Note: the main Ebib page and source code have moved to Github. The Sourceforge page and source releases are no longer updated.




Ebib is a program for managing BibTeX databases. There are already quite a few such programs, but Ebib has a special property: it runs inside Emacs. If you are used to doing everything LaTeX from within Emacs, you may appreciate that you can manage your .bib files in Emacs as well. One distinct advantage of Ebib is that you do not need to switch to another window and copy/paste a BibTeX key into your LaTeX file with the mouse. Ebib provides functions with which you can select a key from the database and have it inserted directly into your LaTeX text.

Ebib is fully keyboard-operated. Unlike other BibTeX database managers, you do not need the mouse at all. Everything Ebib can do can be accomplished with simple one-key commands. This makes using Ebib much faster than other similar programs, which are usually mouse-operated. And because Emacs does not have to run under X, Ebib can be used without X as well.

Ebib provides the standard capabilities that one would expect from a BibTeX database manager: .bib files can be opened, modified (adding, deleting, modifying entries), searched, and saved. Apart from the basics, Ebib has quite a few extra features that make managing your BibTeX files easier.

Features

General

BibTeX

Databases

Searching

LaTeX integration

Miscellaneous

Screenshots

Visually, Ebib is not very spectacular. But to get an impression of what it looks like, you can view the following three screenshots. The first shows Ebib's standard lay-out, with the list of entry keys in the top window and the fields of the currently highlighted entry in the bottom window. (The field values displayed in red come from the cross-referenced entry.) In the second, the string 'Reuland' is highlighted as the result of a text search. The third screenshot shows the strings buffer, where you can edit the @string definitions in the database.

screenshot 1 screenshot 1 screenshot 2

Manual

The complete user manual for Ebib is available in html format here.

Download

Tar balls of Ebib releases can be downloaded from the Sourceforge Project Page. The tar ball contains the source code, and the manual in info and html format. Installation instructions can be found in the manual.

There is also a public git repository for Ebib. From there, you can get the latest sources, provided you have git installed.

Mailing list

Ebib has a mailing list: ebib-users. Here, you can ask any questions regarding Ebib, send bug reports or feature requests.