SPIRES script

2010-07-14T13:38:46Z

Rebeca123: /* thanks */

SPIRES script is a program written in the [http://www.python.org/ python] programming language that accesses information on papers in the [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/ SPIRES] online high energy physics literature database. It can access title, author, bibitem and [[References with BiBTeX|BiBTeX]] records, update your local BiBTeX library and download papers from the [http://www.arxiv.org/ arXiv]. A separate program [[#listcitations.py|listcitations.py]] reads through a TeX file and then looks up all the \cite{...} references and outputs the bibitems. Although originally written for the GNU/Linux command line, the code should be portable enough to run on any operating system with a python interpreter.

===download===
Download [[Spires.py|spires.py]] and [[Listcitations.py|listcitations.py]].

===installation on a GNU/Linux system===
The script requires the python interpreter to be installed on your system. This is automatically installed on most GNU/Linux distributions, but check it is there by typing
<pre>
python
</pre>
at the command line and see what happens.

If python is present download [[Spires.py|spires.py]] and run it by typing
<pre>
python spires.py hep-th/9711200
</pre>

===usage===

The typical accepted inputs are the usual arXiv references, the SPIRES TeX key or a SPIRES-style journal reference
<pre>
python spires.py hep-th/9711200
python spires.py 0705.0303
python spires.py Maldacena:1997re
python spires.py CMPHA,43,199
python spires.py Phys.Rev.,D52,5783
</pre>

If no options are specified all possible outputs will be displayed
<pre>
tom@fyodor:~$ python spires.py hep-th/9711200
@Article{Maldacena:1997re,
author = "Maldacena, Juan M.",
title = "The large N limit of superconformal field theories and
supergravity",
journal = "Adv. Theor. Math. Phys.",
volume = "2",
year = "1998",
pages = "231-252",
eprint = "hep-th/9711200",
SLACcitation = "%%CITATION = HEP-TH/9711200;%%"
}
Maldacena, Juan M.
The large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity
\cite{Maldacena:1997re}
</pre>

To see all the options access the help page
<pre>
tom@fyodor:~$ python spires.py -h
SPIRES script
Usage:
python spires.py reference [ -hbiatcev ] [ --help ] [ --library library.bib ] [ --download download_path/ ]
"reference" must be a standard arXiv reference, e.g. hep-th/9711200, 0705.0303, Maldacena:1997re or a SPIRES journal reference, e.g. CMPHA,43,199
Options:
-h, --help
displays this help message
-b
displays the BiBTeX entry
-i
displays the bibitem entry
-a
displays the author(s)
-t
displays the title
-c
displays the TeX citation key
-e
displays everything
-v
verbose mode

--download download_path/
for arXiv references downloads a pdf of the paper from the arXiv to the directory download_path/
--library library.bib
if it is not already in library.bib, appends the BiBTeX entry to library.bib; use at your own risk
</pre>

Each item can be specified individually with switches, e.g. -t for title, -a for authors, -b for BiBTeX entry, -c for SPIRES TeX key. For example
<pre>
tom@fyodor:~$ python spires.py hep-th/9711200 -at
Maldacena, Juan M.
The large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity
</pre>

If you have a BiBTeX database file such as library.bib then the script can update the file with the BiBTeX entry if it is not already present
<pre>
python spires.py hep-th/9711200 --library library.bib
</pre>

To download a PDF of an eprint from the [http://www.arxiv.org/ arXiv] to the directory <code>some_folder/</code>
<pre>
python spires.py hep-th/9711200 --download some_folder/
</pre>

===listcitations.py===
To use this program you must download [[Spires.py|spires.py]] and [[Listcitations.py|listcitations.py]] into the same directory.

This program reads a TeX file and then looks up all the \cite{...} references and outputs the bibitems. The typical accepted inputs are the usual arXiv references, the SPIRES TeX key or a SPIRES-style journal reference. With no options it will output bibitems
<pre>
python listcitations.py tex_file.tex
</pre>
It can also output BiBTeX entries instead
<pre>
python listcitations.py tex_file.tex -b
</pre>
To see all the options access the help page
<pre>
tom@tarkovsky:~$ python listcitations.py -h
list citations script
Usage:
python listcitations.py TeX_file_name.tex [ -hbiv ] [ --help ]

TeX_file_name must contain citations as standard arXiv references,
e.g. hep-th/9711200, 0705.0303, Maldacena:1997re or SPIRES journal
references, e.g. CMPHA,43,199

Options:
-h, --help
displays this help message
-b
displays the BiBTeX entry
-i
displays the bibitem entry
-v
verbose mode
</pre>

===future features===

* allow alias citations such as \cite{mypaper} for listcitations.py

===technical details===

The code is very modular so it is easy to write your own programs using the functions defined in spires.py. Just import the functions in spires.py with <code>import spires</code>; you can use spires.py as a library of SPIRES-related functions (see [[Listcitations.py|listcitations.py]] as an example).

===comments and bugs===
If you have any comments or find bugs, please contact [[User:Tom|Tom]].

===thanks===
Thanks to Travis C. Brooks of [http://www.slac.stanford.edu/spires/ SPIRES] for his help and [http://theory.tifr.res.in/~kevin/ Kevin Goldstein] for pointing out the python <code>urllib</code> library.
*[http://www.superiorpapers.com/reasons.php buy term papers]

===licence===
This script is Copyright 2007 Tom Brown and made available under the [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU General Public Licence].

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SPIRES script