bib2gls

Command line application to convert .bib files to glossaries-extra.sty resource files.

Author: Nicola Talbot (https://www.dickimaw-books.com/contact)

Application Home Page: https://www.dickimaw-books.com/software/bib2gls

Licence

Copyright (C) 2017-2024 Nicola L. C. Talbot (dickimaw-books.com)

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Requirements

• Java Runtime Environment (at least Java 8).

• TeX distribution that includes glossaries-extra.sty and dependent packages (such as glossaries.sty).

Summary

This application may be used to extract glossary information stored in a .bib file and convert it into glossary entry definition commands. This application should be used with glossaries-extra's record package option. It performs two functions:

• selects entries according to records found in the .aux file (similar to bibtex)

• hierarchically sorts entries and collates location lists (similar to makeindex or xindy)

This means that the glossary entries can now be managed in a system such as JabRef, and only the entries that are actually required will be defined, reducing the resources required by TeX.

The supplementary application convertgls2bib can be used to convert existing .tex files containing definitions (\newglossaryentry etc) to the .bib format required by bib2gls.

For example, if entries.tex contains:

\newglossaryentry{bird}{name={bird},description={feathered animal}}

\newabbreviation{html}{HTML}{Hypertext Markup Language}

\newterm[plural=geese]{goose}

\newdualentry{svm}{SVM}{support vector machine}
  {Statistical pattern recognition technique}

Then do:

convertgls2tex entries.tex entries.bib

to create entries.bib.

Example

File entries.bib:

@entry{bird,
  name={bird},
  description = {feathered animal}
}

@abbreviation{html,
  short="HTML",
  long={hypertext markup language}
}

@dualentryabbreviation{svm,
   long = {support vector machine},
   short = {SVM},
   description = {statistical pattern recognition technique}
}

@symbol{v,
  name={$\vec{v}$},
  text={\vec{v}},
  description={a vector}
}

@index{goose,plural="geese"}

File myDoc.tex:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[record,abbreviations]{glossaries-extra}

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
  src={entries},% data in entries.bib
  sort={en-GB}% sort according to 'en-GB' locale
]

\begin{document}
\Gls{bird} and \gls{goose}.

First: \gls{svm}. Next: \gls{svm}.

\printunsrtglossaries
\end{document}

Document build:

pdflatex myDoc
bib2gls myDoc
pdflatex myDoc

(Replace pdflatex with latex, xelatex or lualatex as appropriate.)

Related Resources

• bib2gls FAQ.
  • bib2gls gallery.

TUGboat articles:

• Glossaries with bib2gls, issue 40:1, 2019. (PDF)
  • bib2gls: selection, cross-references and locations, issue 41:3, 2020. (PDF)
  • bib2gls: sorting, issue 42:2, 2021. (PDF)
  • bib2gls: standalone entries and repeated lists (a little book of poisons), issue 43:1, 2022. (PDF)

Installation

The files should be installed as follows where TEXMF indicates your local or home TEXMF path (for example, ~/texmf/):

• TEXMF/scripts/bib2gls/bib2gls.jar (Java application.)
• TEXMF/scripts/bib2gls/convertgls2bib.jar (Java application.)
• TEXMF/scripts/bib2gls/texparserlib.jar (Java library.)
• TEXMF/scripts/bib2gls/resources/bib2gls-en.xml (English resource file.)
• TEXMF/scripts/bib2gls/bib2gls.sh (Unix-like systems only.)
• TEXMF/scripts/bib2gls/convertgls2bib.sh (Unix-like systems only.)
• TEXMF/doc/support/bib2gls/bib2gls.pdf (User manual.)
• TEXMF/doc/support/bib2gls/bib2gls-begin.pdf (Introductory Guide.)
• TEXMF/doc/support/bib2gls/examples/ (example files)

Note that texparserlib.jar isn't an application. It's a library used by bib2gls.jar and convertgls2bib.jar and so needs to be on the same class path as them.

The bash .sh scripts are provided for Unix-like users. They're not required for Windows. The .1 files are man files and should be placed where man can find them. (They are created from the .pod files.)

To test installation:

bib2gls --version
convertgls2bib --version

These should display the version details.

Source Code

Instructions for compiling the manual and jar files are listed below. The source is also available on GitHub, but that may be for a newer experimental version.

• https://github.com/nlct/bib2gls
  • https://github.com/nlct/texparser

User Manual (bib2gls.pdf)

The examples directory needs to be ../examples relative to directory containing bib2gls.tex as the .bib, .tex and .pdf files are included in the manual.

xelatex bib2gls
bibtex bib2gls
bib2gls -g bib2gls
xelatex bib2gls
bib2gls -g bib2gls
xelatex bib2gls
xelatex bib2gls

Similarly for the bib2gls-begin.pdf document.

JAR Files

Create the following directories:

lib lib/resources java classes/com/dickimawbooks/bib2gls classes/com/dickimawbooks/gls2bib classes/com/dickimawbooks/texparserlib

Unpack the zip files:

unzip -d java bib2gls-src.zip
unzip -d java gls2bib-src.zip
unzip -d java texparserlib-src.zip

Copy the .xml language file to lib/resources/

Compile texparserlib.jar:

cd java/lib 
javac -d ../../classes
-Xlint:unchecked -Xlint:deprecation *.java */*.java */*/*.java
cd ../../classes 
jar cf ../lib/texparserlib.jar 
com/dickimawbooks/texparserlib/*.class \
com/dickimawbooks/texparserlib/*/*.class \
com/dickimawbooks/texparserlib/*/*/*.class 

Compile bib2gls.jar:

cd java/bib2gls
javac -d ../../classes -cp ../../lib/texparserlib.jar *.java
cd ../classes
jar cmf ../java/bib2gls/Manifest.txt ../lib/bib2gls.jar
com/dickimawbooks/bib2gls/*.class

Compile convertgls2bib.jar:

cd java/gls2bib
javac -d ../../classes -cp ../../lib/texparserlib.jar *.java
cd ../classes
jar cmf ../java/gls2bib/Manifest.txt ../lib/convertgls2bib.jar
com/dickimawbooks/gls2bib/*.class