Is there a way to know which formats are original? (not conversions made by Calibre)

[nrcastillop]

Hello! I want to know if there's a way for me to know which formats are the original format (the ones I imported to my Calibre library) and which ones are conversions made by Calibre. If there is not an automatic way, I'd like to know how I can add a note to comment about this somewhere that doesn't change the original files. Since I have retail versions of my books, I'd like to not tamper with them in any way, but since I always either convert from epub to azw3 or vice-versa, I don't know which one of the two is the original. That is not really working for me because for archiving/backup purposes I'd like to know which one of them is the original file. Thanks!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by nrcastillop

Hello! I want to know if there's a way for me to know which formats are the original format (the ones I imported to my Calibre library) and which ones are conversions made by Calibre. If there is not an automatic way, I'd like to know how I can add a note to comment about this somewhere that doesn't change the original files. Since I have retail versions of my books, I'd like to not tamper with them in any way, but since I always either convert from epub to azw3 or vice-versa, I don't know which one of the two is the original. That is not really working for me because for archiving/backup purposes I'd like to know which one of them is the original file. Thanks!

To 'automate' for new books you can use the GetFileName optional plugin to record the file extension used when a book is created in a custom column.

On Windows, for existing books you should be able to work it out by sorting the book folders content into Created Date order - the earlier date should be the format you added. Linux and OSX file systems don't retain a Created Date property.

BR

[nrcastillop]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

To 'automate' for new books you can use the GetFileName optional plugin to record the file extension used when a book is created in a custom column.

On Windows, for existing books you should be able to work it out by sorting the book folders content into Created Date order - the earlier date should be the format you added. Linux and OSX file systems don't retain a Created Date property.

BR

For the first option sadly it only stores the first filename, and I sometimes have more than one original filetype. And for the second point I have the same problem, I think I'll try to create a custom column, my question is if by doing that I might change the original files in any way, do you know about that? Thanks for your time!

[BetterRed]

Changing metadata, including adding custom columns, does NOT change any in-library format files.

If you want to inject the current metadata into the in-library format files, you must use the Polish book or Embed Metadata tools, or the Modify optional plugin.

If you Save a Book to Disk or Send it to a Device, the format file(s) saved/sent will contain the current metadata, but the in-library copies won't change.

Can I suggest you a) familiarise yourself with the User Manual, particularly the 'The main calibre user interface' and the 'Frequently Asked Questions' sections, and spend some time watching the Video Tutorials. I normally loathe video tutorials, but the ones Kovid has made for calibre are excellent - watch a segment, then do it on a test library - repeat if necessary.

BR

[haertig]

Can't you just right-click on the book, choose "Open containing folder", and look at the timestamps of the files? Oldest timestamp should equal the original.

[JSWolf]

You have a Kindle. Why would you be converting to ePub?

Anyway as to knowing which is the original and which isn't, it can be very easy. You just have to look at the source in the editor and see if the source code is full of Calibre styles. The one that's not is the source. But, some companies do use Calibre, so it's not fool proof. But in most cases it will work.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Linux and OSX file systems don't retain a Created Date property.

Of course they do. They store ctime, mtime and atime (creation time, last modification time, last access time). The creation time is the time when the file was created on your system, unless you specified to use the creation time from the original computer you imported the file from. But for purposes of finding out which is "the original" Calibre copy - the one you imported - your systems ctime is perfectly good for that. So is mtime in most cases, as that is generally the most useful timestamp for typical day to day stuff, thus what you get by default from the "ls -l" command.

[JSWolf]

What I do is I have a library for my source eBooks and I have another library for the eBooks I'm going to format shift or edit or put on my Reader. This way, I have the originals safe.

[sjfan]

Originally Posted by haertig

Of course they do. They store ctime, mtime and atime (creation time, last modification time, last access time). The creation time is the time when the file was created on your system, unless you specified to use the creation time from the original computer you imported the file from.

ctime is not file creation time—that’s a common mistake made by new Unix users.

ctime is the inode change time. Any change to the inode info will update the ctime, even if the file remains unchanged. For instance, a chown or chmod on a file updates the ctime.

$ echo "Test" > test.txt
$ ls -clt test.txt    # File was created at 16:20
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user group 5 Jan 15 16:20 test.txt
$ chmod g-w test.txt    # Change permissions at 16:21
$ ls -clt test.txt     # File was still created at 16:20, but ctime tracks the inode change not the creation time
-rw-r--r-- 1 user group 5 Jan 15 16:21 test.txt
$ cat test.txt      # File is unchanged; still the same one created at 16:20
Test

[haertig]

That is correct. However, I didn't want to bring up the concept of inodes or the difference between, say, "cp" and "cp --preserve=all" on the first go-round of this discussion. Especially since when you import a file using Calibre's GUI, you're going to get whatever default inode-modifying behavior that Calibre provides. And if you are experienced enough to know the difference, as you obviously do, then the original question in this post would not have needed to be asked. For all we know, the O.P. is using Windows, not *nix, and file permissions, ownerships, etc. are completely different there.

For the typical GUI-using *nix or Windows user, the timestamp generated by importing a file into Calibre is effectively the creation time, however, technically it is not. I agree with you there. Maybe this was my error in skipping over some of the details in a misguided attempt to make things simpler to understand.

"Follow not the null pointer, for madness awaits thee at it's end!"