Package: tetex-bin Version: 2.0.2-30 Severity: normal File: /usr/bin/bibtex
If you have several .bib files with an entry that appears in more than one of the files, bibtex prints a warning message, but returns a final non-zero return code. This behaviour of bibtex causes annoying interactions between different documents that share the same references. The problem causes trouble with using bibtex within scripts and make, as they then treat duplicate entries as an error[*]. It is certainly not an error if the duplicated entries are completely identical. In that case, bibtex should return a code of zero, indicating success. (It should probably continue to print a warning message.) IMHO, the proper behaviour for bibtex should be as follows: (1) Default behaviour: warning message on identical duplicates, but exit code of zero. (2) If one .bib file entry is a superset of another also treat as a warning with a zero exit code. I.E. if every key in entry 1 exists (and has the same text) in entry 2, but entry 1 may have some extra keys, use entry 1 and proceed. (3) Otherwise, duplicates would give a non-zero exit code. One could imagine adding command line switches to make it more severe (i.e. the current behaviour) or lax. [*] Don't tell me that I'm supposed to clean out all the duplicates, because I don't necessarily "own" all the .bib files. Often, one's collaborators don't take kindly to rearranging all their .bib files for paper A, just so that *I* can use bibtex within make in paper B. -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable APT prefers testing APT policy: (500, 'testing') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.11-1-686 Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) Versions of packages tetex-bin depends on: ii debconf 1.4.51 Debian configuration management sy ii debianutils 2.13.2 Miscellaneous utilities specific t ii dpkg 1.10.28 Package maintenance system for Deb ii ed 0.2-20 The classic unix line editor ii libc6 2.3.2.ds1-22 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an ii libgcc1 1:4.0.0-9 GCC support library ii libice6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 Inter-Client Exchange library ii libkpathsea3 2.0.2-30 path search library for teTeX (run ii libpaper1 1.1.14-3 Library for handling paper charact ii libpng12-0 1.2.8rel-1 PNG library - runtime ii libsm6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Window System Session Management ii libstdc++5 1:3.3.5-13 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3 ii libt1-5 5.0.2-3 Type 1 font rasterizer library - r ii libwww0 5.4.0-9 The W3C WWW library ii libx11-6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Window System protocol client li ii libxaw7 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Athena widget set library ii libxext6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Window System miscellaneous exte ii libxmu6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Window System miscellaneous util ii libxt6 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Toolkit Intrinsics ii mime-support 3.34-1 MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap ii perl 5.8.7-3 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction ii sed 4.1.2-8 The GNU sed stream editor ii tetex-base 2.0.2c-8 Basic library files of teTeX ii ucf 1.18 Update Configuration File: preserv ii xlibs 4.3.0.dfsg.1-14 X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configu ii zlib1g 1:1.2.2-4 compression library - runtime -- debconf information: tetex-bin/upd_map: true * tetex-bin/cnf_name: tetex-bin/fmtutil: true tetex-bin/fmtutil-failed: tetex-bin/userperm: false * tetex-bin/texmf: true tetex-bin/updmap-failed: * tetex-bin/hyphen: ngerman[=naustrian-neue_Rechtschreibung], french[=patois] tetex-bin/oldcfg: true * tetex-bin/use_debconf: true * tetex-bin/groupname: users tetex-bin/groupperm: true * tetex-bin/lsr-perms: true -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]