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Given the directory structure:

B-Galactosidase Report\LaTeX\Min ex\

My .tex file is inside "Min ex" directory.

My .bib file is inside the "B-Galactosidase Report" directory two levels above that.

Then what is the path I should specify for bib.bib in my .tex file? I think the syntax is tripping me up here...

I have tried

\bibliography{"../../B-Galactosidase Report/bib"}{}

which triggers the error

 Non-existent destination files:
      'citing with manual.bbl'
Latexmk: I WON'T RUN 'bibtex citing with manual' because I don't find the following files:
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closed as too localized by egreg, lockstep, Lev Bishop, Stefan Kottwitz Nov 26 '11 at 16:55


Don't use spaces in any of your directory or file names. Other than that, specifying ../../mybib should work. –  Alan Munn Sep 5 '11 at 7:05
I thought spaces should be ok as long as you wrap inverted commas around the pathname? "../../mybib" didn't work in any case... :( –  ptrcao Sep 5 '11 at 7:07
No. That is the case with working in Windows' command prompt. Then folders/directories require quotes if they include any special characters, including spaces. –  Werner Sep 5 '11 at 7:10
...I have to ask: Did you try ../../bib? I'm pretty sure it does not matter whether you use / or `` under Windows. –  Werner Sep 5 '11 at 7:18
I just tried \bibliography{../../bib}{} and got the same error... What could be wrong? –  ptrcao Sep 5 '11 at 7:32

2 Answers 2

\bibliography{../../bib}{} is correct and works for me, after I correct an unrelated error. The .aux files needed to be cleared and I needed to ammend the bibliography style, then the above works. Thanks a lot guys for your help!

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Ons option is to use the short DOS pathname. Go to the director above "/B-Galactosidase Report" and open a DOS command window. Run the command

dir /X *.*

On my computer it give the short path name of "B-Galactosidase Report" as "B-GALA~1". Now you can use


If this works then \bibliography{../../bib} should also work

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