Mobiperl Mobiperl - Perl tools for handling MobiPocket files

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Where are those exes anyway? I did download the html2mobi and mobi2mobi (apparently), but can't find an exe for mobi2html...

The are included in the complete package

https://dev.mobileread.com/dist/tompe/mobiperl/

Pickup the latest 9.4 Meg file and you'll find all of them

[Sweetpea]

duh!

I thought those were the perl files...

I'll go sit in a corner now...

[Voracious]

Hello, all.

Just got mobiperl-0.0.41 (seems to be the most current), and am trying to run it on my Debian "Etch" Linux system.

In the absence of documentation, I just tried running "lit2mobi" to see what would happen, and I got an error message about a dependency that I was able to resolve (Palm::PDB) by finding the file here.

Once I had that in place and tried again, however, a different problem arose, which I have not been able to resolve. Specifically, it fails while looking for Palm:Raw() and I haven't been able to find that anywhere.

Would someone please post whatever file it is that would contain that, or otherwise assist in solving this issue?

Thanks!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Where are those exes anyway? I did download the html2mobi and mobi2mobi (apparently), but can't find an exe for mobi2html...

Go to this page:

https://dev.mobileread.com/trac/mobiperl

Then you see in the Download area it says Windows Binaries which gives you anther link...from there d/l the latest ZIP file.

BOb

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Voracious

In the absence of documentation, I just tried running "lit2mobi" to see what would happen, and I got an error message about a dependency that I was able to resolve (Palm::PDB) by finding the file here.

Did you read the directions on the web site on installing on Debian?

https://dev.mobileread.com/trac/mobiperl

You have to use CPAN to install the follow modules:

install Palm::PDB
install XML::Parser::Lite::Tree
install GD
install Image::BMP
install Image::Size
install HTML::TreeBuilder
install Getopt::Mixed
install Date::Parse
install Date::Format
BOb

[Voracious]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Did you read the directions on the web site on installing on Debian?
...
You have to use CPAN to install the follow modules:

Well, that was the problem: I am not familiar with CPAN, so I had followed ONLY the instructions for Debian, and had ignored the rest, since they all appeared to be other systems or other distros.

This time, lit2mobi DID work, and DID convert a .LIT file properly, but only if I either had the .LIT file in the same directory with lit2mobi, or specified a full path.

Obviously, I'm missing something else. Otherwise, shouldn't this be able to be placed into /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin to make it usable from anywhere? The Makefile didn't seem to be of any help, since there was no "install" and all the individual rules appeared to be Windows related (e.g file names ending in .EXE and a reference to Win32) even though the package I downloaded was the tar file, NOT the zipped "win" file.

Thanks again. Progress!

P.S.: Unfortunately, I have never taken the time to lean Perl, since AWK was always my thing and then my career took a different turn, anyway (now I'm a missionary helping other missionaries with their computers, along with everything else I do). So, please forgive my complete unfamiliarity with some of these things.

Thank you for your help, AND your patience.

[Voracious]

Aha! I found the answer. Even though the Makefile had mentioned .EXE files, as I described above, it really was constructing things for Linux.

In addition, the Makefile wanted to use a command that I couldn't find, at first: pp.

After a lot of digging around, I found out what pp was and, after many more gyrations, managed to install PAR::Packer through CPAN.

Once that was there, when I tried "make lm" from the command line, it DID make lit2mobi.exe successfully, and it WAS a Linux binary.

By moving that to /usr/local/bin and renaming it to "lit2mobi" I was able to get it to work the way one would usually expect in a UNIX environment.

Thanks, again, for your help, pilotbob!

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Voracious

Well, that was the problem: I am not familiar with CPAN, so I had followed ONLY the instructions for Debian, and had ignored the rest, since they all appeared to be other systems or other distros.

The instructions for Debian says to search for a Debian module and if that did not exist use CPAN.

This time, lit2mobi DID work, and DID convert a .LIT file properly, but only if I either had the .LIT file in the same directory with lit2mobi, or specified a full path.

Yes, of course it works that way. Like all other Unix programs. How would it find a file if it was not in the current directory or given by using full path?

Obviously, I'm missing something else. Otherwise, shouldn't this be able to be placed into /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin to make it usable from anywhere?

Yes, place them in /usr/local/bin if you want. Just copy the files (including the MobiPerl directory) there and make sure the file permission is correct.

The Makefile didn't seem to be of any help, since there was no "install" and all the individual rules appeared to be Windows related (e.g file names ending in .EXE and a reference to Win32) even though the package I downloaded was the tar file, NOT the zipped "win" file.

The Makefile is mostly for producing Windows binaries and is includes so other people can provide the binaries.

The instructions assumes some familiarity with a Unix based system.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Voracious

Aha! I found the answer. Even though the Makefile had mentioned .EXE files, as I described above, it really was constructing things for Linux.

In addition, the Makefile wanted to use a command that I couldn't find, at first: pp.

After a lot of digging around, I found out what pp was and, after many more gyrations, managed to install PAR::Packer through CPAN.

Once that was there, when I tried "make lm" from the command line, it DID make lit2mobi.exe successfully, and it WAS a Linux binary.

By moving that to /usr/local/bin and renaming it to "lit2mobi" I was able to get it to work the way one would usually expect in a UNIX environment.

I actually think you are the first one that have tested this. I am glad that the Makefile did not contain any Windows specific things so it worked on Linux also.

I think the following would have worked:

    cp -r lit2mobi Palm MobiPerl /usr/local/bin

The scripts like lit2mobi is written so that they include the directory containing the script in the search path for additional perl modules.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by tompe

I think the following would have worked:

    cp -r lit2mobi Palm MobiPerl /usr/local/bin

The scripts like lit2mobi is written so that they include the directory containing the script in the search path for additional perl modules.

Yes, I think that would work as long as the shebang in the perl script was correct. And you set the execute permission on the script accordingly. I basically do the same thing on my Mac.

BOb

[tompe]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Yes, I think that would work as long as the shebang in the perl script was correct.

It is on purpose made _correct_ and if it does not work it is you computer that has a problem:

#!/usr/bin/env perl

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by tompe

It is on purpose made _correct_ and if it does not work it is you computer that has a problem:

#!/usr/bin/env perl

You are right... that should work. On the mac it will only work if the line endings are LF only. I think I had to fix that on some of the scripts folks have provided.

Of course, if you have more than one version of perl on your machine you may need to make this a bit more specific.

BOb

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Sure, but for someone that just wants to run the thing... the packaged EXEs can make it easier to get started.

Can't speak for anyone else, but the exe's are problematic on my system -- they have a tendency to hang indefinitely...and since I have perl installed anyway, it's just as easy to use that version.

[kevindorsey]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Can't speak for anyone else, but the exe's are problematic on my system -- they have a tendency to hang indefinitely...and since I have perl installed anyway, it's just as easy to use that version.

That's true.

[MoboHobo]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Go to this page:

https://dev.mobileread.com/trac/mobiperl

Then you see in the Download area it says Windows Binaries which gives you anther link...from there d/l the latest ZIP file.

BOb

Thanks for the link.