RefTeX

RefTeX is a package for managing Labels, References, Citations and index entries with GNU Emacs.

This manual documents RefTeX version 4.32 from 2007-04-10.

Don't be discouraged by the size of this manual, which covers RefTeX in great depth. All you need to know to use RefTeX can be summarized on two pages (see section RefTeX in a Nutshell). You can go back later to other parts of this document when needed.

The Index

Introduction

Labels and References

Defining Label Environments

Citations

Index Support

The Index Phrases File

AUCTeX

Options, Keymaps, Hooks

1. Introduction

RefTeX is a specialized package for support of labels, references, citations, and the index in LaTeX. RefTeX wraps itself round 4 LaTeX macros: \label, \ref, \cite, and \index. Using these macros usually requires looking up different parts of the document and searching through BibTeX database files. RefTeX automates these time–consuming tasks almost entirely. It also provides functions to display the structure of a document and to move around in this structure quickly.

See section Imprint, for information about who to contact for help, bug reports or suggestions.

1.1 Installation

RefTeX has been bundled and pre-installed with Emacs since version 20.2. It has also been bundled and pre-installed with XEmacs 19.16–20.x. XEmacs 21.x users want to install the corresponding plug-in package which is available from the XEmacs FTP site. See the XEmacs 21.x documentation on package installation for details.

Users of earlier Emacs distributions (including Emacs 19) or people craving for new features and bugs can get a copy of the RefTeX distribution from the maintainer's web page. See section Imprint, for more information. The following instructions will guide you through the process of installing such a distribution.

1.1.1 Building and Installing

Note: Currently installation is supported for Emacs only. XEmacs users might want to refer to the RefTeX package available through the package system of XEmacs.

Installation with make

In order to install RefTeX, unpack the distribution and edit the header of the Makefile. Basically, you need to change the path specifications for Emacs Lisp files and info files. Also, enter the name of your Emacs executable (usually either ‘emacs’ or ‘xemacs’).

Then, type

make
make install

to compile and install the code and documentation.

Per default RefTeX is installed in its own subdirectory which might not be on your load path. In this case, add it to load path with a command like the following, replacing the sample directory with the one where RefTeX is installed in your case.

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/reftex")

Put this command into your init file.

Installation with install.el

If you don't have ‘make’ available, you can let install.el handle installation. Stefan Monnier has written this neat little file for installing all sorts of Emacs extensions as a package. You can get it from http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~monnier/elisp/install.el. Follow the instructions in the file in order to install RefTeX with it. Note that the file is still experimental, so handle with caution.

Installation by Hand

If you want to get your hands dirty, there is also the possibility to install by manually copying files.

1. Copy the reftex*.el lisp files to a directory on your load path. Make sure that no old copy of RefTeX shadows these files.
2. Byte compile the files. The sequence of compiling should be: reftex-var.el, reftex.el, and then all the others.
3. Copy the info file reftex.info to the info directory.

1.1.2 Loading RefTeX

In order to make the most important functions for entering RefTeX mode available add the following line to your init file.

(require 'reftex)

1.1.3 Entering RefTeX Mode

To turn RefTeX Mode on and off in a particular buffer, use M-x reftex-mode <RET>. To turn on RefTeX Mode for all LaTeX files, add the following lines to your ‘.emacs’ file:

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook 'turn-on-reftex)   ; with AUCTeX LaTeX mode
(add-hook 'latex-mode-hook 'turn-on-reftex)   ; with Emacs latex mode

That's all!

To get started, read the documentation, in particular the summary. (see section RefTeX in a Nutshell)

In order to produce a printed version of the documentation, use make pdf to produce a reftex.pdf file. Analogously you can use the dvi, ps, or html targets to create DVI, PostScript or HTML files.

1.1.4 Environment

RefTeX needs to access all files which are part of a multifile document, and the BibTeX database files requested by the \bibliography command. To find these files, RefTeX will require a search path, i.e. a list of directories to check. Normally this list is stored in the environment variables TEXINPUTS and BIBINPUTS which are also used by RefTeX. However, on some systems these variables do not contain the full search path. If RefTeX does not work for you because it cannot find some files, See section Finding Files.

1.2 RefTeX in a Nutshell

1. Table of Contents
   Typing C-c = (reftex-toc) will show a table of contents of the document. This buffer can display sections, labels and index entries defined in the document. From the buffer, you can jump quickly to every part of your document. Press ? to get help.
2. Labels and References
   RefTeX helps to create unique labels and to find the correct key for references quickly. It distinguishes labels for different environments, knows about all standard environments (and many others), and can be configured to recognize any additional labeled environments you have defined yourself (variable reftex-label-alist).
   • Creating Labels
     Type C-c ( (reftex-label) to insert a label at point. RefTeX will either
     • - derive a label from context (default for section labels)
     • - prompt for a label string (default for figures and tables) or
     • - insert a simple label made of a prefix and a number (all other environments)

     Which labels are created how is configurable with the variable reftex-insert-label-flags.

   • Referencing Labels
     To make a reference, type C-c ) (reftex-reference). This shows an outline of the document with all labels of a certain type (figure, equation,...) and some label context. Selecting a label inserts a \ref{label} macro into the original buffer.
3. Citations
   Typing C-c [ (reftex-citation) will let you specify a regular expression to search in current BibTeX database files (as specified in the \bibliography command) and pull out a list of matches for you to choose from. The list is formatted and sorted. The selected article is referenced as ‘\cite{key}’ (see the variable reftex-cite-format if you want to insert different macros).
4. Index Support
   RefTeX helps to enter index entries. It also compiles all entries into an alphabetically sorted ‘*Index*’ buffer which you can use to check and edit the entries. RefTeX knows about the standard index macros and can be configured to recognize any additional macros you have defined (reftex-index-macros). Multiple indices are supported.
   • Creating Index Entries
     To index the current selection or the word at point, type C-c / (reftex-index-selection-or-word). The default macro reftex-index-default-macro will be used. For a more complex entry type C-c < (reftex-index), select any of the index macros and enter the arguments with completion.
   • The Index Phrases File (Delayed Indexing)
     Type C-c \ (reftex-index-phrase-selection-or-word) to add the current word or selection to a special index phrase file. RefTeX can later search the document for occurrences of these phrases and let you interactively index the matches.
   • Displaying and Editing the Index
     To display the compiled index in a special buffer, type C-c > (reftex-display-index). From that buffer you can check and edit all entries.
5. Viewing Cross-References
   When point is on the key argument of a cross–referencing macro (\label, \ref, \cite, \bibitem, \index, and variations) or inside a BibTeX database entry, you can press C-c & (reftex-view-crossref) to display corresponding locations in the document and associated BibTeX database files.
   When the enclosing macro is \cite or \ref and no other message occupies the echo area, information about the citation or label will automatically be displayed in the echo area.
6. Multifile Documents
   Multifile Documents are fully supported. The included files must have a file variable TeX-master or tex-main-file pointing to the master file. RefTeX provides cross-referencing information from all parts of the document, and across document borders (‘xr.sty’).
7. Document Parsing
   RefTeX needs to parse the document in order to find labels and other information. It does it automatically once and updates its list internally when reftex-label and reftex-index are used. To enforce reparsing, call any of the commands described above with a raw C-u prefix, or press the r key in the label selection buffer, the table of contents buffer, or the index buffer.
8. AUCTeX
   If your major LaTeX mode is AUCTeX, RefTeX can cooperate with it (see variable reftex-plug-into-AUCTeX). AUCTeX contains style files which trigger appropriate settings in RefTeX, so that for many of the popular LaTeX packages no additional customizations will be necessary.
9. Useful Settings
   To integrate RefTeX with AUCTeX, use

   (setq reftex-plug-into-AUCTeX t)

   To make your own LaTeX macro definitions known to RefTeX, customize the variables

   reftex-label-alist (for label macros/environments) reftex-section-levels (for sectioning commands) reftex-cite-format (for \cite-like macros) reftex-index-macros (for \index-like macros) reftex-index-default-macro (to set the default macro)

   If you have a large number of macros defined, you may want to write an AUCTeX style file to support them with both AUCTeX and RefTeX.

10. Where Next?
    Go ahead and use RefTeX. Use its menus until you have picked up the key bindings. For an overview of what you can do in each of the different special buffers, press ?. Read the manual if you get stuck, of if you are curious what else might be available. The first part of the manual explains in a tutorial way how to use and customize RefTeX. The second part is a command and variable reference.

2. Table of Contents

Pressing the keys C-c = pops up a buffer showing the table of contents of the document. By default, this ‘*toc*’ buffer shows only the sections of a document. Using the l and i keys you can display all labels and index entries defined in the document as well.

With the cursor in any of the lines denoting a location in the document, simple key strokes will display the corresponding part in another window, jump to that location, or perform other actions.

Here is a list of special commands in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. A summary of this information is always available by pressing ?.

General

?

Display a summary of commands.

0-9, -

Prefix argument.

Moving around

n

Goto next entry in the table of context.

p

Goto previous entry in the table of context.

C-c C-n

Goto next section heading. Useful when many labels and index entries separate section headings.

C-c C-p

Goto previous section heading.

N z

Jump to section N, using the prefix arg. For example, 3 z jumps to section 3.

Access to document locations

<SPC>

Show the corresponding location in another window. This command does not select that other window.

<TAB>

Goto the location in another window.

<RET>

Go to the location and hide the ‘*toc*’ buffer. This will restore the window configuration before reftex-toc (C-c =) was called.

mouse-2

Clicking with mouse button 2 on a line has the same effect as <RET>. See also variable reftex-highlight-selection, Fontification.

f

Toggle follow mode. When follow mode is active, the other window will always show the location corresponding to the line at point in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. This is similar to pressing <SPC> after each cursor motion. The default for this flag can be set with the variable reftex-toc-follow-mode. Note that only context in files already visited is shown. RefTeX will not visit a file just for follow mode. See, however, the variable reftex-revisit-to-follow.

.

Show calling point in another window. This is the point from where reftex-toc was last called.

Promotion and Demotion

<

Promote the current section. This will convert \section to \chapter, \subsection to \section etc. If there is an active region, all sections in the region will be promoted, including the one at point. To avoid mistakes, RefTeX requires a fresh document scan before executing this command - if necessary, it will automatically do this scan and ask the user to repeat the promotion command.

>

Demote the current section. This is the opposite of promotion. It will convert \chapter to \section etc. If there is an active region, all sections in the region will be demoted, including the one at point.

M-%

Rename the label at point. While generally not recommended, this can be useful when a package like ‘fancyref’ is used where the label prefix determines the wording of a reference. After a promotion/demotion it may be necessary to change a few labels from ‘sec:xyz’ to ‘cha:xyz’ or vice versa. This command can be used to do this - it launches a query replace to rename the definition and all references of a label.

Exiting

q

Hide the ‘*toc*’ buffer, return to the position where reftex-toc was last called.

k

Kill the ‘*toc*’ buffer, return to the position where reftex-toc was last called.

C-c >

Switch to the ‘*Index*’ buffer of this document. With prefix ‘2’, restrict the index to the section at point in the ‘*toc*’ buffer.

Controlling what gets displayed

t

Change the maximum level of toc entries displayed in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. Without prefix arg, all levels will be included. With prefix arg (e.g 3 t), ignore all toc entries with level greater than arg (3 in this case). Chapters are level 1, sections are level 2. The mode line ‘T<>’ indicator shows the current value. The default depth can be configured with the variable reftex-toc-max-level.

F

Toggle the display of the file borders of a multifile document in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. The default for this flag can be set with the variable reftex-toc-include-file-boundaries.

l

Toggle the display of labels in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. The default for this flag can be set with the variable reftex-toc-include-labels. When called with a prefix argument, RefTeX will prompt for a label type and include only labels of the selected type in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. The mode line ‘L<>’ indicator shows which labels are included.

i

Toggle the display of index entries in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. The default for this flag can be set with the variable reftex-toc-include-index-entries. When called with a prefix argument, RefTeX will prompt for a specific index and include only entries in the selected index in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. The mode line ‘I<>’ indicator shows which index is used.

c

Toggle the display of label and index context in the ‘*toc*’ buffer. The default for this flag can be set with the variable reftex-toc-include-context.

Updating the buffer

g

Rebuild the ‘*toc*’ buffer. This does not rescan the document.

r

Reparse the LaTeX document and rebuild the ‘*toc*’ buffer. When reftex-enable-partial-scans is non-nil, rescan only the file this location is defined in, not the entire document.

C-u r

Reparse the entire LaTeX document and rebuild the ‘*toc*’ buffer.

x

Switch to the ‘*toc*’ buffer of an external document. When the current document is using the xr package (see section xr: Cross-Document References), RefTeX will switch to one of the external documents.

Automatic recentering

d

Toggle the display of a dedicated frame displaying just the ‘*toc*’ buffer. Follow mode and visiting locations will not work that frame, but automatic recentering will make this frame always show your current editing location in the document (see below).

a

Toggle the automatic recentering of the ‘*toc*’ buffer. When this option is on, moving around in the document will cause the ‘*toc*’ to always highlight the current section. By default, this option is active while the dedicated ‘*TOC*’ frame exists. See also the variable reftex-auto-recenter-toc.

In order to define additional commands for the ‘*toc*’ buffer, the keymap reftex-toc-map may be used.

If you call reftex-toc while the ‘*toc*’ buffer already exists, the cursor will immediately jump to the right place, i.e. the section from which reftex-toc was called will be highlighted. The command C-c - (reftex-toc-recenter) will only redisplay the ‘*toc*’ buffer and highlight the correct line without actually selecting the ‘*toc*’ window. This can be useful to quickly find out where in the document you currently are. You can also automate this by asking RefTeX to keep track of your current editing position in the TOC. The TOC window will then be updated whenever you stop typing for more than reftex-idle-time seconds. By default this works only with the dedicated ‘*TOC*’ frame. But you can also force automatic recentering of the TOC window on the current frame with

(setq reftex-auto-recenter-toc t)

The section macros recognized by RefTeX are all LaTeX section macros (from \part to \subsubparagraph) and the commands \addchap and \addsec from the KOMA-Script classes. Additional macros can be configured with the variable reftex-section-levels. It is also possible to add certain LaTeX environments to the table of contents. This is probably only useful for theorem-like environments. See section Defining Label Environments, for an example.

3. Labels and References

LaTeX provides a powerful mechanism to deal with cross–references in a document. When writing a document, any part of it can be marked with a label, like ‘\label{mark}’. LaTeX records the current value of a certain counter when a label is defined. Later references to this label (like ‘\ref{mark}’) will produce the recorded value of the counter.

Labels can be used to mark sections, figures, tables, equations, footnotes, items in enumerate lists etc. LaTeX is context sensitive in doing this: A label defined in a figure environment automatically records the figure counter, not the section counter.

Several different environments can share a common counter and therefore a common label category. E.g. labels in both equation and eqnarray environments record the value of the same counter - the equation counter.

3.1 Creating Labels

In order to create a label in a LaTeX document, press C-c ( (reftex-label). Just like LaTeX, RefTeX is context sensitive and will figure out the environment it currently is in and adapt the label to that environment. A label usually consists of a short prefix indicating the type of the label and a unique mark. RefTeX has 3 different modes to create this mark.

1. A label can be derived from context. This means, RefTeX takes the context of the label definition and constructs a label from that(1). This works best for section labels, where the section heading is used to construct a label. In fact, RefTeX's default settings use this method only for section labels. You will be asked to confirm the derived label, or edit it.
2. We may also use a simple unique number to identify a label. This is mostly useful for labels where it is difficult to come up with a very good descriptive name. RefTeX's default settings use this method for equations, enumerate items and footnotes. The author of RefTeX tends to write documents with many equations and finds it impossible to come up with good names for each of them. These simple labels are inserted without query, and are therefore very fast. Good descriptive names are not really necessary as RefTeX will provide context to reference a label (see section Referencing Labels).
3. The third method is to ask the user for a label. This is most useful for things which are easy to describe briefly and do not turn up too frequently in a document. RefTeX uses this for figures and tables. Of course, one can enter the label directly by typing the full ‘\label{mark}’. The advantage of using reftex-label anyway is that RefTeX will know that a new label has been defined. It will then not be necessary to rescan the document in order to access this label later.

If you want to change the way certain labels are created, check out the variable reftex-insert-label-flags (see section Creating Labels).

If you are using AUCTeX to write your LaTeX documents, you can set it up to delegate the creation of labels to RefTeX. See section AUCTeX, for more information.

3.2 Referencing Labels

RefTeX scans the document in order to find all labels. To make referencing labels easier, it assigns to each label a category, the label type (for example section, table, figure, equation, etc.). In order to determine the label type, RefTeX parses around each label to see in what kind of environments it is located. You can speed up the parsing by using type-specific prefixes for labels and configuring the variable reftex-trust-label-prefix.

Referencing Labels is really at the heart of RefTeX. Press C-c ) in order to reference a label (reftex-reference). This will start a selection process and finally insert the complete ‘\ref{label}’ into the buffer.

First, RefTeX will determine the label category which is required. Often that can be figured out from context. For example, if you write ‘As shown in eq.’ and the press C-c ), RefTeX knows that an equation label is going to be referenced. If it cannot figure out what label category is needed, it will query for one.

You will then be presented with a label selection menu. This is a special buffer which contains an outline of the document along with all labels of the given label category. In addition, next to the label there will be one line of context of the label definition, which is some text in the buffer near the label definition. Usually this is sufficient to identify the label. If you are unsure about a certain label, pressing <SPC> will show the label definition point in another window.

In order to reference a label, move to cursor to the correct label and press <RET>. You can also reference several labels with a single call to reftex-reference by marking entries with the m key (see below).

Here is a list of special commands in the selection buffer. A summary of this information is always available from the selection process by pressing ?.

General

?

Show a summary of available commands.

0-9,-

Prefix argument.

Moving around

n

Go to next label.

p

Go to previous label.

b

Jump back to the position where you last left the selection buffer. Normally this should get you back to the last referenced label.

C-c C-n

Goto next section heading.

C-c C-p

Goto previous section heading.

N z

Jump to section N, using the prefix arg. For example 3 z jumps to section 3.

Displaying Context

<SPC>

Show the surroundings of the definition of the current label in another window. See also the f key.

f

Toggle follow mode. When follow mode is active, the other window will always display the full context of the current label. This is similar to pressing <SPC> after each cursor motion. Note that only context in files already visited is shown. RefTeX will not visit a file just for follow mode. See, however, the variable reftex-revisit-to-follow.

.

Show insertion point in another window. This is the point from where you called reftex-reference.

Selecting a label and creating the reference

<RET>

Insert a reference to the label at point into the buffer from which the selection process was started. When entries have been marked, <RET> references all marked labels.

mouse-2

Clicking with mouse button 2 on a label will accept it like <RET> would. See also variable reftex-highlight-selection, Miscellaneous.

m - + ,

Mark the current entry. When several entries have been marked, pressing RET will accept all of them and place them into several \ref macros. The special markers ‘,-+’ also store a separator to be inserted before the corresponding reference. So marking six entries with the keys ‘m , , - , +’ will give a reference list like this (see the variable reftex-multiref-punctuation)

In eqs. (1), (2), (3)--(4), (5) and (6)

u

Unmark a marked entry.

a

Accept the marked entries and put all labels as a comma-separated list into one single \ref macro. Some packages like ‘saferef.sty’ support multiple references in this way.

l

Use the last referenced label(s) again. This is equivalent to moving to that label and pressing <RET>.

<TAB>

Enter a label with completion. This may also be a label which does not yet exist in the document.

v

Toggle between \ref and \vref macro for references. The \vref macro is defined in the varioref LaTeX package. With this key you can force RefTeX to insert a \vref macro. The current state of this flag is displayed by the ‘S<>’ indicator in the mode line of the selection buffer.

V

Cycle between \ref, \fref and \Fref. The \fref and \Fref macros are defined in the fancyref LaTeX package. With this key you can force RefTeX to insert a \fref or \Fref macro. The current state of this flag is displayed by the ‘S<>’ indicator in the mode line of the selection buffer.

Exiting

q

Exit the selection process without inserting any reference into the buffer.

Controlling what gets displayed

The defaults for the following flags can be configured with the variable reftex-label-menu-flags (see section Referencing Labels).

c

Toggle the display of the one-line label definition context in the selection buffer.

F

Toggle the display of the file borders of a multifile document in the selection buffer.

t

Toggle the display of the table of contents in the selection buffer. With prefix arg, change the maximum level of toc entries displayed to arg. Chapters are level 1, section are level 2.

#

Toggle the display of a label counter in the selection buffer.

%

Toggle the display of labels hidden in comments in the selection buffers. Sometimes, you may have commented out parts of your document. If these parts contain label definitions, RefTeX can still display and reference these labels.

Updating the buffer

g

Update the menu. This will rebuilt the menu from the internal label list, but not reparse the document (see r).

r

Reparse the document to update the information on all labels and rebuild the menu. If the variable reftex-enable-partial-scans is non-nil and your document is a multifile document, this will reparse only a part of the document (the file in which the label at point was defined).

C-u r

Reparse the entire document.

s

Switch the label category. After prompting for another label category, a menu for that category will be shown.

x

Reference a label from an external document. With the LaTeX package xr it is possible to reference labels defined in another document. This key will switch to the label menu of an external document and let you select a label from there (see section xr).

In order to define additional commands for the selection process, the keymap reftex-select-label-map may be used.

3.3 Builtin Label Environments

RefTeX needs to be aware of the environments which can be referenced with a label (i.e. which carry their own counters). By default, RefTeX recognizes all labeled environments and macros discussed in The LaTeX Companion by Goossens, Mittelbach & Samarin, Addison-Wesley 1994.. These are:

• - figure, figure*, table, table*, equation, eqnarray, enumerate, the \footnote macro (this is the LaTeX core stuff)
• - align, gather, multline, flalign, alignat, xalignat, xxalignat, subequations (from AMS-LaTeX's ‘amsmath.sty’ package)
• - the \endnote macro (from ‘endnotes.sty’)
• - Beqnarray (‘fancybox.sty’)
• - floatingfig (‘floatfig.sty’)
• - longtable (‘longtable.sty’)
• - figwindow, tabwindow (‘picinpar.sty’)
• - SCfigure, SCtable (‘sidecap.sty’)
• - sidewaysfigure, sidewaystable (‘rotating.sty’)
• - subfigure, subfigure*, the \subfigure macro (‘subfigure.sty’)
• - supertabular (‘supertab.sty’)
• - wrapfigure (‘wrapfig.sty’)

If you want to use other labeled environments, defined with \newtheorem, RefTeX needs to be configured to recognize them (see section Defining Label Environments).

3.4 Defining Label Environments

RefTeX can be configured to recognize additional labeled environments and macros. This is done with the variable reftex-label-alist (see section Defining Label Environments). If you are not familiar with Lisp, you can use the custom library to configure this rather complex variable. To do this, use

M-x customize-variable <RET> reftex-label-alist <RET>

Here we will discuss a few examples, in order to make things clearer. It can also be instructive to look at the constant reftex-label-alist-builtin which contains the entries for all the builtin environments and macros (see section Builtin Label Environments).

3.4.1 Theorem and Axiom Environments

Suppose you are using \newtheorem in LaTeX in order to define two new environments, theorem and axiom

\newtheorem{axiom}{Axiom}
\newtheorem{theorem}{Theorem}

to be used like this:

\begin{axiom}
\label{ax:first}
  ....
\end{axiom}

So we need to tell RefTeX that theorem and axiom are new labeled environments which define their own label categories. We can either use Lisp to do this (e.g. in ‘.emacs’) or use the custom library. With Lisp it would look like this

(setq reftex-label-alist
   '(("axiom"   ?a "ax:"  "~\\ref{%s}" nil ("axiom"   "ax.") -2)
     ("theorem" ?h "thr:" "~\\ref{%s}" t   ("theorem" "th.") -3)))

The type indicator characters ?a and ?h are used for prompts when RefTeX queries for a label type. ?h was chosen for theorem since ?t is already taken by table. Note that also ?s, ?f, ?e, ?i, ?n are already used for standard environments.

The labels for Axioms and Theorems will have the prefixes ‘ax:’ and ‘thr:’, respectively. See section AUCTeX, for information on how AUCTeX can use RefTeX to automatically create labels when a new environment is inserted into a buffer. Additionally, the following needs to be added to one's .emacs file before AUCTeX will automatically create labels for the new environments.

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook
   (lambda ()
     (LaTeX-add-environments
       '("axiom" LaTeX-env-label)
       '("theorem" LaTeX-env-label))))

The ‘~\ref{%s}’ is a format string indicating how to insert references to these labels.

The next item indicates how to grab context of the label definition.

• - t means to get it from a default location (from the beginning of a \macro or after the \begin statement). t is not a good choice for eqnarray and similar environments.
• - nil means to use the text right after the label definition.
• - For more complex ways of getting context, see the variable reftex-label-alist (Defining Label Environments).

The following list of strings is used to guess the correct label type from the word before point when creating a reference. E.g. if you write: ‘As we have shown in Theorem’ and then press C-c ), RefTeX will know that you are looking for a theorem label and restrict the menu to only these labels without even asking.

The final item in each entry is the level at which the environment should produce entries in the table of context buffer. If the number is positive, the environment will produce numbered entries (like \section), if it is negative the entries will be unnumbered (like \section*). Use this only for environments which structure the document similar to sectioning commands. For everything else, omit the item.

To do the same configuration with customize, you need to click on the [INS] button twice to create two templates and fill them in like this:

Reftex Label Alist: [Hide]
[INS] [DEL] Package or Detailed   : [Value Menu] Detailed:
            Environment or \macro : [Value Menu] String: axiom
            Type specification    : [Value Menu] Char  : a
            Label prefix string   : [Value Menu] String: ax:
            Label reference format: [Value Menu] String: ~\ref{%s}
            Context method        : [Value Menu] After label
            Magic words:
              [INS] [DEL] String: axiom
              [INS] [DEL] String: ax.
              [INS]
            [X] Make TOC entry    : [Value Menu] Level: -2
[INS] [DEL] Package or Detailed   : [Value Menu] Detailed:
            Environment or \macro : [Value Menu] String: theorem
            Type specification    : [Value Menu] Char  : h
            Label prefix string   : [Value Menu] String: thr:
            Label reference format: [Value Menu] String: ~\ref{%s}
            Context method        : [Value Menu] Default position
            Magic words:
              [INS] [DEL] String: theorem
              [INS] [DEL] String: theor.
              [INS] [DEL] String: th.
              [INS]
            [X] Make TOC entry    : [Value Menu] Level: -3

Depending on how you would like the label insertion and selection for the new environments to work, you might want to add the letters ‘a’ and ‘h’ to some of the flags in the variables reftex-insert-label-flags (see section Creating Labels) and reftex-label-menu-flags (see section Referencing Labels).

3.4.2 Quick Equation Macro

Suppose you would like to have a macro for quick equations. It could be defined like this:

\newcommand{\quickeq}[1]{\begin{equation} #1 \end{equation}}

and used like this:

Einstein's equation is \quickeq{E=mc^2 \label{eq:einstein}}.

We need to tell RefTeX that any label defined in the argument of the \quickeq is an equation label. Here is how to do this with lisp:

(setq reftex-label-alist '(("\\quickeq{}" ?e nil nil 1 nil)))

The first element in this list is now the macro with empty braces as an image of the macro arguments. ?e indicates that this is an equation label, the different nil elements indicate to use the default values for equations. The ‘1’ as the fifth element indicates that the context of the label definition should be the 1st argument of the macro.

Here is again how this would look in the customization buffer:

Reftex Label Alist: [Hide]
[INS] [DEL] Package or Detailed   : [Value Menu] Detailed:
            Environment or \macro : [Value Menu] String: \quickeq{}
            Type specification    : [Value Menu] Char  : e
            Label prefix string   : [Value Menu] Default
            Label reference format: [Value Menu] Default
            Context method        : [Value Menu] Macro arg nr: 1
            Magic words:
              [INS]
            [ ] Make TOC entry    : [Value Menu] No entry

3.4.3 Figure Wrapping Macro

Suppose you want to make figures not directly with the figure environment, but with a macro like

\newcommand{\myfig}[5][tbp]{%
  \begin{figure}[#1]
    \epsimp[#5]{#2}
    \caption{#3}
    \label{#4}
  \end{figure}}

which would be called like

\myfig[htp]{filename}{caption text}{label}{1}

Now we need to tell RefTeX that the 4th argument of the \myfig macro is itself a figure label, and where to find the context.

(setq reftex-label-alist
      '(("\\myfig[]{}{}{*}{}" ?f nil nil 3)))

The empty pairs of brackets indicate the different arguments of the \myfig macro. The ‘*’ marks the label argument. ?f indicates that this is a figure label which will be listed together with labels from normal figure environments. The nil entries for prefix and reference format mean to use the defaults for figure labels. The ‘3’ for the context method means to grab the 3rd macro argument - the caption.

As a side effect of this configuration, reftex-label will now insert the required naked label (without the \label macro) when point is directly after the opening parenthesis of a \myfig macro argument.

Again, here the configuration in the customization buffer:

[INS] [DEL] Package or Detailed   : [Value Menu] Detailed:
            Environment or \macro : [Value Menu] String: \myfig[]{}{}{*}{}
            Type specification    : [Value Menu] Char  : f
            Label prefix string   : [Value Menu] Default
            Label reference format: [Value Menu] Default
            Context method        : [Value Menu] Macro arg nr: 3
            Magic words:
              [INS]
            [ ] Make TOC entry    : [Value Menu] No entry

3.4.4 Adding Magic Words

Sometimes you don't want to define a new label environment or macro, but just change the information associated with a label category. Maybe you want to add some magic words, for another language. Changing only the information associated with a label category is done by giving nil for the environment name and then specify the items you want to define. Here is an example which adds German magic words to all predefined label categories.

(setq reftex-label-alist
  '((nil ?s nil nil nil ("Kapitel" "Kap." "Abschnitt" "Teil"))
    (nil ?e nil nil nil ("Gleichung" "Gl."))
    (nil ?t nil nil nil ("Tabelle"))
    (nil ?f nil nil nil ("Figur" "Abbildung" "Abb."))
    (nil ?n nil nil nil ("Anmerkung" "Anm."))
    (nil ?i nil nil nil ("Punkt"))))

3.4.5 Using \eqref

Another case where one only wants to change the information associated with the label category is to change the macro which is used for referencing the label. When working with the AMS-LaTeX stuff, you might prefer \eqref for doing equation references. Here is how to do this:

(setq reftex-label-alist '((nil ?e nil "~\\eqref{%s}" nil nil)))

RefTeX has also a predefined symbol for this special purpose. The following is equivalent to the line above.

(setq reftex-label-alist '(AMSTeX))

Note that this is automatically done by the ‘amsmath.el’ style file of AUCTeX (see section Style Files) - so if you use AUCTeX, this configuration will not be necessary.

3.4.6 Non-standard Environments

Some LaTeX packages define environment-like structures without using the standard ‘\begin..\end’ structure. RefTeX cannot parse these directly, but you can write your own special-purpose parser and use it instead of the name of an environment in an entry for reftex-label-alist. The function should check if point is currently in the special environment it was written to detect. If so, it must return a buffer position indicating the start of this environment. The return value must be nil on failure to detect the environment. The function is called with one argument bound. If non-nil, bound is a boundary for backwards searches which should be observed. We will discuss two examples.

Some people define abbreviations for environments, like \be for \begin{equation}, and \ee for \end{equation}. The parser function would have to search backward for these macros. When the first match is \ee, point is not in this environment. When the first match is \be, point is in this environment and the function must return the beginning of the match. To avoid scanning too far, we can also look for empty lines which cannot occur inside an equation environment. Here is the setup:

;; Setup entry in reftex-label-alist, using all defaults for equations
(setq reftex-label-alist '((detect-be-ee ?e nil nil nil nil)))

(defun detect-be-ee (bound)
  ;; Search backward for the macros or an empty line
  (if (re-search-backward
       "\\(^[ \t]*\n\\|\\\\ee\\>\\)\\|\\(\\\\be\\>\\)" bound t)
      (if (match-beginning 2)
          (match-beginning 2)  ; Return start of environment
        nil)                   ; Return nil because env is closed
    nil))                      ; Return nil for not found

A more complex example is the ‘linguex.sty’ package which defines list macros ‘\ex.’, ‘\a.’, ‘\b.’ etc. for lists which are terminated by ‘\z.’ or by an empty line.

\ex.  \label{ex:12} Some text in an exotic language ...
      \a. \label{ex:13} more stuff
      \b. \label{ex:14} still more stuff
          \a. List on a deeper level
          \b. Another item
          \b. and the third one
      \z.
      \b. Third item on this level.

... text after the empty line terminating all lists

The difficulty is that the ‘\a.’ lists can nest and that an empty line terminates all list levels in one go. So we have to count nesting levels between ‘\a.’ and ‘\z.’. Here is the implementation for RefTeX.

(setq reftex-label-alist
      '((detect-linguex ?x "ex:" "~\\ref{%s}" nil ("Example" "Ex."))))

(defun detect-linguex (bound)
  (let ((cnt 0))
    (catch 'exit
      (while
          ;; Search backward for all possible delimiters
          (re-search-backward
           (concat "\\(^[ \t]*\n\\)\\|\\(\\\\z\\.\\)\\|"
                   "\\(\\ex[ig]?\\.\\)\\|\\(\\\\a\\.\\)")
           nil t)
        ;; Check which delimiter was matched.
        (cond
         ((match-beginning 1)
          ;; empty line terminates all - return nil
          (throw 'exit nil))
         ((match-beginning 2)
          ;; \z. terminates one list level - decrease nesting count
          (decf cnt))
         ((match-beginning 3)
          ;; \ex. : return match unless there was a \z. on this level
          (throw 'exit (if (>= cnt 0) (match-beginning 3) nil)))
         ((match-beginning 4)
          ;; \a. : return match when on level 0, otherwise
          ;;       increment nesting count
          (if (>= cnt 0)
              (throw 'exit (match-beginning 4))
            (incf cnt))))))))

3.4.7 Putting it all together

When you have to put several entries into reftex-label-alist, just put them after each other in a list, or create that many templates in the customization buffer. Here is a lisp example which uses several of the entries described above:

(setq reftex-label-alist
  '(("axiom"   ?a "ax:"  "~\\ref{%s}" nil ("axiom"   "ax.") -2)
    ("theorem" ?h "thr:" "~\\ref{%s}" t   ("theorem" "theor." "th.") -3)
    ("\\quickeq{}" ?e nil nil 1 nil)
    AMSTeX
    ("\\myfig[]{}{}{*}{}" ?f nil nil 3)
    (detect-linguex ?x "ex:" "~\\ref{%s}" nil ("Example" "Ex."))))

3.5 Reference Info

When point is idle for more than reftex-idle-time seconds on the argument of a \ref macro, the echo area will display some information about the label referenced there. Note that the information is only displayed if the echo area is not occupied by a different message.

RefTeX can also display the label definition corresponding to a \ref macro, or all reference locations corresponding to a \label macro. See section Viewing Cross–References, for more information.

3.6 xr: Cross-Document References

The LaTeX package xr makes it possible to create references to labels defined in external documents. The preamble of a document using xr will contain something like this:

\usepackage{xr}
\externaldocument[V1-]{volume1}
\externaldocument[V3-]{volume3}

and we can make references to any labels defined in these external documents by using the prefixes ‘V1-’ and ‘V3-’, respectively.

RefTeX can be used to create such references as well. Start the referencing process normally, by pressing C-c ). Select a label type if necessary. When you see the label selection buffer, pressing x will switch to the label selection buffer of one of the external documents. You may then select a label as before and RefTeX will insert it along with the required prefix.

For this kind of inter-document cross-references, saving of parsing information and the use of multiple selection buffers can mean a large speed-up (see section Optimizations).

3.7 varioref: Variable Page References

varioref is a frequently used LaTeX package to create cross–references with page information. When you want to make a reference with the \vref macro, just press the v key in the selection buffer to toggle between \ref and \vref (see section Referencing Labels). The mode line of the selection buffer shows the current status of this switch. If you find that you almost always use \vref, you may want to make it the default by customizing the variable reftex-vref-is-default. If this toggling seems too inconvenient, you can also use the command reftex-varioref-vref(2). Or use AUCTeX to create your macros (see section AUCTeX).

3.8 fancyref: Fancy Cross References

fancyref is a LaTeX package where a macro call like \fref{fig:map-of-germany} creates not only the number of the referenced counter but also the complete text around it, like ‘Figure 3 on the preceding page’. In order to make it work you need to use label prefixes like ‘fig:’ consistently - something RefTeX does automatically. When you want to make a reference with the \fref macro, just press the V key in the selection buffer to cycle between \ref, \fref and \Fref (see section Referencing Labels). The mode line of the selection buffer shows the current status of this switch. If this cycling seems inconvenient, you can also use the commands reftex-fancyref-fref and reftex-fancyref-Fref(3). Or use AUCTeX to create your macros (see section AUCTeX).

4. Citations

Citations in LaTeX are done with the \cite macro or variations of it. The argument of the macro is a citation key which identifies an article or book in either a BibTeX database file or in an explicit thebibliography environment in the document. RefTeX's support for citations helps to select the correct key quickly.

4.1 Creating Citations

In order to create a citation, press C-c [. RefTeX then prompts for a regular expression which will be used to search through the database and present the list of matches to choose from in a selection process similar to that for selecting labels (see section Referencing Labels).

The regular expression uses an extended syntax: ‘&&’ defines a logic and for regular expressions. For example ‘Einstein&&Bose’ will match all articles which mention Bose-Einstein condensation, or which are co-authored by Bose and Einstein. When entering the regular expression, you can complete on known citation keys. RefTeX also offers a default when prompting for a regular expression. This default is the word before the cursor or the word before the current ‘\cite’ command. Sometimes this may be a good search key.

RefTeX prefers to use BibTeX database files specified with a \bibliography macro to collect its information. Just like BibTeX, it will search for the specified files in the current directory and along the path given in the environment variable BIBINPUTS. If you do not use BibTeX, but the document contains an explicit thebibliography environment, RefTeX will collect its information from there. Note that in this case the information presented in the selection buffer will just be a copy of relevant \bibitem entries, not the structured listing available with BibTeX database files.

In the selection buffer, the following keys provide special commands. A summary of this information is always available from the selection process by pressing ?.

General

?

Show a summary of available commands.

0-9,-

Prefix argument.

Moving around

n

Go to next article.

p

Go to previous article.

Access to full database entries

<SPC>

Show the database entry corresponding to the article at point, in another window. See also the f key.

f

Toggle follow mode. When follow mode is active, the other window will always display the full database entry of the current article. This is equivalent to pressing <SPC> after each cursor motion. With BibTeX entries, follow mode can be rather slow.

Selecting entries and creating the citation

<RET>

Insert a citation referencing the article at point into the buffer from which the selection process was started.

mouse-2

Clicking with mouse button 2 on a citation will accept it like <RET> would. See also variable reftex-highlight-selection, Miscellaneous.

m

Mark the current entry. When one or several entries are marked, pressing a or A accepts all marked entries. Also, <RET> behaves like the a key.

u

Unmark a marked entry.

a

Accept all (marked) entries in the selection buffer and create a single \cite macro referring to them.

A

Accept all (marked) entries in the selection buffer and create a separate \cite macro for each of it.

e

Create a new BibTeX database file which contains all marked entries in the selection buffer. If no entries are marked, all entries are selected.

E

Create a new BibTeX database file which contains all unmarked entries in the selection buffer. If no entries are marked, all entries are selected.

<TAB>

Enter a citation key with completion. This may also be a key which does not yet exist.

.

Show insertion point in another window. This is the point from where you called reftex-citation.

Exiting

q

Exit the selection process without inserting a citation into the buffer.

Updating the buffer

g

Start over with a new regular expression. The full database will be rescanned with the new expression (see also r).

r

Refine the current selection with another regular expression. This will not rescan the entire database, but just the already selected entries.

In order to define additional commands for this selection process, the keymap reftex-select-bib-map may be used.

4.2 Citation Styles

The standard LaTeX macro \cite works well with numeric or simple key citations. To deal with the more complex task of author-year citations as used in many natural sciences, a variety of packages has been developed which define derived forms of the \cite macro. RefTeX can be configured to produce these citation macros as well by setting the variable reftex-cite-format. For the most commonly used packages (natbib, harvard, chicago, jurabib) this may be done from the menu, under Ref->Citation Styles. Since there are usually several macros to create the citations, executing reftex-citation (C-c [) starts by prompting for the correct macro. For the Natbib style, this looks like this:

SELECT A CITATION FORMAT

[^M]   \cite{%l}
[t]    \citet{%l}
[T]    \citet*{%l}
[p]    \citep{%l}
[P]    \citep*{%l}
[e]    \citep[e.g.][]{%l}
[s]    \citep[see][]{%l}
[a]    \citeauthor{%l}
[A]    \citeauthor*{%l}
[y]    \citeyear{%l}

If cite formats contain empty paris of square brackets, RefTeX can will prompt for values of these optional arguments if you call the reftex-citation command with a C-u prefix. Following the most generic of these packages, natbib, the builtin citation packages always accept the t key for a textual citation (like: Jones et al. (1997) have shown...) as well as the p key for a parenthetical citation (like: As shown earlier (Jones et al, 1997)).

To make one of these styles the default, customize the variable reftex-cite-format or put into ‘.emacs’:

(setq reftex-cite-format 'natbib)

You can also use AUCTeX style files to automatically set the citation style based on the usepackage commands in a given document. See section Style Files, for information on how to set up the style files correctly.

4.3 Citation Info

When point is idle for more than reftex-idle-time seconds on the argument of a \cite macro, the echo area will display some information about the article cited there. Note that the information is only displayed if the echo area is not occupied by a different message.

RefTeX can also display the \bibitem or BibTeX database entry corresponding to a \cite macro, or all citation locations corresponding to a \bibitem or BibTeX database entry. See section Viewing Cross–References.

4.4 Chapterbib and Bibunits

chapterbib and bibunits are two LaTeX packages which produce multiple bibliographies in a document. This is no problem for RefTeX as long as all bibliographies use the same BibTeX database files. If they do not, it is best to have each document part in a separate file (as it is required for chapterbib anyway). Then RefTeX will still scan the locally relevant databases correctly. If you have multiple bibliographies within a single file, this may or may not be the case.

4.5 Citations outside LaTeX

The command reftex-citation can also be executed outside a LaTeX buffer. This can be useful to reference articles in the mail buffer and other documents. You should not enter reftex-mode for this, just execute the command. The list of BibTeX files will in this case be taken from the variable reftex-default-bibliography. Setting the variable reftex-cite-format to the symbol locally does a decent job of putting all relevant information about a citation directly into the buffer. Here is the lisp code to add the C-c [ binding to the mail buffer. It also provides a local binding for reftex-cite-format.

(add-hook 'mail-setup-hook
          (lambda () (define-key mail-mode-map "\C-c["
                       (lambda ()
                         (interactive)
                         (let ((reftex-cite-format 'locally))
                           (reftex-citation))))))