BIBER(1p)

📦
version 2.22 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

👑 BIBER(1p) 👑

okay bestie, this is the manual page for biber, and it's literally the bibtex replacement for users of biblatex. We're in part 1, so stay with me. 💖

✨ NAME ✨

biber — a bibtex replacement for users of biblatex. slay.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

  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 --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. iykyk.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

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

💅 OPTIONS 💅

bestie, here's the entire flag menu. every single one. no skipping. 💅

  • --annotation-marker=[marker] — sets the suffix you can stick onto a BibTeX data source field name to say “hey, this field’s value is a data annotation.” The default is +an. cute.
  • --cache — if you’re running as a PAR::Packer binary, it shows the cache location and then dips. 👋
  • --clrmacros — wipes any BibTeX macros (@STRING) between BibLaTeX refsections. It stops BibTeX from whining about macro redefinitions when you reuse the same datasource across different refsections. no more drama.
  • --collate-options|-c [options] — passes options to the Unicode::Collate object that handles sorting. The default is --collate-options level=4 --collate-options variable='non-ignorable'. Want the tea? perldoc Unicode::Collate.
  • --configfile|-g [file] — use file as biber’s configuration file instead of hunting 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 — turns the .bcf control file into html with an XSLT transform. Can be useful for debugging. File is named by appending .html to .bcf file.
  • --decodecharsset=[recode set name] — controls 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 — turns on debugging for biber. detective mode.
  • --dieondatamodel — exits 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 — tries 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. careful bestie.
  • --help|-h — shows 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] — specifies 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 — forces 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 — forces 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 — normalises 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] — sets 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 — disables 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 — aligns 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] — specifies 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.

ok bestie the OPTIONS list keeps going, we're still in it, pace yourself 💅

  • --output-field-order=[field1, ... fieldn] — when you're spitting out bibtex format data in tool mode, this is the lil dial that lets you customise the order of fields inside your entries 🎀 the value is a comma-separated string of field names or classes of fields. any field you did not mention in that list gets output in sorted name order after the ones you explicitly listed. the field classes are:
    • 'names' — all name list fields
    • 'lists' — all non-name list fields
    • 'dates' — all date fields

default value is 'options,abstract,names,lists,dates'.

  • --output-field-replace=[field1:replacefield1, ... fieldn:replacefieldn] — when outputting bibtex format, this outputs "replacefieldn" instead of "fieldn". super useful for outputting legacy formats which undo the default driver source map, like:
--output-field-replace=location:address,journaltitle:journal

see --output-legacy-dates if you need legacy (YEAR/MONTH) date fields in bibtex format output. 💖

  • --output-file|-O [file] — output to file instead of the basename.bbl file. file is relative to --output-directory, if set (and absolute paths in that case get stripped to filename only, rude honestly). 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. it's 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's 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 the body of entries in output. what it actually does 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 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 is found, the date is not convertible and the legacy output format gets skipped entirely. 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. makes sense bestie 🎀
  • --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, because that combo doesn't understand all of UTF-8 😭 note, it is better to switch to XeTeX or LuaTeX to avoid this situation entirely. 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. silence, iconic 💀
  • --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 lets you 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. heads up bestie: 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] — okay so this sets sep as the separator that goes between namepart names and their namepart values when you're living in the eXtended name format ✨ It also pulls double duty for XDATA references, where it's the thing sitting between --xdatamarker and the actual XDATA reference. Wanna know more? Go read the biber docs bestie 📚 The default is =. periodt.
  • --xsvsep=[sep] — use sep as the separator for fields whose format type is "xsv" in the data model 🫶 and yeah, you can hand it an actual Perl regexp if you're feeling fancy. The default is a single comma surrounded by optional whitespace, aka \s*,\s*. slay 🌸

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Philip Kime, "Philip at kime.org.uk" 💖

🦋 BUGS & DOCUMENTATION 🦋

Wanna see the whole entire documentation, no crumbs left? Run texdoc biber or grab the biber.pdf manual straight from SourceForge 📖✨

Found a bug? Got a feature request? Not me gatekeeping your feedback — please report any bugs or feature requests on our Github tracker at <https://github.com/plk/biber/issues> 🐛💜

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. 😭 (iconic legal disclaimers fr fr)

And that's the whole page bestie!! This gem is running on perl v5.42.3, and the page itself is dated 2026-09-05 — its whole BIBER(1p) era. go forth and cite responsibly 💖✨🎀
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