'.
Found 3 entries in 'references.bib'.

Successfully created new .bib file: 'final_references.bib'

The resulting final_references.bib will contain:

@article{Doe2021,
    author  = {Doe, John},
    title   = {A Groundbreaking Study},
    journal = {Journal of Important Research},
    year    = {2021},
    volume  = {10},
    pages   = {1-20}
}

@book{Smith2019,
    author    = {Smith, Jane},
    title     = {Foundations of Modern Science},
    publisher = {Academic Press},
    year      = {2019}
}

License

This project is open-source under the MIT License.