Calibre portable?
 

Main question
Is there any approved extracted or non exe packaged versions of calibre portable available? And if so can someone supply a link please.

Reason for asking
As it stands I feel the current "portable" versions kind of defeats it's purpose.
It's like calling either poison ivy or a pen chained to a desk portable.
All of them, since versions 0.84-0.8.69, use an exe installer even thought their FAQS claim it's supposed to be a zip:
If you still cannot get the installer to work and you are on Windows, you can use the calibre portable install, which does not need an installer (it is just a zip file) (https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq...is-not-working)

The portable "installer" is more akin to a self-extracting exe. It's still all self-contained.

Thanks for your answer. You might be right. I tried extracting it with what I usually extract those with and could not figure out how to make the resulting files work. Making me unsure if this is a case of PEBMAC or not. Will try to figure it out, but any advice is appreciated,

Yes, I see that myself. Why not just run the installer and extract it to where you want? I do it all the time when testing for config issues.

True, the resulting files from the install seems to be right and portable and the installer seem to be safe enough, still it makes my initial comparison about poison ivy or chained pen still valid as you have to use an installer (glove/breaking the chain) to make the resulting files portable.

It is a zip file, just a self extracting one. And I dont know what your problem with exe files is, but you are planning to install and run exe files. So not wanting to use an exe file to install exe files, is umm, illogical.

When I open the portable exe in 7-Zip, I get some not very usable files:

Attachment 189078

The bulk of the data seems to be in .rsrc\EXTRA\EXTRA, which 7-Zip doesn't detect as archive.

Its not a 7zip self extracting file, it uses its own special more efficient compression, some variant of lzma IIRC. Which is stored in the res section of the exe file. see the unzip function in portable-installer.cpp

Maybe its more about semantics, my personal preference of knowing what is inside an archive/compressed file, including most self extracting exe files. Something I am used to on other portable programs. Being unable to unpack this using any of my 5 tools including 7zip(capable to extrazt LZMA btw). For fun I also compressed the unpacked folder with 7zip and got it down about 9 more MB. Not that it matters too much. Managed to properly use your exe to install it correctly on most systems using VM. Still you got a point about about it not being the biggest deal in the world as the end product are exe files too. If you prefer having it in an exe go for it, just took me for a loop.

There are people who install new programs without an antivirus program check, and there are people who don't trust others at all and compile (open-source) programs themselves and then install them. But a program named This-Is-Safe.exe doesn't say anything about whether the program contains malicious code. A customer-respecting software vendor or open source software doesn't want users to get into trouble at all. They realize that "trust comes on foot and goes on horseback." And yes, an installation solution is usually chosen that causes the least problems for most users. Packing is not an end in itself, but merely a means to achieve a specific goal. Achieving the highest compression with a technique that only a few people can use is the wrong means for a specific purpose.

You write about a VM installation, but then you can make a trial installation in an isolated VM so that you can see all installed files.

What do you specifically want to know?

Rule 1:Only download from the official Calibre site.
Rule 2: (optional) wait a few days before installing. Folk will really scream here (MR) if there are issues.

Being cautious is good when dealing with an unknown source.
Calibre has an outstanding track record (and AFAIK never any malicious code in the 10Y I have been using it).

But one thing to remember, the portable Calibre is only 32-bit and you could run out of memory depending on the size of your library and what you are doing. If you don't have a need for the portable version, install the 64-bit regular version as long as you are running a 64-bit OS.

Or get the 64-bit installer, extract the executables from the MSI, and overwrite the binaries in the portable folder.