biber1p

Usage

Overview

"biber" provides a replacement of the bibtex processor for users of biblatex.

Options

--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 "--collate-options level=4 --collate-options 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 extended 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|bibjson

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 in 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. By default, the data model used is the one in the .bcf file (normal mode) or in the default config file whose path can be shown with the "--tool-config" option (tool mode). Use "--no-default-datamodel" to ignore the default data model completely if you are using a complete data model via your own config file (with "--configfile").

--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=[column]

Wrap lines in the .bbl file (or output .bib file in tool mode) at column column (default 80).

--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*).

Bugs & documentation

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 & license

Copyright 2009-2012 François Charette and Philip Kime, all rights reserved. Copyright 2012-2026 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.