"biber" - A bibtex replacement for users of biblatex
biber [options] file[.bcf]
biber [options] --tool <datasource>
Creates "file.bbl" using control file "file.bcf" (".bcf" extension is
optional). Normally use with biblatex requires no options as they are
all set in biblatex and passed via the ".bcf" file
In "tool" mode (see B<--tool> option), takes a datasource (defaults to
"bibtex" datasource) and outputs a copy of the datasource with any command-line
or config file options applied.
Please run "biber --help" for option details
"biber" provides a replacement of the bibtex processor for users of
biblatex.
- --annotation-marker=[marker]
- Sets the suffix which can be appended to a BibTeX data
source field name to indicate that the value of the field is a data
annotation. The default is "+an".
- --cache
- If running as a PAR::Packer binary, show the cache location
and exit.
- --clrmacros
- Clears any BibTeX macros (@STRING) between BibLaTeX
refsections. This prevents BibTeX warnings about macro redefinitions if
you are using the same datasource several times for different
refsections.
- --collate-options|-c [options]
- Options to pass to the "Unicode::Collate" object
used for sorting (default is 'level => "4", variable =>
"non-ignorable"'). See "perldoc Unicode::Collate" for
details.
- --configfile|-g [file]
- Use file as the configuration file for
"biber" instead of looking in the default locations which are,
in order:
* "biber.conf" or ".biber.conf" in the current directory
* "$HOME/.biber.conf"
* "$ENV{XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/biber/biber.conf"
* "$HOME/.config/biber/biber.conf"
* "$HOME/Library/biber/biber.conf" (Mac OSX only)
* "$ENV{APPDATA}/biber.conf" (Windows only)
* The output of "kpsewhich biber.conf" (if available on the
system).
In tool mode, ( --tool) the biber-tool.conf installed with
Biber is always used to set default options if a user-defined config file
is not specified. Use the --tool-config option to view the location
of the default tool mode config file which may be useful as a source for
writing your own.
- --convert-control
- Converts the .bcf control file into html using an
XSLT transform. Can be useful for debugging. File is named by appending
".html" to .bcf file.
- --decodecharsset=[recode set name]
- The set of characters included in the conversion routine
when decoding LaTeX macros into UTF-8 (which happens when
--bblencoding|-E is set to UTF-8). Set to "full" to try
harder with a much larger set or "base" to use a smaller basic
set. Default is "base". You may want to try "full" if
you have less common UTF-8 characters in your data source. The recode sets
are defined in the reencoding data file which can be customised. See the
--recodedata option and the PDF manual. The virtual set name
"null" may be specified which effectively turns off macro
decoding.
- --debug|-D
- Turn on debugging for "biber".
- --dieondatamodel
- Exit immediately with error if using
"--validate-datamodel" and a datamodel validation error is
found. Default is to warn and continue.
- --dot-include=section,field,xdata,crossref,xref,related
- Specifies the element to include in GraphViz DOT output
format if the output format is 'dot'. You can also choose to display
crossref, xref, xdata and/or related entry connections. The default if not
specified is "--dot-include=section,xdata,crossref,xref".
- --fixinits
- Try to fix broken multiple initials when they have no space
between them in BibTeX data sources. That is, "A.B. Clarke"
becomes "A. B. Clarke" before name parsing. This can slightly
mess up things like "{U.K. Government}" and other esoteric
cases.
- --help|-h
- Show this help message.
- --input-directory [directory]
-
.bcf and data files will be looked for first in the
directory. See the biber PDF documentation for the other
possibilities and how this interacts with the
"--output-directory" option.
- --input-encoding|-e [encoding]
- Specify the encoding of the data source file(s). Default is
"UTF-8" Normally it's not necessary to set this as it's passed
via the .bcf file from biblatex's "bibencoding" option. See
"perldoc Encode::Supported" for a list of supported encodings.
The legacy option --bibencoding is supported as an alias.
- --input-format=bibtex|biblatexml
- Biber input format. This option only means something in
tool mode (see tool option) since normally the input format of a
data source is specified in the .bcf file and therefore from the
\addbibresouce macro in BibLaTeX. The default value when in tool
mode is 'bibtex'
- --isbn10
- Force all ISBNs to 10-digit versions on output. This will
convert the ISBN internally to an ISBN object which will not have hyphens
on output. If you use this option and want an ISBN with hyphens in the
correct place on output, use the --isbn-normalise option.
- --isbn13
- Force all ISBNs to 13-digit versions on output. This will
convert the ISBN internally to an ISBN object which will not have hyphens
on output. If you use this option and want an ISBN with hyphens in the
correct place on output, use the --isbn-normalise option.
- --isbn-normalise
- Normalise ISBNs with hyphens in the correct places on
output.
- --logfile [file]
- Use file.blg as the name of the logfile.
- --listsep=[sep]
- Use sep as the separator for BibTeX data source list
fields. Defaults to BibTeX's usual 'and'.
- --mincrossrefs|-m [number]
- Set threshold for crossrefs.
- --named-annotation-marker=[marker]
- Sets the separator between the
"--annotation-marker" and the name of a named annotation. The
default is ":".
- --namesep=[sep]
- Use sep as the separator for BibTeX data source name
fields. Defaults to BibTeX's usual 'and'.
- --no-bblxml-schema
- When writing bblxml output, don't generate an RNG XML
schema from the data model.
- --no-bltxml-schema
- When reading or writing biblatexml data sources, don't
generate an RNG XML schema from the data model.
- --noconf
- Don't look for a configfile.
- --no-default-datamodel
- Do not load the default datamodel coming from either the
.bcf or, when in tool mode, from the default tool mode config file.
Use of this option implies that you will provide a complete datamodel in a
config file. This option is useful when you wish to make major
modifications to the datamodel because the simple add/modify operations to
the default datamodel via a user config file are not enough. For example,
to remove things from the default datamodel, you would use this option and
supply a complete, reduced datamodel in the user config file.
- --nodieonerror
- Don't exit on errors, just log and continue as far as
possible. This can be useful if the error is something from, for example,
the underlying BibTeX parsing C library which can complain about parsing
errors which can be ignored.
- --glob-datasources
- By default, glob (expand according to pattern) any data
source filenames. Allows data sources to be specified like *.bib to
load all .bib files in a directory. Can be overridden on a
per-dataource basis with the glob option to \addbibresource
in biblatex.
- --nolog
- Do not write any logfile.
- --noskipduplicates
- Don't skip duplicate bibliography keys if found. The
detection of duplicate keys is done across all data sources. Sometimes you
might need duplicates when using several data sources across several
refsections in which case you might need to use this option.
- --nostdmacros
- Don't automatically define any standard macros like month
abbreviations. If you also define these yourself, this option can be used
to suppress macro redefinition warnings.
- --noremove-tmp-dir
- Do not remove the temporary directory used for various
intermediate files and data before exit (default is false). Name of the
directory can be obtained with the --show-tmp-dir option.
- --noxname
- Disable exended name processing in bibtex data sources. Can
be useful if you don't use this and it causes problems due to
auto-detection of extended name format.
- --onlylog
- Do not write any message to screen.
- --others-string=[string]
- Use string as the final name in a name field which
implies "et al". Defaults to BibTeX's usual 'others'.
- --output-align
- Align field values in neat columns in output. Effect
depends on the output format. Default is false. The legacy option
--tool-align is supported as an alias.
- --output-all-macrodefs
- When outputting bibtex format, whether to output all found
macro (@STRING entries) definitions rather than just definitions for
macros which are actually used in the output entries. Default is
false.
- --output-annotation-marker=[marker]
- As --annotation-marker but for tool mode bibtex
output. The default is "+an".
- --output-named-annotation-marker=[marker]
- As --named-annotation-marker but for tool mode
bibtex output. The default is ":".
- --output-directory [directory]
- Output files (including log files) are output to
directory instead of the current directory. Input files are also
looked for in directory before current directory unless
"--input-directory" is also specified in which case input files
are only looked for in the directory specified by
"--input-directory".
- --output-encoding|-E [encoding]
- Specify the encoding of the output ".bbl" file.
Default is "UTF-8". Normally it's not necessary to set this as
it's passed via the .bcf file from biblatex's "texencoding"
option. See "perldoc Encode::Supported" for a list of supported
encodings. The legacy option --bblencoding is supported as an
alias.
- --output-fieldcase=upper|lower|title
- Case for field names output. Effect depends on the output
format. Defaults to 'upper'. The legacy option --tool-fieldcase is
supported as an alias.
- --output-field-order=[field1, ... fieldn]
- When outputting bibtex format data in tool mode, this
option allows the customisation of the order of fields within entries. The
value is a comma-separated string of field names or classes of fields.
Fields not mentioned in the list are output in sorted name order after the
explicitly specified fields. The classes of fields are:
'names' - All name list fields 'lists' - All non-name list fields 'dates' -
All date fields
By default, its value is 'options,abstract,names,lists,dates'.
- --output-field-replace=[field1:replacefield1, ...
fieldn:replacefieldn]
- When outputting bibtex format output
"replacefieldn" instead of "fieldn". This can be used
to output legacy formats which undo the default driver source map e.g
--output-field-replace=location:address,journaltitle:journal. See
--output-legacy-dates if legacy (YEAR/MONTH) date fields are
required in bibtex format output.
- --output-file|-O [file]
- Output to file instead of basename.bbl
file is relative to --output-directory, if set (absolute
paths in this case are stripped to filename only). file can be
absolute if --output-directory is not set. file can be '-'
to output directly to STDOUT. The legacy option --outfile is
supported as an alias.
- --output-format=dot|bibtex|biblatexml|bbl|bblxml
- Biber output format. Default if not specified is of course,
bbl. Use dot to output a GraphViz DOT file instead of
.bbl. This is a directed graph of the bibliography data showing
entries and, as requested, sections and fields. You must process this file
with "dot", e.g. "dot -Tsvg test.dot -o test.svg" to
render the graph. See the --dot-include option to select what is
included in the DOT output. bblxml is an XML version of the
bbl format which you could transform using XSLT. By default, when
outputting bblxml, a RelaxNG XML schema is generated from the
active data model and saved with a rng extension along with the
output file name (unless the --no-bblxml-schema option is
specified). You may validate the bblxml using the schema with the
--validate-bblxml option. The legacy option --outformat is
supported as an alias.
- --output-indent=[num][t]
- Indentation for body of entries in output. Effect depends
on the output format. Defaults to 2. The "num" can be followed
by 't' to specify tabs instead of spaces. The legacy option
--tool-indent is supported as an alias.
- --output-legacy-dates
- When outputting bibtex format, output YEAR/MONTH fields
instead of DATE. This is not possible if the input is not convertible to
legacy format, meaning that any date to be output with legacy fields can
only have a YEAR part and perhaps a MONTH part. If a DAY or ENDYEAR part
are found, the date is not convertible and the legacy output format will
be skipped. Default is false.
- --output-listsep=[sep]
- As --listsep but for tool mode bibtex output.
Defaults to BibTeX's usual 'and'.
- --output-namesep=[sep]
- As --namesep but for tool mode bibtex output.
Defaults to BibTeX's usual 'and'.
- --output-no-macrodefs
- When outputting BibTeX format, don't output macro
definitions (@STRING entries). You might not want to output macro
definitions if you keep them in a separate file.
- --output-resolve
- Convenience option to set all of the
--output-resolve-* options to 'true'. The legacy option
--tool-resolve is supported as an alias.
- --output-resolve-xdata
- Whether to resolve XDATA inheritance in tool mode or when
--output-format=bibtex in non tool mode. Defaults to 'false'.
- --output-resolve-crossrefs
- Whether to resolve CROSSREF/XREF inheritance in tool mode
or when --output-format=bibtex in non tool mode. Defaults to
'false'.
- --output-resolve-sets
- Whether to resolve data sets in tool mode or when
--output-format=bibtex in non tool mode. Defaults to 'false'.
- --output-safechars
- Try to convert UTF-8 chars into LaTeX macros when writing
the output. This can prevent unknown char errors when using PDFLaTeX and
inputenc as this doesn't understand all of UTF-8. Note, it is better to
switch to XeTeX or LuaTeX to avoid this situation. By default uses the
--output-safecharsset "base" set of characters. The legacy
option --bblsafechars is supported as an alias.
- --output-safecharsset=[recode set name]
- The set of characters included in the conversion routine
for --output-safechars. Set to "full" to try harder with
a much larger set or "base" to use a basic set. Default is
"base" which is fine for most use cases. You may need to load
more macro packages to deal with the results of "full" (Dings,
Greek characters, special symbols etc.). The recode sets are defined in
the reencoding data file which can be customised. See the
--recodedata option and the PDF manual. The legacy option
--bblsafecharsset is supported as an alias. The virtual set name
"null" may be specified which effectively turns off macro
encoding.
- --output-xdatamarker=[marker]
- As --xdatamarker but for tool mode output. Default
is 'xdata'.
- --output-xdatasep=[sep]
- As --xdatasep but for tool mode output. Default is
'-'.
- --output-xname
- When output is a .bib BibTeX file in tool mode, whether to
output names the eXtended BibTeX name field format.
- --output-xnamesep=[sep]
- As --xnamesep but for tool mode bibtex output.
Default is '='.
- --quiet|-q
- Log only errors. If this option is used more than once,
don't even log errors.
- --recodedata=[file]
- The data file to use for the reencoding between UTF-8 and
LaTeX macros. It defines the sets specified with the
--output-safecharsset and --decodecharsset options. It
defaults to recode_data.xml in the same directory as Biber's
Recode.pm module. See the PDF documentation for the format of this
file. If this option is used, then file should be somewhere
"kpsewhich" can find it.
- --show-tmp-dir
- Prints the location of the temporary directory used for
various intermediate files and data. Only useful if
--noremove-tmp-dir is set to true.
- --sortdebug
- Add comments to output with sorting keys. Useful for
debugging.
- --sortcase=true|false
- Case-sensitive sorting (default is true).
- --sortlocale|-l [locale]
- Set the locale to be used for sorting. The locale is used
to add CLDR tailoring to the sort (if available for the locale).
- --sortupper=true|false
- Whether to sort uppercase before lowercase when sorting
(default is true).
- --ssl-nointernalca
- Don't try to use the default Mozilla CA certificates when
using HTTPS to fetch remote data. This assumes that the user will set one
of the perl LWP::UserAgent module environment variables to find the CA
certs.
- --ssl-noverify-host
- Turn off host verification when using HTTPS to fetch remote
data sources. You may need this if the SSL certificate is self-signed for
example.
- --strip-comments
- In tool mode, strip all comments from the output file.
- --tool
- Run in tool mode. This mode is datasource centric rather
than document centric. biber reads a datasource (and a config file if
specified), applies the command-line and config file options to the
datasource and writes a new datasource. Essentially, this allows you to
change your data sources using biber's transformation options (such as
source mapping, sorting etc.)
- --tool-config
- Show the location of the default tool mode config file and
exit. Useful when you need to copy this file and customise it.
- --tool-noremove-missing-dependants
- Use this option in tool mode if you don't want to remove
"XREF", "CROSSREF" and "XDATA" fields from
the output which point to a missing entry. Useful if you have split
datafiles where the e.g. "CROSSREF"s are in another file that
you are not including in the tool mode run.
- --trace|T
- Turn on tracing. Also turns on --debug|d and
additionally provides a lot of low-level tracing information in the
log.
- -u
- Alias for --input-encoding=UTF-8
- -U
- Alias for --output-encoding=UTF-8
- --validate-bblxml
- Schema validate bblXML output against a schema
auto-generated from the BibLaTeX datamodel. The schema will be
auto-generated with the name of the .bbl file with a .rng
extension. The generated schema can be kept and used with standard XML
editors to validate the output during XSL development.
- --validate-bltxml
- Schema validate BibLaTeXML datasources against a schema
auto-generated from the BibLaTeX datamodel. The schema will be
auto-generated with the name of the .bcf file with a .rng
extension. The generated schema can be kept and used with standard XML
editors to validate the datasource during datasource development. The
schema validation does not validate all semantic aspects of the datamodel
(i.e. the data model constraints)---for this use the
"--validate-datamodel" option.
- --validate-config
- Schema validate the biber config file.
- --validate-control
- Schema validate the .bcf biblatex control file.
- --validate-datamodel|-V
- Validate the data against a data model.
- --version|-v
- Display version number.
- --winunicode|-W
- In Windows 10 1803+, turning on the 'Use Unicode UTF8 for
worldwide language support' option makes Windows use UTF-8 instead of
UTF-16 for many system APIs. If that option is enabled, use this option to
turn off biber's UTF-16 filename support on Windows. This will result in
much improved handling of Unicode filenames.
- --wraplines|-w
- Wrap lines in the .bbl file.
- --xdatamarker=[marker]
- Use marker as the string before
"--xdatasep" which introduces an XDATA reference in BibTeX
format data sources. Not used in BibLaTeXML data sources as it has a
dedicated XML attribute "xdata"' for this. Default is
'xdata'.
- --xdatasep=[sep]
- Use sep as the separator between XDATA sub-entry
parts in the eXtended name format. See biber docs. Default is '-'.
- --xnamesep=[sep]
- Use sep as the separator between namepart names and
the namepart values in the eXtended name format. Also applies to XDATA
references as the separator between "--xdatamarker" and the
XDATA reference. See biber docs. Default is '='.
- --xsvsep=[sep]
- Use sep as the separator for fields of format type
"xsv" in the data model. A Perl regexp can be specified.
Defaults to a single comma surround by optional whitespace (\s*,\s*).
Philip Kime, "Philip at kime.org.uk"
To see the full documentation, run
texdoc biber or get the
biber.pdf manual from SourceForge.
Please report any bugs or feature requests on our Github tracker at
<
https://github.com/plk/biber/issues>.
Copyright 2009-2012 Francois Charette and Philip Kime, all rights reserved.
Copyright 2012-2022 Philip Kime, all rights reserved.
This module is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
terms of the Artistic License 2.0.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any
warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for
a particular purpose.