Working with ZIP/RAR/TAR Archives

[vitalichka]

Hello everyone, I am back with yet another question.
Here goes and I have read previous posts and answers to gain an answer but still am not very clear. So I ask here.

I have a large eBook library, mainly in PDF unfortunately, however the vast majority of this collection is in separate ZIP and RAR files. These are all legal downloads from my schools BBA program I am a part of, all files are licensed scans and licensed originals provided by either others schools or by authors, etc, etc but the issue is I had to download them from a single location and because there were so many books, most of them are in RAR/ZIP, all separately. Most of these books when unzipped are either PDF or HTML files, some are RTF or DOC.

What I have done is downloaded the files, and extracted them (this took for ever to be done right) however now I have several duplicates and so I ran Easy Duplicate Finder - Trial but the issue is that the software removes files correctly but because there are so many files, it goes into each of the directories and looks at removing specific files, at which point I am left with some files in some directories and others in other directories which breaks the flow of HTML files and generally makes a mess with the rest of the files.

Well I am wondering if Calibre can work with Archives such as ZIP/RAR/TAR. I know it has opened some archives for me when I import HTML files but now I want to reload all the files back onto my HD and have Calibre reindex everything without having to again uncompress everything because it takes for ever to put everything in the right folder under project and author, etc, etc.

I hope this has been clear, I hope someone can help me out with this and if something isn't making sense, please let me know.

Thanks and I look forward to your responses.

[kovidgoyal]

yes calibre works with zip/rar archives. Not tar archives. If you have a pdf/doc/rtf file in a zip/rar archive adding it to calibre will cause calibre toautomatically extract the ebook file and add it to the library.

[vitalichka]

Thanks Kovid!
Does this also include multiple different file types in the same archive?

Thanks

[kovidgoyal]

No, one per archive, expect in the case of comics and html files.

[vitalichka]

Alright so this should be good because I am most concerned about HTML files and have no comics. As far as PDF and RTF my best bet would be to extract individual archives right?

Thanks

[theducks]

Originally Posted by vitalichka

Alright so this should be good because I am most concerned about HTML files and have no comics. As far as PDF and RTF my best bet would be to extract individual archives right?

Thanks

Just drop the Archive into Calibre.
The Archive keeps all the pieces together. CSS, Images,Body files) HTML is not always a SINGLE file concept. I can't count how many 'broken' HTML books I have seen because somone only sent the HTML file and forgot the JPG's and CSS
No pictures and globs of text
Repeat: Drag and Drop a RAR or Zip. Let Calibre figure out what it can or can't do. It will complain if needed.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by vitalichka

Alright so this should be good because I am most concerned about HTML files and have no comics. As far as PDF and RTF my best bet would be to extract individual archives right?

Correct, any archive that contains multiple books will need your attention prior to adding the individual books to calibre.

[vitalichka]

Thanks everyone, very clear answers.
I knew that Calibre worked with archives HTML files whether one or more and archives with single book files, but because some of my archives have several files (non-html) I wasn't sure if it would handle them properly.

I know now.

Thanks