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I installed biber through MiKTeX's package manager but when trying to compile my references, nothing happens, as if biber was not installed when, in fact, its .exe is present under C:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin and this path is included in the system variables. Bibtex works just fine.

I tried to delete the par-4e69636f6c6173 folder under C:\Users\Nicolas\AppData\Local\Temp created each time I try to run biber through the command prompt, but to no avail. Typing biber test systematically creates 4 files in my Temp folder: biber.exe, libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll, libstdc++-6.dll and perl516.dll.

I also tried to run "Refresh FNDB" in MiKTeX settings.

Any insights ?

Here is a MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage[style=apa]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{refs.bib}

\begin{filecontents}{refs.bib}
@article{alamargot2001,
title = {What makes a skilled writer? {W}orking memory and audience awareness during text composition},
volume = {21},
shorttitle = {What makes a skilled writer?},
number = {5},
urldate = {2013-03-02},
journal = {Learning and Individual Differences},
author = {Alamargot, Denis and Caporossi, Gilles and Chesnet, David and Ros, Christine},
year = {2001},
keywords = {Audience awareness, Expertise, Eye Movements, Individual differences, Online     measures, Procedural text, Written production},
pages = {505--516},
}
\end{filecontents}

\begin{document}
Some text \autocite{alamargot2001}\ldots
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Commands executed:

xelatex test produces test.log/aux/bcf/pdf, refs.bib and test.run.xml.

biber test or biber test.bcf produces nothing: biber command

Nicolas M
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  • What happens if you type in biber --version at the command line? What happens if you try to compile a document via the command line (pdlfatex test biber test pdlfatex test pdlfatex test)? – moewe Nov 16 '13 at 08:10
  • @moewe: biber --version produces nothing. bibtex --version works (MiKTeX-BibTeX 2.9 4360 (0.99d)). PDFLaTeX works fine too. Changing Bib(la)tex's defautlt field in Texmaker (bibtex %) to "C:/Program Files (x86)/MiKTeX 2.9/miktex/bin/biber.exe" % does not work either. – Nicolas M Nov 16 '13 at 09:22
  • If your tex file produce file with extension myfile.bcf, try type in your command line biber myfile.bcf. Maybe you can see that in you project folder is myfile.bbl which has size 0B. This is important. In command line, you can se warning:INFO - This is Biber 1.8 INFO - Logfile is 'myfile.blg' INFO - Reading 'myfile.bcf' WARN - Warning: Found biblatex control file version 2.4, expected version 2.5 and this problem. Is that so? – JardaFait Nov 16 '13 at 10:02
  • Could you add listing from your command line into your question? Especially from command biber myfile.bbl? Please see http://www.latex-community.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=22548 – JardaFait Nov 16 '13 at 10:11
  • @jafan there is no test.bbl file, only test.aux and test.bcf. I added more informations into my question. – Nicolas M Nov 16 '13 at 12:49
  • This looks like a corrupt biber.exe if it says absolutely nothing. What happens if you download it from SF and replace the biber.exe in your MikTeX tree? – PLK Nov 16 '13 at 13:18
  • @PLK download from http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/biblio/biber/binaries/Windows or http://sourceforge.net/projects/biblatex-biber/?source=directory did not change anything. – Nicolas M Nov 16 '13 at 13:38
  • I just tried this download on a win7 64-bit machine and it was fine. I suspect that you might have a broken PAR directory. Try and search for any folder called "par-*" on the machine and delete it. – PLK Nov 16 '13 at 23:12
  • I just solved my issue. I think it was related to C:\Users\Nicolas\AppData\Local\Temp directory and subdirectories. I lowered the User Account Control setting to the minimum and now it works. I had another issue with Foxit Reader Updater.exe not being able to run and this error message windows cannot access the specified device... and now it's solved too, probably for the same reason has this .exe was also in Temp directory. – Nicolas M Nov 16 '13 at 23:15
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a hardly reproduce-able (very localised) problem solved by a change not relating to LaTeX at all. – moewe Nov 17 '13 at 09:35

0 Answers0