Problem including calibre portable in SyMenu program suite

[epik]

Hi.

I'm trying to include calibre portable inside the SyMenu SPS suite (http://www.ugmfree.it).

I really appreciate the automated install (silent install) even if I'd prefer a real silent install but it could work this way too.

The strange problem I have is a limit with the path characters (59 chars).
More than a limits seems to be an installer bug because in windows we have an higher limit (260 chars).
Is there a way to workaround this limit?
If the limit is by design isn't it a bit anachronistic in 2015?

I would be very sorry if I couldn't solve this problem because calibre is one of my favorite program at all and it deserves to be included inside the SyMenu suite.

[kovidgoyal]

It is by design. The protable calibre installer includes a library folder inside it. The library folder has author and book sub folders each of which has files with both author and title in them, title and authors are limited to 40 chars in library filenames by character. The 255 character path length limit is for the total path length, not individual components, do the math.

[epik]

Hi Kovid and thank you for your quick reply.

Your installer blocks the installation when the root path is located too deeply inside the folder structure to avoid a very particular (rare) case.
In fact a real problem arises only in case the user:
- uses the built-in library
- loads a book from an author with a really long name and with a title with an equally long name.
So if I well understand you are working in an hyper-conservative way.

I'm wondering:
- Can't you check and eventually block the use of the built in library only at run time when you check that the root path is too long according with your rules?
Consider that a portable application, differently than an installed one, could be freely moved from the initial folder. So an initial valid root could become invalid, always according to your rules, but perfectly valid for Windows after a moving and you don't notice at all.

Well I'm here only because I'm a big fan or your program and I would like to include it in a great suite of program. No criticisms towards your work that is the most valuable worldwide in its category

[kovidgoyal]

A runtime check would make a library inaccessible, when, as you correctly point out, only a few books in the library might suffer from the actual issue. As a user I certainly would not like being suddenly unable to access my library in calibre because I moved the library folder.

Placing calibre libraries deep inside folder hierarchies on windows is simply not a good idea, and is not something I wish to encourage. As for including it in your suite of programs you can do so by simply installing it into a temp directory and moving it after install. Though again, I certainly dont recommend that you do that, because it will mean things will break for you r users if they use books with long titles/authors.

[eschwartz]

What, have peoples' library fail randomly after it exists? Errors in the installer are vastly preferable.

Anyway, what is with that path? Looks quite overly-complicated -- maybe the SyMenu developer could take a hint from the http://PortableApps.com people. Might I add that calibrePortable works perfectly with the PortableApps.com launcher.

P:\PortableApps\calibrePortable\App\Calibre <-- binaries
P:\PortableApps\calibrePortable\Data\library
P:\PortableApps\calibrePortable\Data\settings

The updater auto-unpacks Kovid's portable installer into the P:\PortableApps\calibrePortable\calibre-portable folder, then copies the right bits to the right places.

[epik]

I accept your point of view but let me speculate a bit more on this topic.

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

A runtime check would make a library inaccessible, when, as you correctly point out, only a few books in the library might suffer from the actual issue.

The inaccessibility could happen if you keep on working on presumed path lengths but it never happens because of an effective folder moving. If you move a library, or whatever file or folder, to a not legal path (too long) Windows stops the moving operation when it meets the illegal long path. So it is impossible you succeded in moving a library or calibre at all to a too deep path through Windows.

Since it is impossible that even a single book in your library could break the chars path limit because of a folder moving, the unique case it could happen is when a user add a new book or move a library through calibre itself.
A more accurate check during these operations, and a proper message to the user, should be shown in this case and not on a hypothetical and extremely rare, too long installation or destination path.

Well the program portability involves a completely new way of thinking.

Anyway thanks for you time and kindness.
I stop bothering you on this theme don't worry

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by epik

The inaccessibility could happen if you keep on working on presumed path lengths but it never happens because of an effective folder moving. If you move a library, or whatever file or folder, to a not legal path (too long) Windows stops the moving operation when it meets the illegal long path. So it is impossible you succeded in moving a library or calibre at all to a too deep path through Windows.

Since it is impossible that even a single book in your library could break the chars path limit because of a folder moving, the unique case it could happen is when a user add a new book or move a library through calibre itself.
A more accurate check during these operations, and a proper message to the user, should be shown in this case and not on a hypothetical and extremely rare, too long installation or destination path.

I believe Kovid's objective is to prevent the issue from ever coming up, not have error dialogs pop up through routine library management.

Seems the problem could be solved if this portable menu didn't use such lengthy folder hierarchies (which is probably not a good idea to begin with). As I said, I've never had problems with the PortableApps.com version of calibre.

[BetterRed]

Moderator Notice
Moved from Recipes to Devices subforum - please read subforum descriptions before starting a thread.

Recipes is about News Feeds, Devices includes operating system issues.

A Symenu user who doesn't use calibres News feature probably wouldn't look at Recipe threads. They may have 'solved the problem' with a creative workaround.