Title cut-off

[sciurius]

I noticed in the library of a friend of mine that her titles are cut off to 40 characters. E.g.,

H. de Roos/Kameleon 31 - Met de Kameleon op avontuu (5120)/Kameleon 31 - Met de Kameleon op avontuu - H. de Roos.epub

This does not happen with my calibre:

H. de Roos/Kameleon 31 - Met de Kameleon op avontuur (22)/Kameleon 31 - Met de Kameleon op avontuur - H. de Roos.epub

We both use 0.8.3 (she on Windows, me on Linux).

Any idea why we get different file names? I've checked the settings but I cannot find anything related to this.

[itimpi]

The file/folder names in Calibre are designed for Calibre usage - not human usage so the names should not really matter. Calibre applies various algorithm's to the internal names its uses to try and ensure that the names do not break any file system limits or restrictions which is probably why you are seeing this behavior. If you simply manipulate the files via the calibre GUI (which is what Calibre is designed to assume) then you never see this level so then you do not even notice what names have been used internally by Calibre within its library database.

[sciurius]

Thanks for the excellent explanation.

The file/folder names in Calibre are designed for Calibre usage - not human usage so the names should not really matter.

Good point. In this case, I'd expect them to be something similar to b4b078fb64008a0fe1f020acb5311e9ecd5e50af.

By having them almost look like human understandible this is confusing.

Also, sometimes people exchange files from their libraries. Having truncated titles makes it hard to perform filename searches.

Calibre applies various algorithm's to the internal names its uses to try and ensure that the names do not break any file system limits or restrictions which is probably why you are seeing this behavior.

You mean that Windows gets a different treatment than Linux?

And: Is is possible to tweak calibre to use full-title filenames?

[chaley]

Windows restricts the total path length to 255 (or something around that). Calibre shortens components to make them respect that restriction.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by sciurius

Good point. In this case, I'd expect them to be something similar to b4b078fb64008a0fe1f020acb5311e9ecd5e50af.

They could be and there has been talk of changing to a naming scheme that would mean users are less tempted to meddle inside calibre's library. The only part that really matters to Calibre is the number in brackets as that is the database record ID. However having relatively readable names makes debugging much easier for developers.

lso, sometimes people exchange files from their libraries. Having truncated titles makes it hard to perform filename searches.

If you use the Calibre "Save to Disk" to get a book out of Calibre then you can supply the mask (set under Preferences) you want for constructing the exported name so that you get completely readable file/folder names. Also Calibre has far better search facilities for books in its library than you get from using a file system search.

You mean that Windows gets a different treatment than Linux?

Not as far as I know as libraries are completely interchangeable between Calibre on different OS. However it may be something like you have different ID's (the numeric part) for a given book in your library so that the algorithm gives different results on the two machines.

And: Is is possible to tweak calibre to use full-title filenames?

Not wihtout MAJOR change to the Calibre source code. The sticky at the top of this forum area on folder structure covers this.

Note however my comment about being able to use the full filename if you export a book from Calibre using the Save to Disk feature which is probably all you really need.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Not as far as I know as libraries are completely interchangeable between Calibre on different OS. However it may be something like you have different ID's (the numeric part) for a given book in your library so that the algorithm gives different results on the two machines.

Unfortunately not completely true. Calibre sets the component length limit using:
PATH_LIMIT = 40 if 'win32' in sys.platform else 100

Thus books with very long title/author strings added under linux/mac might not be usable on windows. The inverse is not true, because a windows path will always fit within the linux/mac limit.

[sterned]

Originally Posted by chaley

Windows restricts the total path length to 255 (or something around that). Calibre shortens components to make them respect that restriction.

A long long time ago it did in windows but not anymore but Calibre still enforces this standard.
Work around is save it to a short name root folder then move it where you want to store it path can be more than 255 long now no issues.