0

Biblatex using biber as backend seems suddenly to be broken.

I don't think I updated anything, but this worked last night and will not work today. I have TeX Live 2020, on macOS Big Sur 11.2.3. Here is a MWE

\documentclass{article}

\begin{filecontents}{TESTrefs.bib}
@article{Dummy2015,
  title={A testing reference},
  author={Dummy Author and Ann O Nymous},
  journal={Journal of Testing},
  year={2015}
}
\end{filecontents}


\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{TESTrefs.bib}


\begin{document}


Testing~\cite{Dummy2015}.
\printbibliography


\end{document}

It compiles (using (xe)latex the file, which is called TEST.tex), but there are no references printed, and the output PDF just contains the text of the cite key ("test [Dummy2015]") I get the following warnings,

LaTeX Warning: Citation 'Dummy2015' on page 1 undefined on input line 20.
LaTeX Warning: Empty bibliography on input line 21.
[1] (./TEST.aux)
LaTeX Warning: There were undefined references.
Package biblatex Warning: Please (re)run Biber on the file:
(biblatex)                TEST
(biblatex)                and rerun LaTeX afterwards.

If I run biber TEST as suggested, it completes without error, but if I rerun latex I get the same warnings, and same output PDF.

TEST.blg reads:

[0] Config.pm:304> INFO - This is Biber 2.14
[0] Config.pm:307> INFO - Logfile is 'TEST.blg'
[98] biber-darwin:322> INFO - === Wed Mar 24, 2021, 11:31:53
[120] Biber.pm:415> INFO - Reading 'TEST.bcf'
[243] Biber.pm:943> INFO - Found 1 citekeys in bib section 0
[259] Biber.pm:4256> INFO - Processing section 0
[260] Utils.pm:75> INFO - Globbing data source 'TESTrefs.bib'
[260] Utils.pm:91> INFO - Globbed data source 'TESTrefs.bib' to TESTrefs.bib
[274] Biber.pm:4455> INFO - Looking for bibtex format file 'TESTrefs.bib' for section 0
[276] bibtex.pm:1653> INFO - LaTeX decoding ...
[279] bibtex.pm:1471> INFO - Found BibTeX data source 'TESTrefs.bib'

If I use backend=bibtex instead of backend=biber, it works. But I want to use biber (because it is able to deal with UTF-8 encoded .bib files, among other reasons). How did this happen, and how can I get around it? Did something break on my system, or is this something others can replicate?

postylem
  • 276
  • what does the .blg file say? – Ulrike Fischer Mar 24 '21 at 15:26
  • 1
    There have been several reports of Biber cache corruption on mac OS in recent weeks. But unfortunately, the core of the problem seems to be hard to diagnose. You may want to try deleting the cache to see whether that fixes things. See https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/543837/35864 and the linked post for more details. – moewe Mar 24 '21 at 15:31
  • @UlrikeFischer I put it in the question now. – postylem Mar 24 '21 at 15:32
  • 1
    well it stopped in the middle, so quite probably @moewe is right and you should delete the cache. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 24 '21 at 15:42
  • 1
    @moewe This solved it for me! I ran rm -rf \biber --cache`` to delete the cache, then biber --version to make biber re-unpack itself (and waited a few minutes for it to complete). Now biblatex with biber works. If you want to put that as an answer, I would accept it. – postylem Mar 24 '21 at 15:43
  • Would it also be OK to close your question as a duplicate of the linked question? (Keeping similar questions open and answering separately makes it harder to update answers if there is nee development in the future.) – moewe Mar 24 '21 at 15:47
  • @moewe Of course. I flagged it as duplicate of your question. Thanks for the quick help you two. This saved me a lot of trouble. – postylem Mar 24 '21 at 15:48

0 Answers0