Customising emacs to use biblatex-biber instead of bibtex

Question

I use biblatex, but I still go through running bibtex on my .bib files, rather than biblatex-biber, which is/will be preferred. How do I arrange for C-c C-c to run the relevant biber command, rather than bibtex?

Answer 1

First, set AucTeX to use Biber:

M-x customize-variable RET TeX-command-BibTeX RET

and enter Biber in the text field.

Then, add the appropriate command:

M-x customize-variable RET TeX-command-list RET

with the following options:

• Name: Biber
• Command: biber %s.bcf
• How: TeX-run-BibTeX

A more elaborate setup could be made to automatically check the backend and set TeX-command-BibTeX accordingly.

Answer 2

I've just updated the dev biber doc with instructions for this (and for TeXworks)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/biblatex-biber/files/biblatex-biber/development/documentation/biber.pdf

I have patched files for AUCTeX 11.86 which implement much more robust biber/biblatex support, details in the biber doc. New features are - much more biblatex macro font-lock highlighting, auto-detection of biber/bibtex usage, much better auto-prompting for which tool to run next etc. If you use these updated lisp files, no extra setup is needed at all.

UPDATE: AucTeX 11.87 is now released and includes this biber support.