Books + db on one pc , update from another?

[hairybiker]

I want to run calibre with wifi acess on a pc that runs 24/7 but be able to upload new books/edit etc on my main pc.
Is there anyway of doing this.

Both PC's are running linux.

[Adoby]

You can run another computer remotely using for instance VNC.

Or you can have a backup of your calibre library on a network share. You backup the calibre library on your main computer to that share, using rsync. Very fast since only changes need to be copied. And you run calibre on the 24/7 computer on a copy of that backup. The copy is updated from the backup also using rsync. The backups and updates can be automatically performed by the scripts that are used to start calibre. Then all you need to do is update the books on your main computer and exit calibre, to take a backup. And reboot or restart calibre on the 24/7 computer, to use the latest backup, possibly using a cron job.

[theducks]

With the VNC compatible software (which is probably just waiting for you to configure and run ) standard in many Linux Distros, VNC is an easy solution.

You can connect across platforms. I even have a VNC client on my TAB that I can control (sort of, if I ever learn 'Androids' quirks) XP

[hairybiker]

I use VNC on the other pc, but it is a SLOW PC. converting etc will take forever.

I have rsync'ed the whole folder over at the moment, as a backup.

So you recon that there is no way of doing it "live" I have to close calibre on the 24hr pc, sync it, restart calibre?
If that is what I have to do that is what I will do.

[Adoby]

You can't have the same calibre library open on two computers at the same time. Sorry.

My "trick" with three copies of the library means that you don't have to shut down calibre on the 24/7 computer before you take a backup. But I also assume that you don't use the 24/7 computer to update anything.

I usually only save new books, after updating metadata, to a wifi share. And sync my device to that share. In principle the same scheme with three copies. Around 2500 books at the moment. I have ALL my (good) books on my main device. And use my reading app (Mantano) to browse among them. I have room for at least 4-5 thousand books more. Epubs don't take up much space. But long before then I expect that I wil have upgraded to some new device with more memory, or storage online.

[hairybiker]

One more Q. Can I run calibre-server on the 24/7 pc and rysnc the ebooks & db to it, or do I have to stop/start it as well.

[Adoby]

You have to stop calibre before you rsync the library. In the script that start calibre you can include the commands needed to rsync. And it is even possible to do it all automatically, perhaps early in the morning or, with some more effort, every hour, but only if there has been any changes.

[hairybiker]

Ok I was just wondering what the --auto-reload was in calibre-server.
I can do it in a script, kill the server, rsync it and then restart the server.
I don't mod that much that it needs done daily, so will do it manually.

[Dopedangel]

Set the calibre that you want to use as your server to auto import from a particular folder. Then use the calibre on your main computer to fix your ebooks and use save to disk to the folder the other calibre is importing from. This way you wont need to restart the server but you can only keep fixed book on that computer. IRC calibre can only import metadata of normal columns so if you have any custom columns that data wont be imported into calibre.
The one problem I see is that you can only send and keep fixed books on your server calibre otherwise it would become a mess

[hairybiker]

I tried that but the calibre-server doesn't seem to add from an import folder only the full calibre app. For what I need it for the server part is fine so I will use the rsync & stop/start script.

Edit: I am trialling a reader on my android tablet, so far I don't like it as much as my old Sony so not sure if I will keep it. But the easiest way of getting books on it was via the web server. Hence this thread.

I currently have :-
#!/bin/bash
if [ -f ~/Books/incoming/*.* ]
then
echo "Found books!"
killall calibre-server
sleep 2
calibredb add -r ~/Books/incoming/ > ~/updatedb.txt
sleep 1
rm -rf ~/Books/incoming/
mkdir ~/Books/incoming/
nohup calibre-server&
else
echo "no books found"
fi

to add to a cron job every 2 hours.