BibLaTeX Issue

[Richard Kimberly Heck]

Changing the subject to get the right person's attention...

On 10/15/21 11:51, Paul A. Rubin wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Over on the user list, there's a lengthy thread (actually set of 
> threads) triggered by user Rich Shepard trying to compile a report 
> whose bibliography stubbornly refused to appear. Rich was using 
> biblatex. After copies trial and error, Rich got the report to work, 
> but with no explanation why.
>
> I was beating on a copy of it (which I am not at liberty to share) and 
> discovered that if made any non-fatal change to the preamble, the 
> bibliography would show up. In particular, just adding \usepackage{} 
> (with the argument deliberately empty) to the preamble in LyX coaxed 
> the bibliography to show up.
>
> Comparing the .tex files that LyX exported with and without the 
> \usepackage{} command, I discovered two changes. One of course was the 
> inclusion of \usepackage{}. The other was that 
> \usepackage[style=authoryear]{biblatex} in the original document 
> morphed into \usepackage[style=authoryear,backend=bibtex8]{biblatex} 
> in the modified document.
>
> So I went to the original document and, in the bibliography settings, 
> changed the processor option from default to bibtex8, and sure enough 
> the original compiled correctly.
>
> I'm not sure if this is a bug or something the user is responsible for 
> knowing (it was news to me, but I never use biblatex). So I'm 
> reporting it here to let wiser minds decide.
>
> Paul
>