8.7. Global edit references

refdb has no special command for a global edit of all references or a group of references. You can get pretty far though with a default file when updating references and with Unix plumbing.

To change existing text:

• Run a search on the references that you wish to change and pipe the output through sed into a file, like getref -t ris -d bar -c "sed 's/foo/faa/g' > refs.ris" "search-string".

• Use the command updateref refs.ris to update the reference(s) in the database.

To add or change fields:

• Run a search on the references that you wish to change, like getref -t ris -o refs.ris "search-string"

• Create a defaultfile containing the field(s) that you want to change or add.

• Use the command updateref -g defaultfile refs.ris to update the reference(s) in the database.