BIBER(1)

💅 BIBER(1) 💅

okay so this is the User Contributed Perl Documentation page for biber, and we are absolutely getting into it. Manual name? BIBER(1). Vibe? immaculate. Let’s go.

✨ NAME ✨

"biber" — a bibtex replacement for users of biblatex. That’s the whole thing, bestie.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

biber [options] file[.bcf]
biber [options] --tool <datasource>

So biber creates file.bbl using the control file file.bcf — and yes, the .bcf extension is optional. Normally, using it with biblatex requires no options at all, because they’re all set in biblatex and passed over through the .bcf file. Slay.

In "tool" mode (see the --tool option), it takes a datasource — defaults to the bibtex datasource — and outputs a copy of that datasource with any command-line or config file options applied. Cute.

Please run biber --help for option details. For real, it’s right there.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

biber provides a replacement of the bibtex processor for users of biblatex. That’s the core lore.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

• --annotation-marker=[marker] — sets the suffix you can append to a BibTeX data source field name to say “hey, this field value is a data annotation.” The default is +an.
• --cache — if you’re running as a PAR::Packer binary, shows the cache location and exits.
• --clrmacros — clears any BibTeX macros (@STRING) between BibLaTeX refsections. This prevents BibTeX warnings about macro redefinitions if you’re using the same datasource several times for different refsections.
• --collate-options|-c [options] — options to pass to the Unicode::Collate object used for sorting. The default is 'level => "4", variable => "non-ignorable"'. See perldoc Unicode::Collate for details, iykyk.
• --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 — lowkey 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. The file is named by appending .html to the .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 it 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 an error if using --validate-datamodel and a datamodel validation error is found. Default is to warn and continue.
• --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 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.
• --mslang=[langtag] — use langtag as the default BCP47 language tag for multiscript fields when no language is specified for the field in tool mode. Default is 'en-US'.
• --mssep=[sep] — use sep as the separator between parts of a multiscript bibtex datasource field. Default is '_'.
• --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-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). The 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 the 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, 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

…and by default its value is options,abstract,names,lists,dates. slay, carry on 🫶

• --output-field-replace=[field1:replacefield1, ... fieldn:replacefieldn] — okay so when you're outputting bibtex format, this lets you write out replacefieldn instead of fieldn. it's giving "legacy format revival" — you use it to undo the default driver source map, like --output-field-replace=location:address,journaltitle:journal. and if you need legacy (YEAR/MONTH) date fields in your bibtex output, go peep --output-legacy-dates, iykyk ✨
• --output-file|-O [file] — writes to file instead of the basename.bbl. file is relative to --output-directory, if that's set (and absolute paths in this case get stripped down to just the filename only, no cap). file can be absolute if --output-directory isn't set. file can also be - to output straight to STDOUT. the legacy option --outfile is supported as an alias 💅
• --output-format=bibtex|biblatexml|bbl — the Biber output format. default if you don't specify is, of course, bbl (main character energy). the legacy option --outformat is supported as an alias.
• --output-indent=[num][t] — indentation for the body of entries in the output; the effect depends on the output format. defaults to 2. you can follow the num with 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. heads up bestie: this is not possible if the input isn't convertible to legacy format — meaning any date to be output with legacy fields can only have a YEAR part and maybe a MONTH part. if a DAY or ENDYEAR part shows up, the date is not convertible and the legacy output format gets skipped. default is false.
• --output-listsep=[sep] — same as --listsep but for bibtex output. defaults to BibTeX's usual and.
• --output-mssep=[sep] — same as --mssep but for bibtex output. defaults to _.
• --output-namesep=[sep] — same as --namesep but for 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 macro definitions in your output if you keep them in a separate file. iconic separation-of-concerns behavior 🌸
• --output-resolve — convenience option that sets 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 — tries to convert UTF-8 chars into LaTeX macros when writing the output 🧚. this can prevent unknown char errors when you're using PDFLaTeX and inputenc, because inputenc literally doesn't understand all of UTF-8. note (and this is real talk): it's better to switch to XeTeX or LuaTeX to avoid this whole situation. by default it 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 it 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] — same as --xdatamarker but for tool mode output. default is xdata.
• --output-xdatasep=[sep] — same as --xdatasep but for tool mode output. default is -.
• --output-xname — when the output is a .bib BibTeX file in tool mode, whether to output names in the eXtended BibTeX name field format.
• --output-xnamesep=[sep] — same as --xnamesep but for tool mode bibtex output. default is =.
• --quiet|-q — log only errors. and if you use this option more than once, don't even log errors 😭 (silence, but make it double).
• --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 — adds 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. (yes, that's the vibe-check-skipping option, use accordingly 🙈)
• --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 lets you change your data sources using biber's transformation options (such as source mapping, sorting etc.) — it's giving glow-up for your data 💅
• --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're 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. so much lore 🔥
• -u — alias for --input-encoding=UTF-8
• -U — alias for --output-encoding=UTF-8
• --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. heads up: 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're 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 — literally the glow-up your filenames deserve ✨
• --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 since 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 surrounded by optional whitespace (\s*,\s*) 🌸

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Philip Kime, "Philip at kime.org.uk" — the icon himself 👑

😭 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> 🐛💖 (they literally want your bug reports, bestie, don't be shy)

🎀 COPYRIGHT & LICENSE 🎀

Copyright 2009-2012 François Charette and Philip Kime, all rights reserved. Copyright 2012-2023 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. (translation: it's free, it's fabulous, but it comes as-is 💀)

and that's a wrap on the whole page, bestie 🫶✨ this edition is perl v5.42.0, dated 2026-08-12, and it's literally the BIBER(1) manual — go forth and cite responsibly 💅📚