calibredb list

[iomari]

when I run the cli command:

calibredb list --help

Part of the output is:

-f FIELDS, --fields=FIELDS
The fields to display when listing books in the
database. Should be a comma separated list of fields.
Available fields: *date_entered,*formats,*myformats,*s
ep_tots,*supercat,*timestamp,*totsize,author_sort, auth
ors,comments,cover,formats,identifiers,isbn,last_m odif
ied,pubdate,publisher,rating,series,series_index,s ize,
tags,timestamp,title,uuid
Default: title,authors. The special field "all" can be
used to select all fields. Only has effect in the text
output format.

However, when I run the command:

calibredb list --separator="," --fields=supercat

It returns with the help screen and the last line is:

Invalid fields. Available fields: *date_entered,*formats,*myformats,*sep_tots,*super cat,*timestamp,*totsize,author_sort,authors,commen ts,cover,formats,identifiers,isbn,last_modified,pu bdate,publisher,rating,series,series_index,size,ta gs,timestamp,title,uuid

However this clearly shows that "supercat" is a field.

Problem 2:

when I run:

calibredb list --separator="," --fields=formats

I get this list: (just a snippet)

1344,[/home/iomari/calibre_library/iomari/Tony Gaddis/Starting Out With Python (1344)/Starting Out With Python - Tony Gaddis.pdf] ,
1345,[/home/iomari/calibre_library/iomari/Steven Bird/Natural Language Processing With Python (1345)/Natural Language Processing With Python - Steven ,
,Bird.pdf]

This is not what I expected from "formats:.
I expected to see just the formats like "EPUB, PDF..."

The reason I'm going through this exercise is because I need to get a list of the formats used in my database. Like you get under "Formats" int the GUI. So this is my first step so I can import this output to my script. Unless someone knows a simpler way to get a list of all the formats used as a list.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by iomari

It returns with the help screen and the last line is:

Invalid fields. Available fields: *date_entered,*formats,*myformats,*sep_tots,*super cat,*timestamp,*totsize,author_sort,authors,commen ts,cover,formats,identifiers,isbn,last_modified,pu bdate,publisher,rating,series,series_index,size,ta gs,timestamp,title,uuid

However this clearly shows that "supercat" is a field.

No, it shows that "*supercat" is the custom field reference, not "supercat". It works for me on my custom fields (text format field).

Problem 2:
This is not what I expected from "formats:.
I expected to see just the formats like "EPUB, PDF..."

That does seem odd I get the same thing. It's possible to run an SQL query through the command line tools. That could pull the format list.

[DoctorOhh]

I'm ignorant and have never done this, but don't you have to use #supercat vice supercat?

[iomari]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I'm ignorant and have never done this, but don't you have to use #supercat vice supercat?

I tried that first. doesn't work either.

-> calibredb list --separator="," --fields=#supercat
zsh: no matches found: --fields=#supercat

Starson17 can you give me the correct syntax? Also, thanks for the hint to use the database directly. i'll try that.

[iomari]

The following gives me a list of all formats in my database without repeats:

sqlite3 path_to_/metadata.db "select * from data;" | cut -d "|" -f 3 | sort | uniq

Now I can feed that list into the script I'm writing to export my books to folders based on formats. I'll post it when I finish it.
Of course this is my solution for linux. :-)

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by iomari

I tried that first. doesn't work either.

@dwanthny: I thought that was the correct syntax, too. It didn't work, but this did:

calibredb list --separator="," --fields=*supercat

Starson17 can you give me the correct syntax?

See above.

Also, thanks for the hint to use the database directly. i'll try that.

I'm glad it worked for you. Don't try to change anything in the database, but you can read things (it works in Windows, also, and you will find some early posts from me on duplicate finding on doing this).

It's also possible to execute Python code directly. When I wrote the Merge code and the Automerge code, I had to cycle through the formats in the formats field, so there are tools to do it with Calibre that can be used without directly accessing the database, if you need that.

[iomari]

Starson17 I just finished this quick and dirty script and it works. However I'll look at the routines you wrote and see it I can use them instead.

Ok, here is my first draft. It works exactly the way I want. Unfortunately I'm just starting with python so I wrote it in Perl first then i'll port it later tonight. If anyone can improve on this please do so: (of course you'll change the variables as needed"
Let me also say that running this takes a very long time as it scans through the database for each format. I presently have 1300 books.

#!/usr/bin/perl
my $dfolder = "/temp2/iomari/all" ;
my $lfolder = "/home/iomari/calibre_library/iomari/" ;
my $database = "metadata.db" ;
my @format = `sqlite3 $lfolder$database \"select \* from data\;\" | cut -d \"|\" -f 3 | sort | uniq` ;
my $dest = "/temp2/all/iomari" ;
my $buff ;

print "\ndeleting previous backed up books................." ;
`rm -rf $dest."/*"` ;
print "\n" ;
for $buff (@format)
{
chomp($buff) ;
print "exporting $buff files..............\n" ;
print "calibredb export --formats=$buff --template=\"$buff/{#supercat}/{tags}/{authors}/{title} - {authors}\" --to-dir=$dest --to-lowercase --all\n" ;
system "calibredb export --formats=$buff --template=\"$buff/{#supercat}/{tags}/{authors}/{title} - {authors}\" --to-dir=$dest --to-lowercase --all" ;
}
print "\nfinished\n" ;
exit ;

[iomari]

Starson17 how do I access your routines? Can't seem to find them under the function list

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by iomari

Starson17 how do I access your routines? Can't seem to find them under the function list

See the -c and -e options for calibre-debug: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cli/calibre-debug.html

Then you review the code to find the routines you need. Try searching here for posts by Kovid about "calibre-debug -c" or -e to see some examples. Of course, you have to be more careful doing things that way than using calibredb, so make sure you need to run custom code or access low level code before going down that road.

[iomari]

Thanks.