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Normally, LaTeX will only create references for the BibTeX entries cited in the text. Is there a way of extracting these entries into a different .bib file automatically? For example if I have a .bib file with two entries, and only one is cited in a particular text, I need a way of creating a new .bib file with just that reference.

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Jan 21 '12 at 14:42

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With a TeX Live distribution (possibly also with MiKTeX) there is a bibexport program. Assuming your document is myarticle.tex, you have to compile it normally and then you call

bibexport -o extracted.bib myarticle.aux

where extracted.bib is the name that you want to give to your new .bib file. Notice that you have to give the extension .aux (or no extension at all).

Then you have to change the name of the .bib file in your document, in order to use extracted.bib.

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+1 Nice tool. I didn't know it. – Marco Daniel Jan 21 '12 at 15:38
In MiKTeX 2.9 this tool is missing :-( – Kurt Feb 15 at 16:24
Although this falls outside of the scope of the question, perhaps a brief word about how this tool does not work with biber-driven bibliographies (or with .bib files that use biblatex fields such as date instead of year) is in order. – jon Feb 15 at 16:29
@jon bibexport uses BibTeX for doing its job. The manual tells how to add new fields (section 1.4). For biblatex/Biber compatibility the script should look not only for \citation commands in the aux file but also for \abx@aux@cite. – egreg Feb 15 at 16:42
@egreg -- Right. I was thinking more for people who look at your answer, but don't realize why bibexport isn't working for them; most of them are not going to be modifying bibexport.sh. Another problem that might arise is if you use non-standard entry types (from BibTeX's perspective). I use @Collectio{<key>,..., e.g., for essay collections; that comes through as @{<key>,.... – jon Feb 15 at 20:02

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