Multiple Shared Libraries

[Ackis]

Good day everyone, my current Calibre set up is running on a headless Ubuntu machine and my devices connect to the opds over the lan to get books. When I need to add a book to the library, I shut down the server, load up the client on my Windows machine, and then add the book there (which has issues due to the network aspect).

Now I have essentially three libraries of books: eBooks, Comics, Magazines.

I'm currently using Mylar and ComicRack for comics, and I'm not using anything for magazines.

I'm wondering if it's possible in my setup to share multiple libraries on the network, and if so, is it a good idea to have them separated like that?

I probably wouldn't add comics due to the way Calibre deals with folder structures (it'd break Mylar) but magazines would be nice.

Any tips/pointers/tricks would be appreciated.

PS: I'd also love an easier way to add books/update metadata, Calibre's single user DB is a frustrating constraint.

[eschwartz]

It is not a god idea to use a Windows calibre library on a linux OS. Windows is case-insensitive, as is the db. Linux is case-sensitive and will not be able to find your books. You should be able to reemotely access calibre on the server, though: http://courses.cms.caltech.edu/cs11/misc/xwindows.html

You can run as many instances of

calibre-server --port #### --with-library /path/to/library

as you want. Just make sure they broadcast on different ports.

You could also merge the libraries and separate them via virtual libraries, which can be searched in the server.

[Ackis]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

It is not a god idea to use a Windows calibre library on a linux OS. Windows is case-insensitive, as is the db. Linux is case-sensitive and will not be able to find your books.

Already have dealt with that issue. It gets a lot more fun when you have *nix structure shared via Samba.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You should be able to reemotely access calibre on the server, though: http://courses.cms.caltech.edu/cs11/misc/xwindows.html

Not going to install X on a headless server. I have no need for it.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You can run as many instances of

calibre-server --port #### --with-library /path/to/library

as you want. Just make sure they broadcast on different ports.

You could also merge the libraries and separate them via virtual libraries, which can be searched in the server.

Thanks, I'll take a look into this, I think I had tried virtual libraries but ran into some hangups, time to look into them again.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Ackis

Already have dealt with that issue. It gets a lot more fun when you have *nix structure shared via Samba.

Not going to install X on a headless server. I have no need for it.

Fair enough. You fixed i another way.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Ackis

PS: I'd also love an easier way to add books/update metadata, Calibre's single user DB is a frustrating constraint.

I use dropbox to sync the library from its home to my server-in-the-sky. On my server, I use monit to detect timestamp changes to the local calibre db. Monit restarts calibre. The restart script copies the db to /tmp to avoid simultaneous access problems and sets calibre's environment variable CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH to tell calibre to use the db in /tmp.

[Ackis]

Originally Posted by chaley

I use dropbox to sync the library from its home to my server-in-the-sky. On my server, I use monit to detect timestamp changes to the local calibre db. Monit restarts calibre. The restart script copies the db to /tmp to avoid simultaneous access problems and sets calibre's environment variable CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH to tell calibre to use the db in /tmp.

Could you share your script with me please?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Ackis

Could you share your script with me please?

This script is run by monit under the following conditions:

check process calibre-server with pidfile /var/run/calibre-server.pid
  start program = "/root/mon/calibre-server.sh start"
  stop program  = "/root/mon/calibre-server.sh stop"
  alert [elided-email-address] only on { timeout, nonexist }

check file metadata.db with path /home/dropbox/Dropbox/[elided]/metadata.db
  if changed timestamp
     then exec "/root/mon/calibre-server.sh restart"

The calibre-server script is attached. Although it looks like an init.d script and can actually run as one, instead I run it only through monit. I added the .txt extension so that I could attach the file.