BibBoost: Caching Bib Files for BibTeX

BibBoost automatically extracts entries from LaTeX aux files and caches large bib files automatically into a sqlite3 database, in order to significantly speed up the generation of the bibliography.

Warning: The software is an alpha software. It has only be tested on very simple LaTeX / BibTeX examples and might fail on more complex examples.

Warning: THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.

Requirements

To use BibBoost from the Git sources:

• python3 required
• packages specified in requirements.txt: python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt
• pypy3 optional but recommended

To use the standalone BibBoost (see the Standalone Application section):

• python3 required
• pypy3 optional but recommended

For development, testing, generation of the standalone version, in addition to all the above:

• pypy3 required
• virtualenv required: python3 -m pip install virtualenv
• bats https://github.com/sstephenson/bats
• running git submodule update --init

Getting Started

BibBoost can be used as a drop-in replacement for BibTex. Instead of running

bibtex mylatexfile.aux

you can run

python3 bibboost.py mylatexfile.aux
bibtex mylatexfile.aux

or

python3 bibboost.py --run-bibtex mylatexfile.aux

or (recommended if pypy3 is installed)

pypy3 bibboost.py mylatexfile.aux
bibtex mylatexfile.aux

or

pypy3 bibboost.py --run-bibtex mylatexfile.aux

The first execution after any change to any bib file might be slow as the database mylatexfile.bibboost.cache needs to be created. Subsequent executions should be much faster (assuming the number of citations in the LaTeX file is much smaller than the number of entries in the bib files).

FAQ

How Does it Work?

BibBoost reads the aux file to find the list of bib files used. The first time BibBoost is used or after any modification of the bib files (including the order of files, as BibTeX is sensitive to order), BibBoost parses the bib files and store each BibTeX entry into a sqlite3 database <aux file>.bibboost.cache. Changes of bib files are detected using the date of last modification.

Then, BibBoost, extracts from the sqlite3 database the entries used in the aux file into the file <aux file>.bibboost.bib.

Finally, it modifies the the aux file to point to <aux file>.bibboost.bib instead of the original bib files (it also adds a special line in the <aux file> to remember the original bib files for future execution).

If the option --run-bibtex is given, BibBoost automatically runs bibtex.

What Should I Do with the *.bibboost* files?

*.bibboost* files are similar to *.aux, *.log, ... These files should not be committed on a Git folder.

Nothing is Working. What Should I Do?

Start by removing all the *.bibboost* files.

Is Biber, natbib, biblatex, ...?

This is an early alpha software. None of these configurations have been tested.

Is nocite{*} Supported?

No and we do not plan to support it as it completely defeats the purpose of BibBoost.

Standalone Application

For easy distribution, it is possible to generate a standalone application by running:

make

The resulting application is generated in build/bibboost.pyz. It only requires python3 to run correctly. It can then be used as:

python3 bibboost.pyz

or (recommended)

pypy3 bibboost.pyz

Testing

Run

make test