memoir + biblatex + 2 TOCs error

Question

In https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/512752/13492, it was shown how to produce both a short and a detailed table of contents (TOC) in a memoir document. And so that each of the two TOCs is listed as an entry in the other TOC but not in itself. (This method preserves any pagestyle the author uses.)

However, as soon as I load biblatex in such a document, on the 2nd pdflatex pass, it generates an error in creating the TOC.

The error:

(./test.toc

./test.toc:9: LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
 ...                                                                                                
l.9 ...hapter}{Detailed Contents}{iii}{section*.2}
                                                  %

The toc file:

\boolfalse {citerequest}\boolfalse {citetracker}\boolfalse {pagetracker}\boolfalse {backtracker}\relax 
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\@nameuse {MurderShort}
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\contentsline {chapter}{Short Contents}{i}{section*.1}% 
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\@nameuse {MurderLong}
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\contentsline {chapter}{Detailed Contents}{iii}{section*.2}% 
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\contentsline {chapter}{\chapternumberline {1}Chap}{1}{chapter.1}% 
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\contentsline {section}{\numberline {1.1}Test}{1}{section.1.1}% 
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\contentsline {subsection}{\numberline {1.1.1}Test}{1}{subsection.1.1.1}% 

The source:

\documentclass{memoir}

%% Same error created even if no bibresource
%\begin{filecontents}{mybib.bib}
%@article{wombat,
%   author   = {Walther Wombat},
%   title    = {The meaning of 42},
%   journal  = {Journal of skepticism},
%   date     = {2016},
%}
%\end{filecontents}

%%% SECTIONING:
\setsecnumdepth{subsection}

%% BIB:
% ERROR WITH biblatex used!
\usepackage[backend=bibtex,style=numeric]{biblatex}
%\addbibresource{mybib.bib}

%% CROSS-REF:
\usepackage[pdftex]{hyperref}
\hypersetup{colorlinks, citecolor=red}

% Short and detailed TOCs:
% daleif (https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/512752/13492)
\makeatletter
\newcommand\MurderShort{}
\newcommand\MurderLong{}
\newcommand{\longcontentsname}{Detailed Contents}
\newcommand{\shortcontentsname}{Short Contents}
\newcommand{\shorttableofcontents}[1][1]{%
  \begingroup
  \setcounter{tocdepth}{#1}
  \let\contentsname\shortcontentsname
  \addtocontents{toc}{\protect\@nameuse{MurderShort}}
  % only works with hyperref
  \renewcommand\MurderShort[5]{}
  \tableofcontents
  \endgroup
}
\newcommand{\longtableofcontents}[1][3]{%
  \begingroup
  \setcounter{tocdepth}{#1}
  \let\contentsname\longcontentsname
    \addtocontents{toc}{\protect\@nameuse{MurderLong}}
  % only works with hyperref
  \renewcommand\MurderLong[5]{}
  \tableofcontents
  \endgroup
}
\makeatother

%% FOR THIS TEST:
\usepackage{kantlipsum}

\begin{document}

\frontmatter
\shorttableofcontents[1]
\cleardoublepage
\longtableofcontents

\mainmatter
\chapter{Chap}\kant[1]
\section{Test}\kant[1]
\subsection{Test}\kant[1]

%\backmatter
%\printbibliography

\end{document}

Note that I deliberately commented out the \bibresource line, the fileconents block that creates the .bib file, and the \backmatter...\printbibliography -- because even if they are uncommented, exactly the same error occurs.

There is no TOC error if the \usepackage[...]{biblatex} is omitted! So there is some very strange (to me) interaction between biblatex and the two-TOCs code.

Here is the .toc file with everything the same except that the biblatex loading line is commented out (and everything works OK):

\@nameuse {MurderShort}
\contentsline {chapter}{Short Contents}{i}{section*.1}% 
\@nameuse {MurderLong}
\contentsline {chapter}{Detailed Contents}{iii}{section*.2}% 
\contentsline {chapter}{\chapternumberline {1}Chap}{1}{chapter.1}% 
\contentsline {section}{\numberline {1.1}Test}{1}{section.1.1}% 
\contentsline {subsection}{\numberline {1.1.1}Test}{1}{subsection.1.1.1}% 

Package versions:

There are currently the lastest at CTAN.

• memoir 2018/12/12 v3.7h
• biblatex 2019/08/31 3.13a
• hyperref 2019/09/28 v7.00a

Answer 1

The toc you posted explains what is going on (thanks you for posting them).

biblatex seems to insert \defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax all over the place. No idea why. Presumably biblatex is patching the toc writing macros to include those lines. So now we have

\@nameuse {MurderShort}
\defcounter {refsection}{0}\relax 
\contentsline {chapter}{Short Contents}{i}{section*.1}% 

as oppose to

\@nameuse {MurderShort}
\contentsline {chapter}{Short Contents}{i}{section*.1}% 

which the murderer was designed for.

Luckily it is only 4 tokens extra

So you should be able to change

  \renewcommand\MurderShort[5]{}

to either

\renewcommand\MurderShort[9]{}

or if that line is actually used for something

\renewcommand\MurderShort[9]{##1{##2}{##3}##4}

or we'll have to patch biblatex's patch, which seems annoying to attempt.