Calibre and Windows 7 Task Schedule problem.

[PeterT]

I might have missed some of the points here but I've just tested here (albeit with one caveat; I was doing it WITH a user logged on to the PC; however, I was NOT seeing the calibre icon on MY system tray).

I scheduled a news download in calibre for 10:30 PM.
I stopped calibre.
I created TWO tasks

Name: Test-Calibre
When running the task use the following user account: Peter-W7\Peter
Run whether user is logged on or not
Triggers: Daily @ 10:15 pm
Actions: 
Start a program "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" 
Arguments: --start-in-tray
Settings:
Allow task to be run on demand
If the task is already running then Do not start a new instance

and on saving the task supplied MY Windows password

Name: Test-Stop-Calibre
When running the task use the following user account: Peter-W7\Peter
Run whether user is logged on or not
Triggers: Daily @ 10:30 pm
Actions: 
Start a program "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" 
Arguments:--shutdown-running-calibre
Settings:
Allow task to be run on demand
If the task is already running then Do not start a new instance

and on saving the task supplied MY Windows password

Monitoring via pslist -t initially I see a calibre process running under a taskeng, then a calibre-parallel under the calibre.

Monitoring my calibredb directory I see a new book being added under the calibre author; for a period of time after the download completes both calibre and calibre-parallel are still present.

Eventually a second instance of calibre starts (the second job) and then both instances of calibre terminate.

[kovidgoyal]

@JayKindle: your problems are almost certainly related to your windows configuration. Most likely your tasks are running under different user accounts, which is why things aren't working. --shutdown-running-calibre will only work if it is run in the same user account as the other instance of calibre. And note that just because you only created a single user account does not mean there dont exist other user accounts on the system. Modern OSes typically have multiple accounts in which to run background services, for privilege sepaaration and security.

And also note that calibre has no memory leaks when you leave it running. There was a memory leak a while ago, that was fixed.

[BetterRed]

@JayKindle - get Process Explorer http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx Its Task Manager with extra bits like displaying the Process Tree. No install, just unzip and run the .exe

I'm wondering if you're running onto Windows Starter restrictions

BR

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@JayKindle: your problems are almost certainly related to your windows configuration. Most likely your tasks are running under different user accounts, which is why things aren't working. --shutdown-running-calibre will only work if it is run in the same user account as the other instance of calibre. And note that just because you only created a single user account does not mean there dont exist other user accounts on the system. Modern OSes typically have multiple accounts in which to run background services, for privilege sepaaration and security.
And also note that calibre has no memory leaks when you leave it running. There was a memory leak a while ago, that was fixed.

About accounts: Yes there is usually an admin account as well as a hidden account for network access IIRC.

[JayKindle]

@PeterT, the reason I found out that any app you schedule doesn't show themselves in the tray is because of this setting: Run whether user is logged on or not -- with this setting, it will run hidden, even if the the hidden box isn't checked. Its purpose is for it to run, even if only the guest or another account is running. Pretty neat trick.

In order for it to appear on the tray or desktop, is for you to just choose: Run only when user is logged on. -- Read more about this here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../cc722152.aspx

Originally Posted by PeterT

Eventually a second instance of calibre starts (the second job) and then both instances of calibre terminate.

Did the second schedule also kill the "calibre-parallel.exe" from running?

@kovidgoyal, yes, I've doubled checked this, and when I schedule it, I make sure that my user account name is the one marked for this schedule to run. Since it asks me for my user password to confirm.

Good to know about the memory leak. But I'd still prefer it to run only when I schedule it to turn on/off. Anyway you could add such feature in the near future to it?

[BetterRed]

The Taskbar and Notification Area icons cannot be used to show definitively what tasks are running, at best they are tasks with which the user might interactive.

Windows Task Manager is the easiest and quickest way to see what tasks are running - ctrl/shift/escape.

My Taskbar/Notification panel currently show 24 tasks, Task Manager says lists 88.

BR

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Perhaps you could try the command-line version of fetch news? Write a batch file to process each recipe you need.

Fetch News uses the ebook-convert executable, interestingly. You can feed it the .recipe format as the input file.

Originally Posted by JayKindle

If that is what I will end up doing, can you help me write up this batch file?

If you're still interested, here's what I used to do for my comics feed:

@echo on
set logfile="createcomics-bat.log"
echo "Start %date% %time%" >> %logfile%
ebook-convert Gocomics_test.recipe .epub  --output-profile pocketbook_900

set filename="GoComics [%date% %time%]"
echo %filename% 
echo "filename %filename%" >> %logfile%

ebook-meta Gocomics_test.epub -t %filename%

calibredb add -d  Gocomics_test.epub
echo "End %date% %time%" >> %logfile%

This adds the ebook to Calibre with the date and time appended as the title. I just ran it and it added this epub to Calibre - "GoComics [Sun 05/25/2014 2:57:27.64]"