MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Adoby · 02-11-2018, 09:44 AM

I start Calibre on my desktop from a shell script instead of from the binary. This makes it possible to run/fork some commands before and after Calibre is run.

I use this to update snapshots of my Calibre libraries on my NAS, using rsync, every time Calibre is started. This is very fast since I only delete (before calibre) old snapshots and only changes to the library has to be written (after calibre) to the new snapshot. And rsync is smart enough to use links to existing copies of files instead of copying over new copies. So each snapshot looks and smells like a full copy of the calibre libraries but takes up very little space. Instead of a NAS a separate folder or external HD could be used. Perhaps networked.

In my Calibre libraries I tag the books I want to have on my reading devices. Then, when I want to add (new) books to my devices, I just connect to a folder on my NAS and write the books to that folder from Calibre, just as if the folder was a device. Again this is fast because only changes have to be written.

On my Android devices I manually run the sync app FolderSync to update the books on the device from the folder on the NAS. This could be automated, but I never bothered. I use the functionality of the Android reading app to browse.

So the flow is strictly one way. From desktop Calibre to NAS to device. I don't bother with syncing reading positions. And snapshots as backups. And I don't bother with cloud storage. This means that errors can't creep back upstream to the main Calibre libraries. And I never open libraries in Calibre from anything but a local unshared HD.

Once I also used to run a Calibre content server, but I rarely used it. I am considering starting to use this again, it has been updated and seems very powerful now, with reading directly from a browser... It might streamline things a lot. I have to build a new NAS first so I can run the content server on that.

Some books (must read now!) I handle manually and read before I store them in calibre at all. Magazines and some new purchases. I upload a copy of the new books to an "Incoming" folder on the NAS as soon as possible for future addition to the calibre libraries.

If I used cloud storage I would put the latest snapshot on the NAS in the cloud.

I use Linux, but I think all of this is possible to do in Windows as well.

02-11-2018, 09:44 AM	#2
Adoby Handy Elephant Posts: 1,737 Karma: 26785684 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Southern Sweden, far out in the quiet woods Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	I start Calibre on my desktop from a shell script instead of from the binary. This makes it possible to run/fork some commands before and after Calibre is run. I use this to update snapshots of my Calibre libraries on my NAS, using rsync, every time Calibre is started. This is very fast since I only delete (before calibre) old snapshots and only changes to the library has to be written (after calibre) to the new snapshot. And rsync is smart enough to use links to existing copies of files instead of copying over new copies. So each snapshot looks and smells like a full copy of the calibre libraries but takes up very little space. Instead of a NAS a separate folder or external HD could be used. Perhaps networked. In my Calibre libraries I tag the books I want to have on my reading devices. Then, when I want to add (new) books to my devices, I just connect to a folder on my NAS and write the books to that folder from Calibre, just as if the folder was a device. Again this is fast because only changes have to be written. On my Android devices I manually run the sync app FolderSync to update the books on the device from the folder on the NAS. This could be automated, but I never bothered. I use the functionality of the Android reading app to browse. So the flow is strictly one way. From desktop Calibre to NAS to device. I don't bother with syncing reading positions. And snapshots as backups. And I don't bother with cloud storage. This means that errors can't creep back upstream to the main Calibre libraries. And I never open libraries in Calibre from anything but a local unshared HD. Once I also used to run a Calibre content server, but I rarely used it. I am considering starting to use this again, it has been updated and seems very powerful now, with reading directly from a browser... It might streamline things a lot. I have to build a new NAS first so I can run the content server on that. Some books (must read now!) I handle manually and read before I store them in calibre at all. Magazines and some new purchases. I upload a copy of the new books to an "Incoming" folder on the NAS as soon as possible for future addition to the calibre libraries. If I used cloud storage I would put the latest snapshot on the NAS in the cloud. I use Linux, but I think all of this is possible to do in Windows as well. Last edited by Adoby; 02-11-2018 at 09:55 AM.