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I am running Fedora 35:

Linux nyx 5.18.16-602.inttf.fc36.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Aug 5 08:54:23 EDT 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I have a large bibliography (~1150 entries) in Zotero which I can export as a biblatex file using betterbiblatex.

When I try to use LaTeX to print the bibliography Biber quits:

ross@nyx Articles]$ biber -D --validate_datamodel testBiblatex32
INFO - This is Biber 2.17
INFO - Logfile is 'testBiblatex32.blg'
INFO - DEBUG mode: all messages are logged to 'testBiblatex32.blg'
INFO - Reading 'testBiblatex32.bcf'
INFO - Using all citekeys in bib section 0
INFO - Processing section 0
INFO - Looking for bibtex file 'A30.bib' for section 0
INFO - LaTeX decoding ...
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "aug"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "dec"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "may"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "jun"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "mar"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "nov"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "sep"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "apr"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "jul"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "jan"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "feb"
warning: overriding existing definition of macro "oct"
INFO - Found BibTeX data source 'A30.bib'
free(): invalid next size (fast)
Aborted (core dumped)
[ross@nyx Articles]$

The .blg file is huge, but seems to provide no information about what is wrong with the .bib file. Is it the case that Biber regards .bib like .xml so that any error in the .bib file causes the running program (Biber) to fail with no message?

My Biber cache is in /tmp and removing those files does not help.

I like to think I'm pretty well versed in LaTeX, but this has me stumped.

moewe
  • 175,683
ARoss
  • 11
  • Do you only get the error on this large file or can you reproduce the issue also with more reasonably sized .bib files like biblatex-examples.bib? Normally weird issues without clear error messages are caused by a bad cache (see e.g. https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/543837/35864), but if you've already cleaned up your cache it is unlikely this should be the issue again (unless your OS aggressively cleans out the /tmp directory or has some very strict security settings there). ... – moewe Aug 25 '22 at 05:47
  • ... I have no idea where it actually comes from, but the free(): invalid next size (fast) looks like a memory issue to me. Maybe you've hit some limit with that large a file. – moewe Aug 25 '22 at 05:48
  • How large is the file? Any C-like memory error would be coming from the btparse library that biber uses which usually indicates some edge-case of malformation in the .bib file. It would also be useful to have the .bib posted somewhere for reproduction. Does it happen without the datamodel validation option? – PLK Aug 26 '22 at 19:14

0 Answers0