Ubuntu Manpage: "biber" - A bibtex replacement for users of biblatex

NAME

       "biber" - A bibtex replacement for users of biblatex

SYNOPSIS

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

         Creates "file.bbl" using control file "file.bcf" (".bcf" extension is
         optional). Normaly 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

DESCRIPTION

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

OPTIONS

--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|-C
Sort with "Unicode::Collate" instead of the built-in sort function. This is the
default.

--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 configuration file for "biber". The default is the first file found among
biber.conf in the current directory, "$HOME/.biber.conf", or else the output of
"kpsewhich biber.conf". In tool mode, (--tool) the biber-tool.conf installed with
Biber is always used to set defaults before potentially overriding the defaults with a
user-defined config specified with this option. Use the --tool-config option to view
the location of the default tool mode config file.

--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.

--debug|-D
Turn on debugging for "biber".

--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".

--fastsort|-f
Use Perl's sort instead of "Unicode::Collate" for sorting. Also uses OS locale
definitions (which may be broken for some languages ...).

--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_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 setting of the
same name. 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'

--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.

--mssplit=[string]
Character used to split bibtex data source field names into field/form/language
subfields when using multiscript features. Defaults to underscore (ASCII 95).

--namesep=[sep]
Use sep as the separator for BibTeX data source name fields. Defaults to BibTeX's
usual 'and'.

--noconf
Don't look for a configfile.

--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.

--nolog
Do not write any logfile.

--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.

--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 true. The legacy option --tool_align is supported as an alias.

--output_directory [directory]
Files (.bbl and .blg) are output to directory directory instead of the current
directory. Input files are also looked for in directory before current 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 biblatex from the inputenc package setting.
See "perldoc Encode::Supported" for a list of supported encodings. The legacy option
--bblencoding is supported as an alias.

--output_indent=[num]
Indentation for body of entries in output. Effect depends on the output format.
Defaults to 2. The legacy option --tool_indent 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_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. The legacy option --outfile is supported as an alias.

--output_format=dot|bibtex|biblatexml|bbl
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. "bibtex" and
"biblatexml" are only supported in (and only make sense in) "tool" mode (see --tool
option) The legacy option --outformat is supported as an alias.

--output_macro_fields=[field1, ... fieldn]
A comma-separated list of field names whose values are, on output, treated as BibTeX
macros. Effectively this means that they are not wrapped in braces. Effect depends on
the output format. The legacy option --tool_macro_fields is supported as an alias.

--output_resolve
Whether to resolve aliases and inheritance (XDATA, CROSSREF etc.) in tool mode.
Defaults to 'false'. The legacy option --tool_resolve is supported as an alias.

--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.

--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.

--sortcase=true|false
Case-sensitive sorting (default is true).

--sortfirstinits=true|false
When sorting names, use only the first name initials, not full first name. Some people
expect the biblatex firstinits option to do this but it needs to be a separate option
in case users, for example, need to show only initials but sort with full first names
(default is false).

--sortlocale|-l [locale]
Set the locale to be used for sorting. With default sorting (--collate|-C), the
locale is used to add CLDR tailoring to the sort (if available for the locale). With
--fastsort|-f this sets the OS locale for sorting.

--sortupper=true|false
Whether to sort uppercase before lowercase when using default sorting (--collate|-C).
When using --fastsort|-f, your OS collation locale determines this and this option is
ignored (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.

--tool
Run in tool mode. This mode is datasource centric rather than document centrix. 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.

--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_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.

--wraplines|-w
Wrap lines in the .bbl file.

AUTHOR

       Francois Charette, "firmicus at ankabut.net"

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

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 sourceforge tracker at
       <https://sourceforge.net/tracker2/?func=browse&group_id=228270>.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

       Copyright 2009-2013 Francois Charette and 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.