virtual copy

[DTRAIN3005]

Greetings to everyone!

I'm a relatively new user of Calibre. I want to use it as my ebook management tool to manage my library. My ebooks are scattered across several external storage (hard disks). When I try to add a book to Calibre, it usually copies a book to it's default library location. This will essentially double my copies of the book and it's a waste of space. How can I configure it that it will just "point" my book to specific location (external storage disk) and only the metadata is stored in the default Calibre library?

My Calibre library is installed on my PC.

TIA for your help!

[Sirtel]

You can't "point" Calibre to a nonexistent file - Calibre doesn't operate with virtual files. What you can do is delete all formats from your library after the files with their metadata have been copied over (right-click on the Remove icon -> Remove all formats from selected books); this leaves only metadata in your library. But that means you'll have no way to open the books from inside Calibre, as the files don't exist in the library.

[Quoth]

The copies in Calibre are really a database. Pretend it is just a database.

You can regard the originals as originals or backups. It's not a lot of storage.

[DTRAIN3005]

Thank you for your replies. Technically it's not empty but it's being "pointed" to the original location of the book. What I want to achieve is a database of all my books that's scattered across several hard drives. It's quite expensive to buy a new hard drive to "combine" all. In other applications like video editing apps, the library is "virtual pointer" to specific location of the file. Once you really need to use the file, you can just "mount" the specific storage medium or hard drive. The library is just the metadata that is being managed and pointing to the various locations of the files.

Anyway, thanks for the idea of just deleting the books in the library and just retaining the metadata. I guess, I'll just add in the "tags" the file location.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DTRAIN3005

Anyway, thanks for the idea of just deleting the books in the library and just retaining the metadata. I guess, I'll just add in the "tags" the file location.

A better way would be to create a shortcut to the original file and store it in the book's "data" folder. You manage files in that folder using Edit metadata / Manage data files. Open that and drag the shortcut into it.

Alternatively, use the GetFileName plugin to automatically put the book's path into a custom column.

[DTRAIN3005]

Thanks! It's a better idea! Now, I can fully enjoy Calibre! Thank you all!!!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DTRAIN3005

In other applications like video editing apps, the library is "virtual pointer" to specific location of the file. Once you really need to use the file, you can just "mount" the specific storage medium or hard drive. The library is just the metadata that is being managed and pointing to the various locations of the files.

Calibre doesn't work this way and never will, by the initial decision of the developer. There are various ways to store only metadata and the file path in the library, as other posters have suggested, but when adding a book, Calibre will always copy the file to its library. There's no changing that.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DTRAIN3005

In other applications like video editing apps, the library is "virtual pointer" to specific location of the file. Once you really need to use the file, you can just "mount" the specific storage medium or hard drive. The library is just the metadata that is being managed and pointing to the various locations of the files.

Because video file is huge and can be severa thouand or a million times bigger. Files for professional video editing can also be 10x or more bigger than same duration DVD /BD/streaming/broadcast. Often video editing needs one or more dedicated drives and is not comparable to ebooks. I've done production of both.
Serious video libraries for palyout systems do include a copy of the video. A video editing app, is not a true video library. One without the files is like a lending /rental library for physical tapes or disks. Calibre isn't that kind of library.

Unless you have more ebooks than can be read in a life time storage is no an issue. Of course scanned PDFs can be big, but they are not real ebooks and still tiny compared to video.

Calibre manages the metadata and the content. Even my 2002 (22 year old) laptop still has enough space for 7,000 ebooks, though I don't use it now as it's XP and it won't even boot if any drive is more than 120 G Byte.

Unless you've a very budget PC or Chromebook, the entry level for laptop storage was 512 G Byte over 7 years ago.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

A better way would be to create a shortcut to the original file and store it in the book's "data" folder. You manage files in that folder using Edit metadata / Manage data files. Open that and drag the shortcut into it.

Alternatively, use the GetFileName plugin to automatically put the book's path into a custom column.

FWIW: You can add a Windows shortcut (LNK file) to an existing book as a format file via the Add Books->Add files to selected book records from clipboard action:



AFAIK that is the only Add books action that will add the actual LNK file, all other Add books actions, including drag-n-drop into Book details, will add the shortcut target.

BR

[DTRAIN3005]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Unless you have more ebooks than can be read in a life time storage is no an issue. Of course scanned PDFs can be big, but they are not real ebooks and still tiny compared to video.

Calibre manages the metadata and the content. Even my 2002 (22 year old) laptop still has enough space for 7,000 ebooks, though I don't use it now as it's XP and it won't even boot if any drive is more than 120 G Byte.

Unless you've a very budget PC or Chromebook, the entry level for laptop storage was 512 G Byte over 7 years ago.

This is just stage 1 of my little side project. I am hosting ebooks for my Discord group. Stage 2 would be a little bit more complicated - hosting ebooks in Raspberry Pi via network cloud. As of now, our group have a combined about 2 TB of ebooks.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DTRAIN3005

This is just stage 1 of my little side project. I am hosting ebooks for my Discord group. Stage 2 would be a little bit more complicated - hosting ebooks in Raspberry Pi via network cloud. As of now, our group have a combined about 2 TB of ebooks.

I hate to bring up the nasty bits but are all those ebooks that you and your group are planning on hosting either no longer in copyright or are licensed as freely distributable? If not, see copyright infringement and ebook piracy.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DTRAIN3005

This is just stage 1 of my little side project. I am hosting ebooks for my Discord group. Stage 2 would be a little bit more complicated - hosting ebooks in Raspberry Pi via network cloud. As of now, our group have a combined about 2 TB of ebooks.

Originally Posted by DNSB

I hate to bring up the nasty bits but are all those ebooks that you and your group are planning on hosting either no longer in copyright or are licensed as freely distributable? If not, see copyright infringement and ebook piracy.

Indeed, the entirety of Project Gutenberg is more than 70,000 ebooks. The entire download of English is about 40Gbyte in one format. That's the largest PD collection of human proofed texts. Next biggest is about 1/10th size. Internet Archive is really just scans and no human proof of OCR generated versions so hardly any real ebooks

2TB is about 500,000 to 2,000,000 ebooks depending on format.

Even if legitimate, Calibre is not the tool to share that on the Internet.