Add epub from recipe to content server

[ljfriese]

Hey, apologies if this is the wrong area.

I have calibre running headless on an ubunto pi.

I'm trying to collect a reading daily using a recipe and add the epub to the database, overwriting yesterday's version so that I can open my reader in the morning and just have it be there automagically.

I'm running the following using crontab

0 9 */1 * * ebook-convert calibre-recipes/daily-reading.recipe calibre-library/daily-reading.epub

This recipe is successful. That is, it runs and exits with this output:

EPUB output written to /home/lucas/calibre-library/daily-reading.epub
Output saved to /home/lucas/calibre-library/daily-reading.epub

Next, I want to add this epub (5 minutes later by the crontab schedule)

5 9 */1 * * calibredb add calibre-library/daily-reading.epub --with-library 192.168.86.29 --username XYZ--password ABC --automerge overwrite

Runs successfully, exits with:

Merged book ids: 1

Perfect, I assume. Except that nothing happened. The book isn't in my library. In the calibre-library directory I can still see

> ls calibre-library

....
'Cronbach, Lee J_'
CSA
'C. S. Lewis'
daily-reading.epub
'Daniel Kahneman'
'David Deutsch'
....

and using "calibredb --with-library calibre-library list --fields title" to check the db shows no new entries.

So the first part worked, and the calibredb add is doing something but I don't know what... Anyone with a clue to what I'm missing? I feel like I must of misread the documentation somewhere.

[ljfriese]

calibredb check_library --with-library calibre-library

Shows that the daily-reading.epub file doesn't have a valid author. This makes sense because the receipe doesn't collect the author, just title.

calibredb --with-library calibre-library search daily

Yields nothing. "Daily" should be in the book title.

However, running calibre db add without --automerge overwrite indicates that it IS there:

calibredb add calibre-library/daily-reading.epub --with-library 192.168.86.29:8080 --username XYZ --password ABC

The following books were not added as they already exist in the database (see --duplicates option or --automerge option):
Daily Readings [Thu, 28 Oct 2021]
/home/lucas/calibre-library/daily-reading.epub

So the db seems to have a phantom version, or something, and it's not surfacing in the server.

[kovidgoyal]

Dont put the downloaded file in your library folder. Put it somewhere else then add it.

[ljfriese]

Fair, I should have tried that, but it gave the same result.

I created a new folder for the recipe download and running the calibredb add resulted in a success ("Added book ids: 3"), but the book is still not in my library.

And I have no idea why the add is resulting in 3 book ids, because there is only one book...

[kovidgoyal]

3 is the id of the added book. and you have probably added it to a different library than the one you think you have added it to.

[ljfriese]

Scratch that last one. Looking at my directories properly made me realize I had done a bunch of dense things while trying to work this out. Cleaned it up, and using your suggestion I'm now getting the file I want in the library.

Thank you.

The book only surfaced in my server after restarting the server - Is there any way to get around that? It's not a problem, but I want to make sure I'm doing things right.

[ljfriese]

You are correct. I followed up with a response that is still waiting on the moderator. That response also has a follow-up question asking about how to not have to restart the server. The answer is to do the --with-library argument correctly.

For posterity and future googlers:

calibredb add daily-reading/daily-reading.epub --with-library http://50.92.227.145:8080/#calibre-library --username XYZ--password ABC --automerge overwrite

Thanks for your help. This really is an awesome piece of software.