biber

Generate bibliography data using a BibLaTeX Control File

$ biber [path/to/file.bcf]

$ biber [path/to/file.bcf] [[-g|--configfile]] [path/to/config_file]

$ biber [path/to/file.bcf] [[-D|--debug]]

biber [OPTION]... [BASTYPE:basename]

--help
    Display help and exit

--version
    Output version information

--debug
    Set debug verbosity level (0-3)

--log-level
    Set log level: fatal|error|warn|info|debug

--validate
    Validate .bib data sources

--output_safe
    Control safe output chars (0=no, 1-3=levels)

--inputenc
    Input encoding for .bib files

--outputenc
    Output encoding

--convert_control <0|1>
    Convert TeX control seqs to macros

--tool
    Tool mode, read JSON from STDIN

--store-data
    Store data in .bbl for inspection

--onlyenc
    Restrict encoding to specified

--nolog
    Suppress .blg log file

--output_directory

Biber is a powerful, Unicode-aware bibliography processor designed as the primary backend for the LaTeX package biblatex. It replaces BibTeX, offering advanced features like flexible data source inheritance, complex sorting schemes, customizable name and range formatting, and full support for bibliographic macros and conditional fields.

Unlike BibTeX's limited capabilities, biber handles UTF-8 natively, supports validation of .bib files, and provides stable citation keys for cross-referencing. It excels in multilingual bibliographies, date range parsing, and integration with LaTeX compilers like pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX, or LuaLaTeX.

Typical workflow: Compile LaTeX document to generate .bcf file, run biber on the base name, then recompile LaTeX. It is written in Perl, extensible via Perl code, and supports tool mode for non-LaTeX operations like data conversion.

Requires Perl with modules like Text::Bidi, Log::Log4perl. Version mismatch with biblatex may cause errors. Not backward-compatible with BibTeX .bst styles.

Reads options from biber.conf, ~/.biber.conf, or basename.bcf.biber.conf.

Defaults to first .bcf file found; specify as aux:doc or just doc for doc.bcf.

Created by Philip Kime in 2010 as a modern BibTeX alternative for biblatex. First stable release 0.9 in 2011; now at v2.20+, maintained by community with contributions from Herbert Voss.

bibtex(1), pdflatex(1), xelatex(1), lualatex(1), biblatex(7)