Re: finding natbib bst files

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Paul Johnson wrote:

> I've never done bibtex or natbib with tetex/LaTeX before, so this may be 
> naive, but...
>
> I run Fedora Core 3 with tetex-2.0.2. It has natbib included, and I'm using 
> the program LyX to write documents.  In the natbib.sty file, it says there 
> are bibliography styles, such as chicago, but in tetex I find no chicago.bst 
> file, and don't understand how natbib is supposed to do its business.

You should think of the tetex version supplied with a linux distro more as 
a tool for developers who need to rebuild docs after tweaking existing 
packages.  It is the version used to generate the documentation, and will 
get trashed if you switch to another distro.  It is generally not suitable 
for authors who need current versions of LaTeX and associated 
macros/tools.

> 1. Where do I get the bst files, if in fact I do need them, and

The canonical source is:
   CTAN: tex-archive/bibliography/bibtex/contrib/

These days I use CTAN mainly to check for bug-fix updates to
a macro package that is causing problems -- it is generally
easier to pick a high-quality distro and stick with that until
texmf-local starts filling up with updated versions of buggy
packages.

> 2. Can you point me at directions for installing this?

TeX Live is a comprehensive free distro based on teTeX for unix. The linux 
binaries are statically linked and should run on FC3 (they do work with 
FC2).  The 2004 version was just released.  If you belong to a TeX User 
Group you should have TL2003, and TL2004 should arrive soon, or you can 
download .iso images from CTAN.

On Fedora I just mount the image with the loop device to avoid actually 
burning a CD.  Installation is done with a shell script and takes a few 
minutes.  TeTeX is very self-contained -- you can have as many versions 
installed as you want and switch between them by editing the PATH (I 
recommend the environment modules package), although the new /etc/man.conf 
mechanism does mean you would have to edit that file if you want to have 
the man pages in sync with the distro you are using.

If you use pdftex you may want to compile a newer version, but it is 
considerably advanced over the version in tetex 2.02.  TL2004 has:

$ kpsewhich chicago.bst
/mnt/hda7/opt/tex/TL2004/texmf-dist/bibtex/bst/beebe/chicago.bst

-- 
George N. White III  <[email protected]>