biblatex broken with portuguese language

Question

I'm trying to compile the following LaTeX code:

% !TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{memoir}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english, brazil]{babel}
\usepackage{amsfonts} % for mathbb
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=authoryear,sorting=nyt]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{Neural_Assemblies_Report.bib}

\begin{document}

\frontmatter
\tableofcontents*

\mainmatter
\chapter{Test}
Test. \cite{Maass}.

\backmatter
\printbibliography
\end{document}

I get the following error:

(...lots of log stuff...)
("C:\Program Files\MikTeX\tex\latex\biblatex\biblatex.cfg")))
("C:\Program Files\MikTeX\tex\latex\biblatex\lbx\brazil.lbx"
("C:\Program Files\MikTeX\tex\latex\biblatex\lbx\brazilian.lbx"
Runaway argument?
{bibliography = {{Bibliografia}{Bibliografia}}, references = {{Refer\^\ETC.
! Paragraph ended before \DeclareBibliographyStrings was complete.
<to be read again> 
                   \par 
l.454 

?

To me, it looks like biblatex is choking on the brazilian portuguese stuff, but all docs say it's fully compatible.

Which config should I change to make biblatex work with brazilian portuguese?

My environment is MiKTeX with TeXworks, my bibtex file is:

@article{Maass,
    author = "Wolfgang Maass",
        title = "Networks of Spiking Neurons: The Third Generation of Neural Network Models",
    journal = "Neural Networks",
    language = "english",
    year = 1997,
    volume = 10,
    number = 9,
    pages = "1659--1671"
}

EDIT: Tried with all available backends for biblatex. Same error. MiKTeX version is 2.9.4196.

Did you try removing backend=bibtex and running Biber, instead of BibTeX? In any case, the .bib extension should be added to the argument of \addbibresource. — egreg, Jun 21 '14 at 21:35
Try it; TeXworks should have the item in the drop down menu. On the other hand, I get no error from your test file. — egreg, Jun 21 '14 at 21:40
Tried: With and without .bib With backend=biber, backend=bibtex, no backend.
Same error. — Lucas Soares, Jun 21 '14 at 21:41
Surely not MiKTeX, because none of the machines I use can run it. With TeX Live 2012, 2013 and 2014 it works flawlessly. — egreg, Jun 21 '14 at 21:47
Google found an old chat here on SE where this error appeared and was solved, but I can't find the exact solution :-/ — Lucas Soares, Jun 21 '14 at 21:53
Tried you file with MiKTeX 2.9 64 bit. No problem whatsoever, whether I set backend=bibtex or biber. Maybe a problem on installing? Try to reinstall biblatex, and with biber save you bibfile in utf8 format. — Bernard, Jun 21 '14 at 22:22
I have the same error on two different machines with different builds of MikTeX. — Lucas Soares, Jun 21 '14 at 22:40
I guess that it is something related with the accented word Referências. — Sigur, Jun 21 '14 at 23:05
The MWE compiled without a problem here, too (MikTeX 2.9, 32 bit, biblatex 2.9 etc.). Did you make sure your file is actually saved in UTF8 format and does not only pretend to. Maybe the language file is corrupted for some reason (the message strongly suggests that, there should be \par there at all; but for some reason, LaTeX thinks there is one). Try re-installing biblatex (and maybe babel). What happens if you try \printbibliography[title=\refname\bibname]? — moewe, Jun 22 '14 at 06:08
You get this type of error if somewhere in den \DeclareBibliographyStrings-command of brazilian.lbx there is an empty line or a braces missing. I don't have any problems in a current miktex so check for updates (as admin + users) and reinstall biblatex if necessary. If the problem persist make the lbx and the log-file (not the terminal output!) available somewhere. — Ulrike Fischer, Jun 22 '14 at 09:19
This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a problem caused by a corrupted TeX distribution, solved by reinstalling — egreg, Jun 22 '14 at 09:48
Yup. But I didn't knew it was a distribution issue until a couple hours ago. — Lucas Soares, Jun 22 '14 at 09:55

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

After tinkering with package internals trying to find a missing brace (like on Ulrike Fischer's comment and some Google search results), and noticing something else was corrupted, I went for a full re-install of MiKTeX. After that, the MWE seemed to compile.

Actually, it was failing silently (a pdf was generated, but without bibliography, and the log didn't show any error). Then I noticed the biber executable was missing (it is a 64-bit MiKTeX installation, it doesn't include biber by default), and after some tinkering and creative bat file construction, installed biber and a bat file that does the job a makefile would do on Linux (I'm also using subfiles in other folders, and need some make-like functionalities).

Link to relevant stuff:

You will be happy to know that MikTeX now also ships a version of Biber for 64-bit MikTeX. — moewe, Sep 20 '15 at 06:46

biblatex broken with portuguese language

1 Answers1