LaTeX forum ⇒ General ⇒ no .bbl file generated

[philipmach]

I have a multichapter document, using \include for each chapter, and have just started to add in references, and no .bbl file is generated despite running LaTeX repeatedly. Here is an edited down version of the master file -- any ideas on what may be preventing the bbl file being generated?

In case it makes a difference, I'm using TeXshop 2.14 on Mac OS X.

\documentclass[11pt, a5paper, openany]{book}
\usepackage{times,amsmath,enumerate,moreverb,url}
\usepackage[hyperfootnotes=false,pdftex,bookmarks=true]{hyperref}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{gensymb}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\selectlanguage{english}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{titlesec} %%% change Chapter Title layout
\usepackage{lettrine} %%% DROP CAPS
\usepackage[tight]{subfigure}

%%%% FOR a5paper
\pdfpagewidth 148mm
\pdfpageheight 210mm 


\addtolength{\topmargin}{-10mm} % was 20
\addtolength{\textheight}{28mm} % was 43; 28
\addtolength{\textwidth}{5mm} % was 12.5
\addtolength\oddsidemargin{8mm} % 
\addtolength\evensidemargin{-13.5mm} %-13.5

%%%Allow easy switching between pdflatex and latex
\newif\ifpdf
\ifx\pdfoutput\undefined
\pdffalse % we are not running PDFLaTeX
\else
\pdfoutput=1 % we are running PDFLaTeX
\pdftrue
\fi

\bibliographystyle{apalike}

\bibpunct{[}{]}{;}{a}{}{,}

\renewcommand{\ttdefault}{cmtt}
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.1}

\begin{document}

%%%Allow easy switching between pdflatex and latex
\ifpdf
	\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.pdf, .jpg, .tif}
	\else
	\DeclareGraphicsExtensions{.eps, .jpg}
	\fi


\frontmatter
\begin{titlepage}

\begin{center}
	\Huge{\fontfamily{phv}\selectfont TITLE}\\
	\large{\fontfamily{phv}\selectfont Subtitle}\\
	~\\
	\Large{\fontfamily{phv}\selectfont Author}
\end{center}

\pagebreak
\pagestyle{empty}
~

~\\
\vspace*{2.5cm}
\begin{quote}
    Copyright boilerplate\\
    ~\\
    Copyright \copyright~Author 2008\\
    ~\\
    National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:\\ 

\begin{tabular}{ll}
Author:      &    etc.\\
\end{tabular}
\end{quote}

\end{titlepage}
\thispagestyle{empty}
~

\noindent
More front matter
\subsection*{Title}
\begin{itemize}
\item stuff
\end{itemize}

\setcounter{page}{1}
\include{preface}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\pagestyle{headings}
\tableofcontents
\listoffigures
\mainmatter

\hyphenpenalty=7500 % was 5000
\tolerance=1000

\renewcommand{\sectionmark}[1]{\markright{#1}}

 %%% change Chapter Title layout
\titleformat{\chapter}
{\normalfont\bfseries\Huge}{\Huge\thechapter}{1em}{}

\include{file1}
\include{file2}
% etc.
\markboth{REFERENCES}{BOOK TITLE}
\sectionmark{SUBTITLE}
\renewcommand\bibname{References}  % change title of references section
\thispagestyle{empty}
\pagestyle{myheadings}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{References}
\bibliography{bibfilename}
\backmatter
\end{document}

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

did you use \cite inside your document? Try \nocite{*} to get all references of the bib file listed.

Stefan

[Ted]

I have a multichapter document, using \include for each chapter, and have just started to add in references, and no .bbl file is generated despite running LaTeX repeatedly. Here is an edited down version of the master file -- any ideas on what may be preventing the bbl file being generated?

Remember that it's not LaTeX that generates the BBL, it's BibTeX.

1. Run LaTeX to generate the AUX file. It adds a line every time it finds a cite.
2. Then run BibTeX (executable: bibtex) to generate the BBL (from the AUX lines).
3. Then run LaTeX again, which will include the BBL.
4. Then run LaTeX again to make any updates corresponding to including the possibly massive BBL (e.g., updating your final page count on each of your pages, updating your ToC, etc.).

I don't recall if TeXShop attempts to do this automatically. If it doesn't, you need to make sure you run BibTeX whenever you need to update your BBL.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

perhaps have a look at this tutorial: Getting to Grips with Latex - Bibliography Management, section Why won't Latex generate any output?.

Stefan

[philipmach]

Thanks for all the tutorial stuff. I don't know how often I've done exactly this in past but somehow the fact that TexShop doesn't understand when to invoke Bibtex had escaped me.

[Ted]

Thanks for all the tutorial stuff. I don't know how often I've done exactly this in past but somehow the fact that TexShop doesn't understand when to invoke Bibtex had escaped me.

You might consider using the Perl script latexmk. I've never used it myself, but I know lots of people who seem to like it. It runs in the background and runs LaTeX, BibTeX, makeindex, etc. whenever necessary.

While TeXShop and the OS X 10.5 version of Preview auto-refresh, lots of other PDF viewers do not. Additionally, neither program are exceptional PDF viewers. You might want to give Skim a shot (ESPECIALLY if you stop using TeXShop (personally, I use Vim with the Vim-LaTeX suite to do my editing)). It's a terrific viewer, and it has lots of features that will make LaTeXers happy (support for inverse searching is one example).

[LauraVosje]

Hi,

I had a similar problem. I use WinEdt/LEd + Miktex. My .bbl file did not contain any references so was practically empty and the \cite{} comments I added resulted in questionmarks like this: "[?]". For me, the problem was solved when I specified the whole path to the .bib file and did not add ".bib" behind the filename. Example:
\bibliography{D:/.../filename}

It's a little late to post this but I hope someone will benefit from it.

Laura

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Laura,

welcome to the board and thank you for contributing your solution!

Stefan

[localghost]

[...] It's a little late to post this but I hope someone will benefit from it. [...]

It's never to late to post a useful solution for a problem. Thanks for this initial contribution.


Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten¹

[ashwini]

Hi,

I am using Miktex + Texmaker and even i faced the same problem while using the bibtex.

After running latex on the .tex file, .aux file was generated. But running Bibtex on the .tex file now did not generate the .bbl file.

The workaround:

1) Run Latex on the btest.tex file
Latex btest.tex
The following files are generated
btest.aux
btest.dvi
btest.log

2) Rename the btest.aux file to btest.tex.aux

3) Run Bibtex on the .tex file
bibtex btest.tex
The following files are generated:
btest.tex.bbl
btest.tex.blg

4) Rename the btest.tex.bbl file to btest.bbl.tex (probably you can skip this step)
5) Run Latex on the btest.tex file twice

The problem is fixed.

I am not sure if it works in your environment.