Calibre Portable update...

judeandrob · 09-13-2012, 01:03 PM

Hi
We hope this is in the correct area...
We are new to these forums, but have happily been using Calibre on a desktop pc for ages feeding a pair of Kindles.
Our library is quite big (>30,000 books) and it was a pest to transfer to and synchronise with our slow laptop when we holidayed, so we opted to use the portable version on a big (64GB) flash drive instead.
It worked fine until update time. We tried the instructions on the 'portable' update website but met with problems about the local path being too long (>59 chars), so we tried the following method which worked better.
Download the new portable update zipfile, extract and copy across to your flash drive only the Calibre folder and the calibre-portable.exe file, overwriting existing flash drive files as necessary. No need for the Calibre Library and Calibre Settings folders as you retain your existing folders.
Run Calibre from the flash drive as normal and the updated version will start and your existing library and settings will still be there.
Jude and Rob

Deljah · 09-13-2012, 07:51 PM

That is what I do as well. I had no problems with length of local path, but it was taking almost an hour to copy my library. Replacing the calibre folder and the calibre portable.exe file takes less than a minute. I really think the instructions should be updated.

Dopedangel · 09-13-2012, 09:58 PM

I would recommend deleting the original calibre folder instead of overwriting otherwise you might have some problems. Apart from that that is what I do as well.

kovidgoyal · 09-13-2012, 11:47 PM

The reason it isn't that way in the instructions is precisely for the problem pointed out by Dopedangel. It is very important that you delete the original calibre folder before replacing it. If you forget to do that, it can cause problems. Whereas, if you forget to do that with the calibre libray and/or calibre settings folders it wont cause a problem. Therefore, in the interests of robustness, the instructions are the way they are.

Someday I will get around to wrapping that zip file in a simple EXE that does the replacing for you after you tell it where to put the install.

mbovenka · 09-14-2012, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

The reason it isn't that way in the instructions is precisely for the problem pointed out by Dopedangel. It is very important that you delete the original calibre folder before replacing it. If you forget to do that, it can cause problems.

Just out of curiosity, what might those problems be? If you unzip the new version over the old one, files get either updated and thus overwritten, or created new if they didn't exist in the old version. Al you're left with is files that existed in the old version but aren't in the new version any more; those will not be touched.

But they shouldn't be referenced in the new version either, or they would exist in the new version.

Or am I missing something? I used to just extract the new version over the old (not deleting the old directory first) and never had any problems. I've taken to deleting the old directory first just to get rid of those 'stale' files (if any), but that's it.

kovidgoyal · 09-14-2012, 05:32 AM

calibre is a very complex application with lots of disparate libraries that load dlls in many different ways. Sometimes dlls change location/name in the the calibre install directories, in which case leaving a dll behind could result in the old dll being loaded in preference to the new one. It may well be that you never encounter this problem, but there is no way that I can *guarantee* you will not.

mbovenka · 09-14-2012, 06:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibre is a very complex application with lots of disparate libraries that load dlls in many different ways. Sometimes dlls change location/name in the the calibre install directories, in which case leaving a dll behind could result in the old dll being loaded in preference to the new one. It may well be that you never encounter this problem, but there is no way that I can *guarantee* you will not.

Ah yes...should have thought of that one. I see. I'll keep deleting the old directory then

Thanks.

ilovejedd · 09-14-2012, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Someday I will get around to wrapping that zip file in a simple EXE that does the replacing for you after you tell it where to put the install.

Perhaps you can consider merging the portable version with this:
http://portableapps.com/node/20518

It really works quite well and it handles "portabilization" of multiple libraries.

Right now, it's just an online installer in a permanent beta state since it always downloads the latest version of Calibre portable from the Calibre website. I've been making my own offline installers and it's really very easy. I'll post some offline versions of the installer when I get home.

kovidgoyal · 09-14-2012, 10:58 PM

There's no need to have a full NSIS installer for this, just a few hundred lines of C code and a bundled unzip routine should do the trick, I'll cook up something this week.

ilovejedd · 09-15-2012, 01:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

There's no need to have a full NSIS installer for this, just a few hundred lines of C code and a bundled unzip routine should do the trick, I'll cook up something this week.

I do urge you to consider the PortableApps version since it's a bit more robust. calibre-portable.exe requires a library named Calibre Library. If you rename it, it'll just keep spawning the folder. Also, if you have multiple libraries, it uses fixed paths for the additional libraries. It only "portabilizes" Calibre Library.

If you won't consider that, then perhaps you can consider using LZMA compression if you're going the executable route. Saves quite a bit of bandwidth over normal zip. For example, calibre-portable-0.8.68.zip is 59MB while repackaged to 7zip with LZMA compression, it's just 41MB. That's a 30% decrease in file size.

Edit:
Here's a link to the PortableApps installer version of the Calibre 0.8.68 (haven't gotten around to downloading 0.8.69 yet).
http://utterlyinsane.org/calibre/cal...Test_4.paf.exe

Creating an updated installer is simple. Just edit appinfo.ini to change the version number, replace the Calibre folder with the new version and run PortableApps.com Installer to create the installer and you're done. No extra coding required.

Code:

-\ <--- Directory with calibrePortable.exe
  +\App\
    +\AppInfo\
        appinfo.ini
    +\Calibre\

kovidgoyal · 09-15-2012, 01:53 AM

Yeah my exe will use lzma compression, the only reason I used zip in the first place was because that is the only format widely available on all windows systems. With an exe the compression format availability is irrelevant.

judeandrob · 09-15-2012, 10:46 AM

Thanks for all the advice above.
We have renamed my existing libraries as New... and Old... as we want to rationalise the bloated content.
We had deleted the 'empty' Calibre Library but noticed it respawned as stated above, so we left it as is.
Also as we are operating with Win7 32 bit we have to open calibre with 'admin right's so we made a shortcut on the desktop and amended the advanced settings to 'open as administrator'.
Jude and Rob

kovidgoyal · 09-17-2012, 08:16 AM

Here's the new portable installer: http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/b...ler-0.8.69.exe

Just run the exe and when it asks for a location, point it to your existing calibre portable folder, it will do the upgrade automatically.

Since I was in the area, I also added support for multiple libraries inside the Calibre Portable folder. You can now create new libraries inside the Calibre Portable folder and switch between them with quick switch even if the location of the Calibre Portable folder changes.

I'd appreciate it if some of you could test this a bit before I release it on Friday.

Polyphemus · 09-17-2012, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Here's the new portable installer: http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/b...ler-0.8.69.exe

Just run the exe and when it asks for a location, point it to your existing calibre portable folder, it will do the upgrade automatically.

I'd appreciate it if some of you could test this a bit before I release it on Friday.

The new installer worked great for me.

Thanks Kovid!

CWatkinsNash · 09-17-2012, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I'd appreciate it if some of you could test this a bit before I release it on Friday.

Installed (update existing) correctly and easily.

Now, multiple libraries...

I have a true portable (usb drive) install and a local portable (hard drive) install. I keep them synced. Why? Because for long sessions in calibre, running from the usb drive is too darn slow, so I generally use the local install. If I want to work from the desktop instead of the laptop, I just sync the USB install and plug it in over there. This has the side benefit of always having a recent backup of the entire install.

I had thought that it would now be using paths relative to the location calibre was running from but I see that's not the case because if I copy the installation from one of those locations (U:\) to the other (E:\), all libraries other than the default open from the first location (U:\).

I realize that making these library links truly relative would mess things up for folks using library locations elsewhere (network, for example) but the resulting compromise doesn't seem very... portable.

Edited to add: I do love the exe installer - it's much appreciated.

09-13-2012, 01:03 PM	#1
judeandrob Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: Kindle keyboard	Calibre Portable update... Hi We hope this is in the correct area... We are new to these forums, but have happily been using Calibre on a desktop pc for ages feeding a pair of Kindles. Our library is quite big (>30,000 books) and it was a pest to transfer to and synchronise with our slow laptop when we holidayed, so we opted to use the portable version on a big (64GB) flash drive instead. It worked fine until update time. We tried the instructions on the 'portable' update website but met with problems about the local path being too long (>59 chars), so we tried the following method which worked better. Download the new portable update zipfile, extract and copy across to your flash drive only the Calibre folder and the calibre-portable.exe file, overwriting existing flash drive files as necessary. No need for the Calibre Library and Calibre Settings folders as you retain your existing folders. Run Calibre from the flash drive as normal and the updated version will start and your existing library and settings will still be there. Jude and Rob

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09-13-2012, 07:51 PM	#2
Deljah Connoisseur Posts: 55 Karma: 168200 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: Android tablet	That is what I do as well. I had no problems with length of local path, but it was taking almost an hour to copy my library. Replacing the calibre folder and the calibre portable.exe file takes less than a minute. I really think the instructions should be updated.

09-13-2012, 09:58 PM	#3
Dopedangel Wizard Posts: 1,791 Karma: 30548723 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Singapore Device: Boyue	I would recommend deleting the original calibre folder instead of overwriting otherwise you might have some problems. Apart from that that is what I do as well.

09-13-2012, 11:47 PM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,222 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The reason it isn't that way in the instructions is precisely for the problem pointed out by Dopedangel. It is very important that you delete the original calibre folder before replacing it. If you forget to do that, it can cause problems. Whereas, if you forget to do that with the calibre libray and/or calibre settings folders it wont cause a problem. Therefore, in the interests of robustness, the instructions are the way they are. Someday I will get around to wrapping that zip file in a simple EXE that does the replacing for you after you tell it where to put the install.

09-14-2012, 05:32 AM	#6
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,222 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre is a very complex application with lots of disparate libraries that load dlls in many different ways. Sometimes dlls change location/name in the the calibre install directories, in which case leaving a dll behind could result in the old dll being loaded in preference to the new one. It may well be that you never encounter this problem, but there is no way that I can guarantee you will not.

09-14-2012, 10:58 PM	#9
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,222 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	There's no need to have a full NSIS installer for this, just a few hundred lines of C code and a bundled unzip routine should do the trick, I'll cook up something this week.

09-15-2012, 01:53 AM	#11
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,222 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Yeah my exe will use lzma compression, the only reason I used zip in the first place was because that is the only format widely available on all windows systems. With an exe the compression format availability is irrelevant.

09-15-2012, 10:46 AM	#12
judeandrob Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: Kindle keyboard	Thanks for all the advice above. We have renamed my existing libraries as New... and Old... as we want to rationalise the bloated content. We had deleted the 'empty' Calibre Library but noticed it respawned as stated above, so we left it as is. Also as we are operating with Win7 32 bit we have to open calibre with 'admin right's so we made a shortcut on the desktop and amended the advanced settings to 'open as administrator'. Jude and Rob

09-17-2012, 08:16 AM	#13
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,222 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Here's the new portable installer: http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/b...ler-0.8.69.exe Just run the exe and when it asks for a location, point it to your existing calibre portable folder, it will do the upgrade automatically. Since I was in the area, I also added support for multiple libraries inside the Calibre Portable folder. You can now create new libraries inside the Calibre Portable folder and switch between them with quick switch even if the location of the Calibre Portable folder changes. I'd appreciate it if some of you could test this a bit before I release it on Friday.