Customized recipes from command line

[cptnemo]

Hello,

I am experimenting running calibre (0.8.51) on a Raspberry Pi (with Debian "Wheezy"). This particular calibre package doesn't support any GUI. I can download/convert news with the command "ebook-convert" from source recipes. But is there any way to use command line to download customised recipes? What when you need to add user/password to the recipe?

[nickredding]

Sure, just provide the path to the customized recipe on the command line.

[cptnemo]

Originally Posted by nickredding

Sure, just provide the path to the customized recipe on the command line.

Thanks. But How calibre tell that is a local recipe? If I say

"BBC News"

it goes for the depository, then should I say "/home/bbc.recipe" to have calibre using my local version?

Thank you.

[nickredding]

Calibre uses the recipe path you provide, unless it cannot be found in which case it falls back to the built-in recipe.

[cptnemo]

Great!

Another think I don't understand, after downloading and converting the ebook to add it to the library AND to database I need to provide two different commands?

Or the command add will automatically taking care of adding the ebook to the library?

[nickredding]

Aren't these questions you could answer yourself by trying it? Alternatively, why not read the documentation?

[cptnemo]

Originally Posted by nickredding

Aren't these questions you could answer yourself by trying it? Alternatively, why not read the documentation?

I read the documentation of calibredb add and it doesn't mention adding books to the library. It says "Add the specified files as books to the database".

I spent 3 hours on the Raspberry Pi to restore my database so I am not up to experimenting and mess it again. If you don't want to answer my questions just don't do it. What's the point in asking me not to ask?

[nickredding]

Originally Posted by cptnemo

I read the documentation of calibredb add and it doesn't mention adding books to the library. It says "Add the specified files as books to the database".

As far as I know, library = database with the book source files stored in the same directory.

Originally Posted by cptnemo

I spent 3 hours on the Raspberry Pi to restore my database so I am not up to experimenting and mess it again. If you don't want to answer my questions just don't do it. What's the point in asking me not to ask?

No need to get snippy. Your questions seem very elementary and easily answered by typing a couple of lines on the command line interface. Experimenting with the command line tools is not likely to mess up your database. Since that is what you are going to be using, you'll have to do a bit of experimentation because the command line interface is not a GUI, and hence not as obvious (or thoroughly documented). Good luck, I won't be back in this thread.

[cptnemo]

Originally Posted by nickredding

As far as I know, library = database with the book source files stored in the same directory.

Yes, you are right the command add takes care of also adding the file to the library directory. It also take care of the cover. It seams that the only option missing is -publisher but I can live without.

Originally Posted by nickredding

No need to get snippy. Your questions seem very elementary and easily answered by typing a couple of lines on the command line interface. Experimenting with the command line tools is not likely to mess up your database. Since that is what you are going to be using, you'll have to do a bit of experimentation because the command line interface is not a GUI, and hence not as obvious (or thoroughly documented). Good luck, I won't be back in this thread.

Thanks. Coming back to the original question of the thread, anyhow I couldn't manage to get the command for local recipes working. I prepared my recipe, tested on Calibre GUI, uploaded to the server /home folder. But still when I give the command

ebook-convert /home/calibre-library/Foreign_Affairs_Custom.recipe /home/foreignaffairs.mobi --output-profile kindle

I get this outoput

1% Converting input to HTML...
InputFormatPlugin: Recipe Input running
Failed to compile downloaded recipe. Falling back to builtin one
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/ebook-convert", line 19, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py", line 323, in main
    plumber.run()
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py", line 972, in run
    accelerators, tdir)
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/customize/conversion.py", line 208, in __call__
    log, accelerators)
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plugins/recipe_input.py", line 93, in convert
    raise ValueError('Failed to find builtin recipe: '+title)
ValueError: Failed to find builtin recipe: Foreign_Affairs_Custom

Why doesn't catch my recipe?