[OS X TeX] biber and biblatex

[Herbert Schulz]

On Jan 26, 2013, at 4:19 AM, Scot Mcphee <scot.mcphee at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Some weeks ago I started using biblatex and biber for the creation of my bibliography in my PhD. Initially my tests for this were on a test file, just to get a feel for the citation and bibliography styles.
> 
> Now I've applied it to my first actual thesis chapter and I've found that it no longer works. 
> 
> I even went back to the original test file and found it no longer works either.
> 
> TeXshop reports the following;
> 
> Latexmk: Failed to find one or more biber source files:
>   NONE
> 
> Is the problem it cannot find the .bib file? kpsewhich reports
> 
> $ kpsewhich phd.bib
> /Users/smcphee/Library/texmf/bibtex/bib/phd.bib
> 
> In the .BCF file which is generated, there is a 'bibdata' section;
>   <bcf:bibdata section="0">
>     <bcf:datasource type="file" datatype="bibtex">phd.bib</bcf:datasource>
>   </bcf:bibdata>
> 
> and a collection of the citekeys appears after that.
> 
> In my header/preamble there is this
> 
> \usepackage[backend=biber,sorting=nyt,citestyle=authoryear-comp,bibstyle=authoryear]{biblatex}
> \addbibresource{phd.bib}
> 
> There is no complaint that phd.bib can't be found in the TexShop console, but if I trash all the aux files and recompile it complains that every single citation is undefined, and that the "bbl" file is missing.
> 
> What is going on, or how do I narrow the source of the problem down? 
> 
> many thanks
> scot 

Howdy,

The .bib file is in the correct place.

Did you recently update your TeX distribution (using tlmgr or TeX Live Utility)?

Without a sample file and copy of the console output it's hard to figure out.

It is very typical that an initial run of (pdf/xe)latex will produce a series of errors since the citation information isn't available at the time the initial run is made but only after the biber run. So this sounds as though you are not looking at the last run after biber is run.

Could you tell me what version of latexmk you are running? It should be on one of the early lines in TeXShop's Console output. How about the version of biber and the biblatex package? 
Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)