.txt files - can they safely be made read-only?

ownedbycats · 10-30-2021, 01:08 AM

Question: If I have a .txt file as a book format, would anything in Calibre break if I set the file to read-only to prevent unintentional edits?

kovidgoyal · 10-30-2021, 02:00 AM

No idea, calibre assumes it has ownership of th efiles in its library. ANything that goes against that is not guaranteed to work.

ownedbycats · 10-30-2021, 02:13 AM

I did a bit of testing. Most of the Calibre functions that I could see causing issues (embedding metadata or covers) aren't even applicable for text. Changing the author or title did remove the read-only flag.

BetterRed · 10-30-2021, 07:52 AM

I'd use an extension that's not an ebook type (e.g. .booknote) and tell the OS to use whatever (e.g. notepad.exe) to open those files.

BR

ownedbycats · 10-31-2021, 12:00 AM

Yes, but then it'd still be unintentionally editable - though I wonder if there's a read-only text viewer. Though searching it mostly gets me results on removing the read-only flag on Word documents. Oh Google, how the mighty have fallen.

BetterRed · 10-31-2021, 03:17 AM

Try googling for "Universal Viewer for Windows", it's clunky Win95 vintage code but good enough, portable too.

BR

10-30-2021, 01:08 AM	#1
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,973 Karma: 75337983 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	.txt files - can they safely be made read-only? Question: If I have a .txt file as a book format, would anything in Calibre break if I set the file to read-only to prevent unintentional edits? Last edited by ownedbycats; 10-30-2021 at 06:14 AM.

10-30-2021, 02:13 AM	#3
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,973 Karma: 75337983 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	I did a bit of testing. Most of the Calibre functions that I could see causing issues (embedding metadata or covers) aren't even applicable for text. Changing the author or title did remove the read-only flag. Last edited by ownedbycats; 10-30-2021 at 02:17 AM.

10-31-2021, 12:00 AM	#5
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,973 Karma: 75337983 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	Yes, but then it'd still be unintentionally editable - though I wonder if there's a read-only text viewer. Though searching it mostly gets me results on removing the read-only flag on Word documents. Oh Google, how the mighty have fallen. Last edited by ownedbycats; 10-31-2021 at 12:03 AM.

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10-30-2021, 02:00 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,347 Karma: 27182818 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	No idea, calibre assumes it has ownership of th efiles in its library. ANything that goes against that is not guaranteed to work.

10-30-2021, 07:52 AM	#4
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 21,725 Karma: 29711016 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	I'd use an extension that's not an ebook type (e.g. .booknote) and tell the OS to use whatever (e.g. notepad.exe) to open those files. BR

10-31-2021, 03:17 AM	#6
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 21,725 Karma: 29711016 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	Try googling for "Universal Viewer for Windows", it's clunky Win95 vintage code but good enough, portable too. BR

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