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TeX Frequently Asked Questions
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Perhaps you’ve lost the .bib file you generated your document from, or have been sent a document without one. Or even, you’ve realised the error of building a substantial document without the benefit of BibTeX…

The Perl script, tex2bib makes a reasonable job of regenerating .bib files from thebibliography environments, provided that the original (whether automatically or manually generated) doesn’t deviate too far from the “standard” styles.

You are well-advised to check the output of the script. While it will not usually destroy information, it can quite reasonably mislabel it.

Documentation of the script is to be found in the file tex2bib.readme