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I'm using Gummi on Raspbian, and am trying to get a bibliography file to compile. I've tried a number of tricks already mentioned on this site, to no avail.

The bibliography file is detected OK and lists my references OK (so I assume the .bib file is syntactically correct) but it won't compile.

The error that appears is:

I couldn't open database file .Thesis.tex-blx.bib
---line 3 of file /tmp/.Thesis.tex.aux
: \bibdata{.Thesis.tex-blx
:              ,/home/myusername/LaTeX/thesis}
I'm skipping whatever remains of this command
I found no database files---while reading file /
tmp/.Thesis.tex.aux
Warning--I didn't find a database entry for "biblatex-control"
Biblatex version: 1.7

Other relevant code:

\usepackage[backend=bibtex, style=numeric]{biblatex}
%other preamble stuff
\bibliography{thesis}
%body of my document
\nocite{*}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Both my LaTeX file and .bib file are called "thesis", the former with a capital 'T'.

This is the first time I've ever had to make a bibliography (yay, mathematics courses!) so I've probably missed something incredibly obvious. Still, any and all help would be appreciated.

CJ Marland
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  • Welcome to TeX.SX! Please help us help you and add a minimal working example (MWE) that illustrates your problem. – Null Mar 16 '16 at 22:12
  • You seem to be specifying the bibliography file (location) incorrectly. – Werner Mar 16 '16 at 22:42
  • Surely that's not it, if Gummi can correctly detect the file? – CJ Marland Mar 17 '16 at 00:05
  • If your file is called Thesis.tex, BibTeX (which you seem to be using) needs to find Thesis.aux, not Thesis.tex.aux. It looks like something is confused about the appropriate file names involved. I wouldn't say that 'bibliography file is detected OK' here; why do you think it is? – jon Mar 17 '16 at 02:06
  • Under the Bibliography tab, there is a button marked "Detect". When clicked, the right-hand pane correctly lists my references, in order. – CJ Marland Mar 17 '16 at 02:08
  • Well Detect sounds good indeed (but what is doing the detecting?); however it does not seem that 'Gummi' is finding it. (What is Gummi, exactly? I thought it was a automated compilation process.) – jon Mar 17 '16 at 02:14
  • Gummi is my LaTeX editor of choice. – CJ Marland Mar 17 '16 at 02:22
  • And what is the complete name of your .tex file and bibliography file? The error snippet you posted has very strange file names. And, if you are using BibTeX, how are you calling your bibliography stuff in the .tex file? – jon Mar 17 '16 at 02:28
  • I thought I put that information in the original post, but it appears to have disappeared... I'll patch that up within an hour, bear with me. – CJ Marland Mar 17 '16 at 02:31
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    OK, now why is the error saying all the files in question are in a folder called tmp and then begin with a period (e.g., .Thesis)? When latex processes the file, it creates a new filed called (here) Thesis.aux; BibTeX needs to process that file (command: bibtex Thesis.aux or bibtex Thesis); this writes a file called Thesis.bbl, which is used by LaTeX on subsequent runs. If you look at your errors, it keeps talking about files starting with .Thesis. Also (unrelated to problem), nowadays you want to use \addbibresource{thesis.bib} instead of \bibliography{thesis}. – jon Mar 17 '16 at 03:18
  • The messages make me think your editor is not properly configured to call BibTeX. It seems to call bibtex .<basename>.tex while the correct call would be bibtex <basename> or bibtex <basename>.aux. (See also Using BibTex with the Gummi editor, How do I use biblatex with Gummi?) – moewe Mar 17 '16 at 07:27
  • Following the advice in another thread, I compiled my code with the commands pdflatex and bibtex - this time the code compiled quite fine. So I guess the question is now how to set up Gummi to properly use Bibtex - should I make this a new question? – CJ Marland Mar 18 '16 at 08:54
  • You can simply update your question, I think. Since I don't use Gummi, could you provide screenshots of your current configuration? Is there are tab to configure the commands run by Gummi? – moewe Mar 18 '16 at 09:52

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