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I installed texlive in my Xubuntu 18.04.4 in ~/texlive/2019/ (updated to texlive 2020) because I thought I would be on the edge for package updates instead of relying on apt.

I installed biblatex with tlmgr install biblatex. I thought this would come bundled with biber... nope (file's not on my system).

I can't simply apt install it because that would pull the entire texlive distribution with it...

So if I follow answers from How to upgrade 'biblatex' properly?, my only solution is to download it from sourceforge?

It's confusing because the experimented people who answered stated in bold "Do not update biblatex or Biber manually"... So my question: what is the recommended way to install biber? Why isn't biber installable with tlmgr?

PlasmaBinturong
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  • In theory tlmgr install biber should let you install Biber (unless you are on a more exotic system for which no Biber binaries are built). Unfortunately, TeX live 2019 is frozen now, so it may be that tlmgr won't let you install new packages from the repositories. In that case tlmgr -repository ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2019/tlnet-final install biber might help. If not, you may need to install TeX live 2020 to live on the edge again. – moewe Apr 15 '20 at 20:13
  • Errr, you're right! But, why doesn't it appear in the results of tlmgr search biber?? (That why I didn't bother trying the install command). Amazing, thanks. – PlasmaBinturong Apr 15 '20 at 20:27
  • @moewe Your comment is the answer if you want to fill it ;) As for the distrib, I had just updated to TexLive 2020. – PlasmaBinturong Apr 15 '20 at 20:30

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With TeX live you can (and should) normally install Biber via

tlmgr install biber

Biber binaries are built for the most common operating systems and are then also available in TeX live.

Ideally you would update your system with tlmgr update --self --all after you installed Biber to make sure that biblatex is up to date (so that the biblatex and Biber versions match) and that all of its dependencies and all biblatex styles are updated as well.

In case there was any doubt, biblatex should likewise be installed via

tlmgr install biblatex

in TeX live and not manually.

moewe
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