What causes Latex Workshop to recompile the same pdf multiple times?

[kaba2]

I have a large latex file which Latex Workshop for some reason recompiles 4 times in succession. What causes this? Supposedly the first build already produces a pdf file, which is then immediately invalidated by the next run. I wish I could just preview this first version, even if it is not quite right.

The runs I see in output are:

Run number 1 of rule 'pdflatex'
...
Run number 1 of rule 'biber output/dimension-paper'
...
Run number 2 of rule 'pdflatex'
...
Run number 3 of rule 'pdflatex'

I wrapped \ usepackage{biblatex}, \printindex and \printbibliography under a conditional flag. With this flag disabled, I can get rid of the biber run. However, the three other pdflatex remain.

[jlelong]

LW uses latexmk to build a project, which runs pdflatex sufficiently many times to get the references right. If you want a single compilation, define a new recipe that only calls pdflatex only once, see https://github.com/James-Yu/LaTeX-Workshop/wiki/Compile#latex-recipes