[Tex/LaTex] biblatex Binary on MacTex 2011 Is Missing

biblatexmactex

I recently upgraded from MacTex 2009 to MacTex 2011. Before installing 2011, I carefully followed the instructions for uninstalling 2009 that were given
here.

After installing 2011, I ran sudo tlmgr update --all

Then, I tried to test the installation by compiling an old paper that I had written using Xetex and BibLaTeX. This is when I noticed that there was no BibLaTeX binary installed on my system.

So, I tried tlmgr show biblatex, which reported that the package was indeed installed on my system. I also tried texdoc biblatex, which also brought up the BibLaTeX manual. Finally, I tried tlmgr search --file biblatex. This showed that a number of files were installed with the biblatex package, but, curiously enough, no binary file.

My next step was to try to uninstall and reinstall the biblatex package by running sudo tlmgr remove --force biblatex and sudo tlmgr install biblatex

After this, I tried tlmgr show biblatex, texdoc biblatex, and tlmgr search --file biblatex, as before, with exactly the same results.

So, my question is: Where is the biblatex binary? How do I process my biblatex files now?

Any help that anyone can give would be greatly appeaciated!

Best Answer

I suspect that you're not using biblatex in quite the right way. In your preamble, place biblatex in as a package with some options. You can find out more about these options from the manual. For example:

\usepackage[style=nature,backend=biber]{biblatex}

Loads biblatex and tells it to use biber as the backed. You'll now need to tell it where to find the BibTeX database.

\addbibresource{YourBibliography.bib}

finally, wherever you want the bibliography placed, use this command:

\printbibliography

Remember, you'll need to do the standard latex (whichever variant you use) one of biber (not BibTeX unless you told biblatex to use BibTeX) or bibtex, and finally two more runs of latex. If you use TeXShop (or actually any editor), you may find this script I wrote handy.

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