File Creation and Metadata

[Silktrader]

Hello.

Is there a plugin, or a well hidden option, that allows Calibre to store ePubs file creation dates in the metadata — or a way to preserve the original file's creation date in the "save to disc" copy.

I read an old thread which seems to indicate this is the default behaviour, but that's not the case with my installation (x64, Windows).

I have a large collection of books whose metadata I wish to edit, but a) Calibre saves its own copy in the file system (new creation date) and requires one to successively "save to disc" and b) the metadata "date" field seems to record the date at which the book was added to the library.

The result is that I inevitably end up with a myriad books which appear to be added on the same day.

[kovidgoyal]

You can change the value in the date field to be whatever you like. Use the extensive command line interface (calibredb) to script the adding of the books with the appropriate date.

[Silktrader]

Thanks for the prompt answer and the handy software.

I will try to cook up a batch file to sequentially pass the files creation date to "calibreddb add". Unfortunately the "date" field can't be set during the "add" process, so it looks like I may have to resort to a successive "calibre set_metadata" and derive the books id from the previous operation's output.

Then I will have to rely on "calibredb export" to create new files. I would need to write down their "date" field in the file name so that I could use a second script to alter the file system's creation date from their name.

Let me know whether you can think of a more convenient, lazier, alternative!
Cheers and thanks again.

[kovidgoyal]

If you are only using calibre to write metadata, you can just use the ebook-meta command line tool to do the same thing.