Refreshing the calibre catalog when new books appear in the library folder

Dan__ · 04-08-2018, 10:45 PM

Hi,

I've installed calibre and calibre-web on debian. I normally add books using calibre on one of my Macs or PCs. The Calibre Library is in Dropbox, so when I add a book it is synced to the debian machine. But, the new book doesn't get added to the catalog unless I open calibre on the linux machine.

Calibre-web doesn't require that calibre-server be running and, in any case I'm never sure when calibre-server decides to refresh the catalog.

It would be very useful if the calibredb command had a refresh option to update the catalog from the library. Then I could cron that and have it run every hour or so.

I hope you agree that this would be useful.

Thank you,
Dan Essin

kovidgoyal · 04-08-2018, 10:49 PM

Syncing a library via dropbox while it is also being served by a calibre web server is a recipe for data loss. If you want to add books to a remote calibre server instance use calibredb which can connect directly to calibre-server. You can also add books via the web UI of the calibre server directly, and at some point in the future the calibre GUI will be able to connect to a server in some fashion or the other.

Although since you are using debian packages, I have no idea if any of that will work given that they are typically broken and aeons behind mainline calibre releases.

Dan__ · 04-09-2018, 12:38 AM

Thanks for the warning. I understand that even though what I’m doing with dropbox may not have caused a problem- yet - that doesn’t make it a good idea.

As far as the calibre install, I did it using the instructions you posted, I did not get it from a devian repo. What I installed seems to work perfectly.

Thank you

04-08-2018, 10:45 PM	#1
Dan__ Zealot Posts: 110 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Nook - Simple Touch	Refreshing the calibre catalog when new books appear in the library folder Hi, I've installed calibre and calibre-web on debian. I normally add books using calibre on one of my Macs or PCs. The Calibre Library is in Dropbox, so when I add a book it is synced to the debian machine. But, the new book doesn't get added to the catalog unless I open calibre on the linux machine. Calibre-web doesn't require that calibre-server be running and, in any case I'm never sure when calibre-server decides to refresh the catalog. It would be very useful if the calibredb command had a refresh option to update the catalog from the library. Then I could cron that and have it run every hour or so. I hope you agree that this would be useful. Thank you, Dan Essin

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04-08-2018, 10:49 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,609 Karma: 28549044 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Syncing a library via dropbox while it is also being served by a calibre web server is a recipe for data loss. If you want to add books to a remote calibre server instance use calibredb which can connect directly to calibre-server. You can also add books via the web UI of the calibre server directly, and at some point in the future the calibre GUI will be able to connect to a server in some fashion or the other. Although since you are using debian packages, I have no idea if any of that will work given that they are typically broken and aeons behind mainline calibre releases.

04-09-2018, 12:38 AM	#3
Dan__ Zealot Posts: 110 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Nook - Simple Touch	Thanks for the warning. I understand that even though what I’m doing with dropbox may not have caused a problem- yet - that doesn’t make it a good idea. As far as the calibre install, I did it using the instructions you posted, I did not get it from a devian repo. What I installed seems to work perfectly. Thank you

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