---
name: "bibtex8"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "texlive-doc"
version: "2026.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bibtex8"
---

# bibtex8(1)

8-bit Big BibTeX

## NAME

bibtex8 - 8-bit Big BibTeX

## SYNOPSIS

**bibtex8** \[*options*\] *aux-file*

## DESCRIPTION

**BibTeX8** is an 8-bit implementation of BibTeX written in C. It has been enhanced by adding the following features:

\- "big" (32-bit) and customisable capacity

\- flexible support for non-English languages using 8-bit character sets

**BibTeX8** accepts 8-bit characters in its input files, and writes 8-bit characters to its output files.  The character set is defined by an external configuration file --- the Codepage and Sort order ("CS") file. By default, it reads a specific CS file "88591lat.csf", which defines ISO 8859-1 character set and its alphabetical sorting order including accented characters.

## OPTIONS

- **-?** **--help**

  display some brief help text.

- **-7** **--traditional**

  operate in the original 7-bit mode, no CS file used. Only 7-bit ASCII characters are supported, and they are sorted by ASCII code value.

- **-8** **--8bit**

  force 8-bit mode, no CS file used. All 8-bit characters (code \> 127) are treated as letters, and they are sorted by their code value.

- **-c** **--csfile** FILE

  read FILE as the BibTeX character set and sort definition file. Note that options **-7**, **-8** and **-c** are exclusive.

- **-d** **--debug** TYPE

  report debugging information.  TYPE is one or more of all, csf, io, mem, misc, search.

- **-s** **--statistics**

  report internal statistics.

- **-t** **--trace**

  report execution tracing.

- **-v** **--version**

  report BibTeX version.

- **-B** **--big**

  set large BibTeX capacity.

- **-H** **--huge**

  set huge BibTeX capacity.

- **-W** **--wolfgang**

  set really huge BibTeX capacity for Wolfgang.

- **-M** **--min\_crossrefs** ##

  set min\_crossrefs to ##.

- **--mcites** ##

  allow ## \\cites in the .aux files (deprecated).

- **--mentints** ##

  allow ## integer entries in the .bib databases (deprecated).

- **--mentstrs** ##

  allow ## string entries in the .bib databases (deprecated).

- **--mfields** ##

  allow ## fields in the .bib databases (deprecated).

- **--mpool** ##

  set the string pool to ## bytes (deprecated).

- **--mstrings** ##

  allow ## unique strings.

- **--mwizfuns** ##

  allow ## wizard functions (deprecated).

## 8BIT LATIN LETTERS SUPPORT

**BibTeX8** supports extended features to handle 8bit latin letters. Several built-in functions in bibliography styles are enhanced as follows.

- **&**

  Pops the top two (integer) literals and pushes their bitwise AND.

- **\|**

  Pops the top two (integer) literals and pushes their bitwise OR.

- **chr.to.int$**, **int.to.chr$**

  The function is the same as original BibTeX but 8bit characters are accepted.

- **width$**

  The function is the same as original BibTeX but letters of Latin-1 are supported.

## SEE ALSO

More detailed description of **BibTeX8** is available at $TEXMFDIST/doc/bibtex8/00readme.txt. The syntax of Codepage and Sort order (CS) File can be found at $TEXMFDIST/doc/bibtex8/csfile.txt.

## AUTHORS

**BibTeX8** was written by Niel Kempson and Alejandro Aguilar-Sierra. It is currently maintained as part of TeX Live.

This manpage was written for TeX Live, based on the work by Norbert Preining for Debian GNU/Linux.