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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?

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You can also use latexmk (which automatically runs biber when it's needed for a document) with emacs, see e.g. stackoverflow.com/questions/7587287/… –  N.N. Oct 18 '11 at 20:20
You may also want to setup Emacs for editing biblatex bibliography files. –  N.N. Feb 15 '13 at 15:23
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2 Answers

up vote 21 down vote accepted

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.

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


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.

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Great work! Relatedly there is biblatex support in BibTeX mode since Emacs 24.1. –  N.N. Dec 13 '12 at 7:33
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