6

A very nice feature of (classic) bibtex is that once the bbl file has been produced, you can neatly insert it into the .tex file (this comes handy, e.g., for publishing papers, were sending .bib files is a bit clunky).

On the other hand, biblatex-biber is superior to bibtex in many respects which I don't need to mention here. I found it however not easy to replicate the bbl file embedding that is so easy with bibtex.

To be sure, the bbl file is readable, but it has many macros that are not recognized, so it seems as if I'm missing some style file somewhere.

Here is a MWE: starting with the source file biblatex-biber-sample.tex:

\documentclass{article}
%%\usepackage{lstinput}
\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{biblatex-biber-sample.bib}
\title{Bib\LaTeX sample file}
\author{Oskar Limka}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
To cite a reference, like \cite{Lehman:11:manual:The-biblatex},
just do it normally as with Bib\TeX.
But you must use \texttt{${\backslash}$addbibresource} and
\texttt{${\backslash}$printbibliography}.
\printbibliography
\end{document}

The following is the bib file I used

%% Saved with string encoding Unicode (UTF-8) 

@manual{WilliamsKelley:10:manual:gnuplot,
Address = {[email protected]},
Author = {Williams, Thomas and Kelley, Colin},
Booktitle = {gnuplot 4.4},
Date-Added = {2017-01-12 14:59:06 +0000},
Date-Modified = {2017-01-12 14:59:06 +0000},
Month = {March},
Title = {gnuplot 4.4 An Interactive Plotting Program},
Url = {http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot},
Year = {2010}}

@manual{Lehman:11:manual:The-biblatex,
Address = {[email protected]},
Author = {Lehman, Philipp},
Booktitle = {The biblatex package: programmable bibliographies and citations},
Date-Added = {2017-01-12 14:59:06 +0000},
Date-Modified = {2017-01-12 14:59:06 +0000},
Day = {29},
Edition = {Version 1.6},
Keywords = {latex, bibtex, biblatex, bibliography, reference, typesetting},
Month = {July},
Title = {The biblatex package: programmable bibliographies and citations},
Year = {2011}}

the sequence is pdflatex, biber, pdflatex and then I inserted the bbl file to produce the following monolith

\documentclass{article}
%%\usepackage{lstinput}
\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{biblatex-biber-sample.bib}
\title{Bib\LaTeX sample file}
\author{Oskar Limka}
َ\begin{document}
\maketitle
To cite a reference, like \cite{Lehman:11:manual:The-biblatex}, just   do it normally as with Bib\TeX.
But you must use \texttt{${\backslash}$addbibresource} and \texttt{${\backslash}$printbibliography}.
%%\printbibliography
% $ biblatex auxiliary file $
% $ biblatex bbl format version 2.7 $
% Do not modify the above lines!
%
% This is an auxiliary file used by the 'biblatex' package.
% This file may safely be deleted. It will be recreated by
% biber as required.
%
\begingroup
\makeatletter
\@ifundefined{[email protected]}
  {\@latex@error
     {Missing 'biblatex' package}
     {The bibliography requires the 'biblatex' package.}
      \aftergroup\endinput}
  {}
\endgroup


\refsection{0}
  \sortlist[entry]{nty/global/}
    \entry{Lehman:11:manual:The-biblatex}{manual}{}
      \name{author}{1}{}{%
        {{hash=97afecc8539f253db93a1c737d62212c}{%
           family={Lehman},
           family_i={L\bibinitperiod},
           given={Philipp},
           given_i={P\bibinitperiod}}}%
      }
      \list{location}{1}{%
        {[email protected]}%
      }
      \strng{namehash}{97afecc8539f253db93a1c737d62212c}
      \strng{fullhash}{97afecc8539f253db93a1c737d62212c}
      \field{sortinit}{L}
      \field{sortinithash}{872351f18d0f736066eda0bf18bfa4f7}
      \field{labelnamesource}{author}
      \field{labeltitlesource}{title}
      \field{booktitle}{The biblatex package: programmable bibliographies and citations}
      \field{edition}{Version 1.6}
      \field{month}{07}
      \field{title}{The biblatex package: programmable bibliographies and citations}
      \field{year}{2011}
      \keyw{latex,bibtex,biblatex,bibliography,reference,typesetting}
    \endentry
  \endsortlist
\endrefsection
\endinput
\end{document}
4
  • 2
    See tex.stackexchange.com/questions/12175/…: you need a bit of setup and have to have the .bbl in the right place (though also note that this is not 'supported' in the sense it's not a design aim of biblatex).
    – Joseph Wright
    Jan 12, 2017 at 15:40
  • 2
  • 1
    Have also a look at tex.stackexchange.com/q/166518/35864 and tex.stackexchange.com/q/362460/35864. If none of the questions linked helped you. You might want to update your question to explain why. If one of the questions helped you please come back and give us a heads up.
    – moewe
    Apr 27, 2017 at 6:39
  • All comments and question links are helpful. Great stuff, and I am updating my scripts as to automatically generate a monolithic latex from bibtex/biblatex alike. But since most "established" journals have not adopted biblatex yet (not even as an alternative to bibtex), the overall feeling is that we'll stick to good old bibtex for the time being. It also makes my coauthors (who are generally conservative folks when it comes to software) happier. Apr 28, 2017 at 21:22

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