Bibliography path resolution not respecting leading `/`

[mcanouil]

All formats but typst lead to a crash, regardless of the use of _quarto.yml

pandoc: /references.bib: withBinaryFile: does not exist (No such file or directory)

echo "---\nbibliography: /references.bib\n---\n" >index.qmd
touch references.bib
# touch _quarto.yml
for format in html typst pdf revealjs docx; do
  quarto render index.qmd --to ${format}
done

Quarto 99.9.9
[✓] Checking environment information...
      Quarto cache location: /Users/mcanouil/Library/Caches/quarto
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.6.3: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.85.1: OK
      Deno version 1.46.3: OK
      Typst version 0.13.0: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 99.9.9
      commit: 31e496fe384e1cb20caf709d6b2ab1dd5cce18b7
      Path: /Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/package/dist/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: v2025.03.10
      Chromium: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Using: TinyTex
      Path: /Users/mcanouil/Library/TinyTeX/bin/universal-darwin
      Version: 2025

[✓] Checking Chrome Headless....................OK
      Using: Chrome found on system
      Path: /Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/MacOS/Brave Browser
      Source: QUARTO_CHROMIUM

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.13.1
      Path: /Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-playground/.venv/bin/python3
      Jupyter: 5.7.2
      Kernels: julia-1.11, python3

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

(\) Checking R installation...........ℹ R version 4.4.3 (2025-02-28)
! Config '~/.Rprofile' was loaded!
[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
      Version: 4.4.3
      Path: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources
      LibPaths:
        - /Users/mcanouil/Projects/quarto-dev/quarto-playground/renv/library/macos/R-4.4/aarch64-apple-darwin20
        - /Users/mcanouil/Library/Caches/org.R-project.R/R/renv/sandbox/macos/R-4.4/aarch64-apple-darwin20/f7156815
      knitr: 1.50
      rmarkdown: 2.29

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK

Discussed in #12386

^{Originally posted by davidzgli March 26, 2025}

Description

Description:

I've discovered a path handling inconsistency in Quarto when using bibliography paths across different output formats. Specifically:

• When using the typst format, project-relative paths (starting with /) work correctly
• When using the docx format, the same project-relative paths fail - absolute paths are required instead

This creates maintenance challenges when building documents for multiple output formats.

Minimal Working Example:

1. Create a project with this structure:

my_project/
├── _quarto.yml
├── index.qmd
└── references/
    └── bibliography.bib

2. Place this content in _quarto.yml:

project:
  output-dir: _output

3. Place this content in index.qmd:

---
title: "Bibliography Path Test"
format:
  typst:
    bibliography: /references/bibliography.bib
  docx: 
    bibliography: /references/bibliography.bib
---

Testing bibliography paths.

Here's a citation [@doe2023].

4. Create a minimal references/bibliography.bib file:

@article{doe2023,
  author = {Doe, John},
  title = {Example Article},
  journal = {Journal of Examples},
  year = {2023}
}

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Create the above files in a new project
2. Run quarto render index.qmd --to typst (works correctly with project-relative path)
3. Run quarto render index.qmd --to docx (fails with project-relative path)
4. Change the docx bibliography path to an absolute path like /home/username/my_project/references/bibliography.bib (works)

Environment information:

• Quarto version: 1.5.57
• Operating system: Rocky Linux release 9.5 (Blue Onyx)
• R version: 4.4.2

Is this the expected behavior, or should project-relative paths work consistently across output formats?

[cscheid]

We definitely need to fix this stuff, but note my previous attempts in the open PRs 😭 it's pretty tricky to get all the different code paths correctly!