Biber(3)

NAME
Biber - main module for biber, a bibtex replacement for users of biblatex

SYNOPSIS
    use Biber;
    my $biber = Biber->new();
    $biber->parse_ctrlfile("example.bcf");
    $biber->prepare;

METHODS

  new
    Initialize the Biber object, optionally passing named options as arguments.

  display_end
   Output summary of warnings/errors/misc before exit

  biber_tempdir
    Returns a File::Temp directory object for use in various things

  biber_tempdir_name
    Returns the directory name of the File::Temp directory object

  sections
    my $sections= $biber->sections

    Returns a Biber::Sections object describing the bibliography sections

  add_sections
    Adds a Biber::Sections object. Used externally from, e.g. biber

  datalists
    my $datalists = $biber->datalists

    Returns a Biber::DataLists object describing the bibliography sorting lists

  langtags
    Returns a Biber::LangTags object containing a parser for BCP47 tags

  set_output_obj
    Sets the object used to output final results
    Must be a subclass of Biber::Output::base

  get_preamble
    Returns the current preamble as an array ref

  get_output_obj
    Returns the object used to output final results

  set_current_section
    Sets the current section number that we are working on to a section number

  get_current_section
    Gets the current section number that we are working on

  tool_mode_setup
  Fakes parts of the control file for tool mode

  parse_ctrlfile
    This method reads the control file
    generated by biblatex to work out the various biblatex options.
    See Constants.pm for defaults and example of the data structure being built here.

  process_setup
   Place to put misc pre-processing things needed later

  process_setup_tool
   Place to put misc pre-processing things needed later for tool mode

  resolve_alias_refs
  Resolve aliases in xref/crossref/xdata which take keys as values to their real keys

  We use set_datafield as we are overriding the alias in the datasource

  process_citekey_aliases
 Remove citekey aliases from citekeys as they don't point to real
 entries.

  instantiate_dynamic
    This instantiates any dynamic entries so that they are available
    for processing later on. This has to be done before most all other
    processing so that when we call $section->bibentry($key), as we
    do many times in the code, we don't die because there is a key but
    no Entry object.

  resolve_xdata
    Resolve xdata

  cite_setmembers
    Promotes set member to cited status

  preprocess_sets
    $biber->preprocess_sets

    This records the set information for use later

  calculate_interentry
    $biber->calculate_interentry

    Ensures that crossrefs/xrefs that are directly cited or cross-referenced
    at least mincrossrefs/minxrefs times are included in the bibliography.

  process_interentry
    $biber->process_interentry

    Ensures proper inheritance of data from cross-references.

  validate_datamodel
  Validate bib data according to a datamodel
  Note that we are validating the internal Biber::Entries
  after they have been created from the datasources so this is
  datasource neutral, as it should be. It is here to enforce
  adherence to what biblatex expects.

  process_namedis
    Generate name strings and disambiguation schema. Has to be in the context
    of a data list (reference context) because uniquenametemplate can be specified
    per-list/context

  postprocess_sets
  Adds required per-entry options etc. to sets

  process_entries_static
  Processing of entries which is not list-specific and which can therefore
  insert data directly into entries

  process_entries_pre
    Main processing operations, to generate metadata and entry information
    This method is automatically called by C<prepare>.
    Runs prior to uniqueness processing

  process_entries_post
    More processing operations, to generate things which require uniqueness
    information like namehash
    Runs after uniqueness processing

  process_entries_final
    Final processing operations which depend on all previous processing

  process_uniqueprimaryauthor
    Track seen primary author base names for generation of uniqueprimaryauthor

  process_workuniqueness
    Track seen work combination for generation of singletitle, uniquetitle, uniquebaretitle and
    uniquework

  process_extradate
    Track labelname/labeltitle+date parts combination for generation of extradate

  process_extraname
    Track labelname only for generation of extraname

  process_extratitle
    Track labelname/labeltitle combination for generation of extratitle

  process_extratitleyear
    Track labeltitle/labelyear combination for generation of extratitleyear

  process_sets
    Postprocess set entries

    Checks for common set errors and enforces "dataonly" options for set members.
    It's not necessary to set skipbib, skipbiblist in the OPTIONS field for
    the set members as these are automatically set by biblatex due to the \inset

  process_nocite
    Generate nocite information

  process_labelname
    Generate labelname information.

  process_labeldate
    Generate labeldate information, including times

  process_labeltitle
  Generate labeltitle

  Note that this is not conditionalised on the biblatex "labeltitle"
  as labeltitle should always be output since all standard styles need it.
  Only extratitle is conditionalised on the biblatex "labeltitle" option.

  process_fullhash
    Generate fullhash

  process_namehash
    Generate namehash

  process_pername_hashes
    Generate per_name_hashes

  process_visible_names
    Generate the visible name information.
    This is used in various places and it is useful to have it generated in one place.

  process_labelalpha
    Generate the labelalpha and also the variant for sorting

  process_extraalpha
    Generate the extraalpha information

  process_presort
    Put presort fields for an entry into the main Biber bltx state
    so that it is all available in the same place since this can be
    set per-type and globally too.

  process_lists
    Process a bibliography list

  check_list_filter
    Run an entry through a list filter. Returns a boolean.

  generate_sortdataschema
    Generate sort data schema for Sort::Key from sort spec like this:

  spec   => [
              [undef, { presort => {} }],
              [{ final => 1 }, { sortkey => {} }],
              [
                {'sort_direction'  => 'descending'},
                { sortname => {} },
                { author => {} },
                { editor => {} },
                { translator => {} },
                { sorttitle => {} },
                { title => {} },
              ],
              [undef, { sortyear => {} }, { year => {} }],
              [undef, { sorttitle => {} }, { title => {} }],
              [undef, { volume => {} }, { "0000" => {} }],
            ],

  generate_sortinfo
    Generate information for sorting

  uniqueness
    Generate the uniqueness information needed when creating .bbl

  create_uniquename_info
    Gather the uniquename information as we look through the names

    What is happening in here is the following: We are registering the
    number of occurrences of each name, name+init and fullname within a
    specific context. For example, the context is "global" with uniquename
    < mininit and "name list" for uniquename=mininit or minfull. The keys
    we store to count this are the most specific information for the
    context, so, for uniquename < mininit, this is the full name and for
    uniquename=mininit or minfull, this is the complete list of full names.
    These keys have values in a hash which are ignored. They serve only to
    accumulate repeated occurrences with the context and we don't care
    about this and so the values are a useful sinkhole for such repetition.

    For example, if we find in the global context a base name "Smith" in two different entries
    under the same form "Alan Smith", the data structure will look like:

    {Smith}->{global}->{Alan Smith} = 2

    We don't care about the value as this means that there are 2 "Alan Smith"s in the global
    context which need disambiguating identically anyway. So, we just count the keys for the
    base name "Smith" in the global context to see how ambiguous the base name itself is. This
    would be "1" and so "Alan Smith" would get uniquename=false because it's unambiguous as just
    "Smith".

    The same goes for "minimal" list context disambiguation for uniquename=mininit or minfull.
    For example, if we had the base name "Smith" to disambiguate in two entries with labelname
    "John Smith and Alan Jones", the data structure would look like:

    {Smith}->{Smith+Jones}->{John Smith+Alan Jones} = 2

    Again, counting the keys of the context for the base name gives us "1" which means we
    have uniquename=false for "John Smith" in both entries because it's the same list. This also
    works for repeated names in the same list "John Smith and Bert Smith". Disambiguating
    "Smith" in this:

    {Smith}->{Smith+Smith}->{John Smith+Bert Smith} = 2

    So both "John Smith" and "Bert Smith" in this entry get
    uniquename=false (of course, as long as there are no other "X Smith and
    Y Smith" entries where X != "John" or Y != "Bert").

    The values from biblatex.sty:

    false   = 0
    init    = 1
    true    = 2
    full    = 2
    allinit = 3
    allfull = 4
    mininit = 5
    minfull = 6

  generate_uniquename
   Generate the per-name uniquename values using the information
   harvested by create_uniquename_info()

  create_uniquelist_info
    Gather the uniquelist information as we look through the names

  generate_uniquelist
   Generate the per-namelist uniquelist values using the information
   harvested by create_uniquelist_info()

  generate_contextdata
    Generate information for data which may changes per datalist

  generate_singletitle
    Generate the singletitle field, if requested. The information for generating
    this is gathered in process_workuniqueness()

  generate_uniquetitle
    Generate the uniquetitle field, if requested. The information for generating
    this is gathered in process_workuniqueness()

  generate_uniquebaretitle
    Generate the uniquebaretitle field, if requested. The information for generating
    this is gathered in process_workuniqueness()

  generate_uniquework
    Generate the uniquework field, if requested. The information for generating
    this is gathered in process_workuniqueness()

  generate_uniquepa
    Generate the uniqueprimaryauthor field, if requested. The information for generating
    this is gathered in create_uniquename_info()

  sort_list
    Sort a list using information in entries according to a certain sorting template.
    Use a flag to skip info messages on first pass

  preprocess_options
   Preprocessing for options. Used primarily to perform process-intensive
   operations which can be done once instead of inside dense loops later.

  prepare
    Do the main work.
    Process and sort all entries before writing the output.

  prepare_tool
    Do the main work for tool mode

  fetch_data
    Fetch citekey and dependents data from section datasources
    Expects to find datasource packages named:

    Biber::Input::<type>::<datatype>

    and one defined subroutine called:

    Biber::Input::<type>::<datatype>::extract_entries

    which takes args:

    1: Biber object
    2: Datasource name
    3: Reference to an array of cite keys to look for

    and returns an array of the cite keys it did not find in the datasource

  get_dependents
  Get dependents of the entries for a given list of citekeys. Is called recursively
  until there are no more dependents to look for.

  remove_undef_dependent
    Remove undefined dependent keys from an entry using a map of
    dependent keys to entries

  _parse_sort
   Convenience sub to parse a .bcf sorting section and return nice
   sorting object

  _filedump and _stringdump
    Dump the biber object with Data::Dump for debugging

AUTHORS
Philip Kime "<philip at kime.org.uk>"

BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests on our Github tracker at <https://github.com/plk/biber/issues>.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2009-2012 Francois Charette and Philip Kime, all rights reserved. Copyright 2012-2025 Philip Kime, all rights reserved.

This module is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.