Customization of the bibliography in LaTeX output

This is a feature request that was discussed in the mailing list:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sphinx-dev/qHIpc7XskZY

Problem

When using the sphinxcontrib-bibtex extension, the list of references can be placed in the document with the bibliography directive. At least that's the case for HTML output; in LaTeX output, the list of references is moved to the very end of the resulting LaTeX document.

This is documented: https://sphinxcontrib-bibtex.readthedocs.io/en/latest/usage.html#mismatch-between-output-of-html-and-latex-backends

The reason for this behavior is sphinx.builders.latex.BibliographyTransform, which cannot easily be disabled.

A work-around is shown there: https://github.com/mcmtroffaes/sphinxcontrib-bibtex/issues/156

In the mailing list, @tk0miya said:

I can provide the option for the transform like "as is", "per
chapter" and "per document".
If you like it, please post a feature request. I'll work for it (in future).

I think such an option would be great.

I'm mostly interested in the "as is" option, but other people might also want "per chapter".

Start by reading sphinx.builders.latex.BibliographyTransform and the documented HTML/LaTeX mismatch. Review the linked sphinxcontrib-bibtex workaround and mailing-list discussion for the intended “as is” and “per chapter” behaviors. Done means LaTeX bibliography placement can be selected without disabling the transform manually.