---
name: "lookbib"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "groff"
version: "1.24.2-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/lookbib"
---

# lookbib(1)

search bibliographic databases interactively

## Name

lookbib - search bibliographic databases interactively

## Synopsis

**lookbib** \[**-i**  *string*\] \[**-t**  *n*\] *file* ...

**lookbib** **--help**

**lookbib** **-v**

**lookbib** **--version**

## Description

*lookbib* writes a prompt to the standard error stream (unless the standard input stream is not a terminal), reads from the standard input a line containing a set of keywords, searches each bibliographic database *file* for references containing those keywords, writes any references found to the standard output stream, and repeats this process until the end of input. For each database *file* to be searched, if an index file*.i* created by [*indxbib*(1)](/indxbib/1.md) exists, then it will be searched instead; each index can cover multiple databases.

## Options

**--help** displays a usage message, while **-v** and **--version** show version information; all exit afterward.

- **-i** *string*

  When searching files for which no index exists, ignore the contents of fields whose names are in *string*.

- **-t** *n*

  Require only the first *n* characters of keys to be given. The default is 6.

## Exit status

*lookbib* exits with status **0** on successful operation, status **2** if the program cannot interpret its command-line arguments, and status **1** if it encounters an error during operation.

## Files

- file*.i*

  Index files.

## See also

“Some Applications of Inverted Indexes on the Unix System”, by M. E. Lesk, 1978, AT&T Bell Laboratories Computing Science Technical Report No. 69.

[*refer*(1)](/refer/1.md), [*lkbib*(1)](/lkbib/1.md), [*indxbib*(1)](/indxbib/1.md)