Recreating Container.xhtml

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The problem I have with this is that it's completely unnecessary if you're using and saving with Sigil.

But I did use and save it with Sigil.

It's also completely unrelated to using Sigil.

I've experienced the same problem twice while using Sigil, but it's unrelated to Sigil?

If your container.xml file is disappearing, it's something other than Sigil that's causing the problem.

If you go back and read the thread, someone explained that Mac sometimes eats Sigil files if you leave an ePub open for an extended period of time. That's the best single tip I've received regarding this problem.

You're free to take up your "how to manually fix some mysteriously broken epubs" in the epub format forum if you like, but Sigil doesn't need any more threads about missing container.xml files.

Well, if other people are having the same problem with Sigil, I imagine they're going to post them in this forum. And judging from some of the items I've Googled, it looks like I'm not the only one.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by SigilBear

But I did use and save it with Sigil.

Then it had a META-INF folder and a container.xml file immediately following the Save. Something else is causing the file to disappear after that.

Originally Posted by SigilBear

I've experienced the same problem twice while using Sigil, but it's unrelated to Sigil?

You've yet to provide reproduceable steps that will result in Sigil creating an epub with no container.xml file. You've merely encountered two epubs (saved/edited at some point with Sigil) that have developed this problem somewhere along the way.

Originally Posted by SigilBear

If you go back and read the thread, someone explained that Mac sometimes eats Sigil files if you leave an ePub open for an extended period of time. That's the best single tip I've received regarding this problem.

The issue with Macs deleting the contents of their system temp folders (when Sigil EPUBS are left open for extremely long periods of time) would result in vast portions of your EPUB's text content being destroyed. It's extremely unlikely that the Mac issue would selectively cause just the META-INF/container.xml structure to go missing. It's even more unlikely that the same exact selective deletions would happen twice because of this issue.

Originally Posted by SigilBear

Well, if other people are having the same problem with Sigil, I imagine they're going to post them in this forum. And judging from some of the items I've Googled, it looks like I'm not the only one.

Sorry. There's a handful of people who are unfamiliar with the nuts and bolts of how epubs are constructed (you, for instance, didn't know the container.xml file was one that you couldn't see with Sigil and tried to manually recreate it with Sigil) who have discovered epubs with missing META-INF folders and/or container.xml files. That does not a pattern make. Nor has anything remotely Sigil-centric (except for "I use Sigil") been established concerning these reported cases.

------------------------------------

I've attached a test epub from which I've manually removed the META-INF folder (and subsequently the container.xml file).

DO NOT OPEN IT WITH SIGIL YET!!

1) view the EPUB with your favorite archiving-tool to verify that there is no META-INF folder (but do not change anything). Submit it to the IDPF's online EPUB validator and see the fatal errors due to a missing META-INF/container.xml file.

2) Now open the EPUB with Sigil--and without doing anything else--save the EPUB and close it and Sigil. Do not do anything else to the epub before step 3.

3) Immediately submit the newly saved EPUB to the IDPF's online EPUB validator and report any error messages. View the EPUB with your favorite archiving-tool and verify that the META-INF folder (complete with a container.xml file) have been generated.

[Doitsu]

@SigilBear: Nobody is denying that there might be a data loss problem with the macOS Sigil version and KevinH specifically pointed out that you might want to change your temp folder location:

Originally Posted by KevinH

If you are on a Mac and do things like that, you should create a Sigil specific temp folder (and never play around inside of it!) and use Sigil's preferences to choose it to prevent to OS "housecleaning" from messing around with things. Same is true for most spps that use temp files on a Mac.

Did you actually change your temp folder location via Edit > Preferences > General Settings > Set folder where temporary files should be created before you "lost" container.xml for the second time?

If so, there might be another problem with Sigil (or third-party apps such as eCanCrusher) and you'll need to follow KevinH's other instructions:

Originally Posted by KevinH

So next time you get an epub that Sigil has supposedly created without a container.xml check its modification date and time to see when it was last manipulated.

If you are on a Mac or Linux box, please try running the following command on that epub and paste its output here.

unzip -t PATHTOYOURPROBLEMEPUB

That will show us modification times of the contents and test the zip (epub) for errors.

Please note that without this information the Sigil developers won't be able to help you.

You also mentioned that you use eCanCrusher to manipulate your epub. What exactly do you use eCanCrusher for?

[KevinH]

The only thing I can think of is that the Mac OS only removes files/folders from temp that have not be accessed (read or written) to in 48 hours. Upon import if an epub is opened its META-INF and container.xml will only be read once and then never checked again. Whereas the text files that are edited/read and any resources they reference are always being accessed. If you wait a long time without saving, the meta-inf and container.xml may actually get deleted out from under Sigil, whereas the more recently accessed text and resources would still be alright.

So if Sigil recreates a missing META-INF and container.xml upon first load of the damaged epub, but you do some editing and wait long enough without saving (48hours) you might end up with missing pieces. The key is when no saving is done while leaving the app running longer than 48 hours on a Mac, you may run into problems caused by the OS and not Sigil. Sigil can prevent that issue if you give it a safe temp location to use.

[KevinH]

One extra point ... as a good general rule, I highly recommend you never leave an editing app running for over 48 hours without saving and closing out. Power failures, disk sleeping, temp space cleaning, and other glitches makes that an unsafe mode of operation for any OS.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by KevinH

One extra point ... as a good general rule, I highly recommend you never leave an editing app running for over 48 hours without saving and closing out. Power failures, disk sleeping, temp space cleaning, and other glitches makes that an unsafe mode of operation for any OS.

It honestly baffles me why anyone would employ a workflow that involved leaving EPUBs open for editing while they went to lunch, let alone overnight, or 48 hours.

If you say it's possible, then it's possible. But regardless of how it's happening, the manual steps the OP documented to fix the problem is unnecessary. Just saving the EPUB with Sigil will fix it--provided you don't leave it open for 2 days again. Or if you insist on leaving epubs open for days on end, you change Sigil's temp file location to somewhere you have full control over.

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

Did you actually change your temp folder location via Edit > Preferences > General Settings > Set folder where temporary files should be created before you "lost" container.xml for the second time?

Actually, it's at SIGIL > Preferences > General Settings. I just check it and found the following value:

/var/folders/2c/yq8lzqzx2qxc3ktwxk2jcgfh0000gn/T

I have to go back and reread what KevinH wrote. Is it OK as is, or do I need to actually change it? If so, I should probably make it a more sane path, like Documents/Epubs/temp, right?

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You also mentioned that you use eCanCrusher to manipulate your epub. What exactly do you use eCanCrusher for?

eCan Crusher gives me access to the contents. So if I lose my images and have an older copy of my ePub, I can open it with eCan Crusher, then import the images into the damaged ePub. Except I now use backup image folders. When I create a new image for an ePub, I save it into my backup folder, then import a copy of it into my ePub.

Let me see if I can recreate the path to my ePub and type it into Terminal...

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

It honestly baffles me why anyone would employ a workflow that involved leaving EPUBs open for editing while they went to lunch, let alone overnight, or 48 hours.

I bought my first computer about thirty years ago. I've been using a Mac for over a decade now. I don't shut down and restart my laptop every time I go to lunch or sleep. I don't know how other people do it or what's recommended, but I'm a hard core multi-tasker.

I typically have two or three browsers open, along with Dreamweaver, Photoshop, iTunes, Numbers, Sigil and half a dozen other programs. Why would I want to close everything, then spend five or ten minutes getting re-oriented after lunch?

Things generally work, aside from specific bugs that pop up from time to time - like my problem with Sigil. If I have too many programs open, then I run out of memory, so I have to manage that.

I'm having another problem with Apache, PHP or something like that, but it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the number of programs that are open, nor has anyone been able to solve it. It doesn't appear to be related to my Sigil problems.

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by KevinH

The key is when no saving is done while leaving the app running longer than 48 hours on a Mac, you may run into problems caused by the OS and not Sigil. Sigil can prevent that issue if you give it a safe temp location to use.

Another good tip. I was under the impression that Sigil saves automatically. I do get a message "Save?" when closing a project sometimes, but most of my changes seem to take effect automatically, or so I thought.

[SigilBear]

For anyone following this thread, here's the correct path format for a Mac:

unzip -t /users/sigilbear/Documents/epubs/Symbols/Geobop3.0.epub

And this is the message I got:

No errors detected in compressed data of /users/sigilbear/Documents/epubs/Symbols/Geobop3.0.epub.

[KevinH]

Sigil does not save automatically.

You should always save your epub manually as only you know when it is time to save versus revert to an earlier saved version.

What version of Sigil are you using? Sigil 0.9.8 has been changed and it should no longer show you the path inside temp and should show a placeholder. To set an new temp directory, first save any open epub documents. Then create a Sigil specific temporary folder someplace in your home directory, or in Documents or whereever you want. Give it a name like Sigil_temp with no spaces in it.

Then use that preference setting to enter the full path to your just created Sigil specific temp folder and then after applying your changes, exit out of Sigil.

Note that you should never open that Sigil_temp folder or touch any of the files in it when Sigil is open. Sigil will always clean up after itself once you exit from the program. If Sigil ever crashes, it will not get a chance to clean up after itself. In that hopefully rare case you can manually empty the contents of Sigil_temp but do not move it or rename it otherwise Sigil will be unable to find it on start-up and should revert back to the standard Mac temp folder and your problems will return.

[KevinH]

No errors is good but if you look at the list of files you can see if META-INF is there and if container.xml is as well. You should also get to see the modification date/time of each file in the zip folder.

That should tell you if the epub was post-processed by any other program.

Originally Posted by SigilBear

For anyone following this thread, here's the correct path format for a Mac:

unzip -t /users/sigilbear/Documents/epubs/Symbols/Geobop3.0.epub

And this is the message I got:

No errors detected in compressed data of /users/sigilbear/Documents/epubs/Symbols/Geobop3.0.epub.

[SigilBear]

Great tips! I created a temp folder @ Documents/Sigil_temp, and it was populated as soon as I modified an ePub and saved it. I have Sigil 0.9.8, by the way.

I should spend some more time getting familiar with Calibre, but I'm used to Sigil, which I find amazingly easy to use in general. I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would use InDesign. I got it for free since I have an Adobe subscription, but when I saw the difference between InDesign and Sigil, I just about had a heart attack.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

[. . .] That should tell you if the epub was pist-processed by any other program.

Not saving your work before you lunch is akin to leaving your homework to the mercy of your dog.

BR

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Not saving your work before you lunch is akin to leaving your homework to the mercy of your dog.

BR

It's obviously a good standard practice, but it really depends on one's workflow.

I work on my projects 24 hours a day. I spend much of my time in WiFi cafes. When it's time to go to work, I get my laptop out again as soon as I get on the bus. I do the same thing when I'm in the break room at work. And on the bus home. And before I go to bed. And if I wake up in the middle of the night.

If I'm working on a project that requires going back and forth between Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Sigil, and maybe back and forth between various Photoshop files or epubs, I don't always have time to save every single file in every single program before I go to sleep - or when I suddenly discover that we've arrived at the last bus stop and I have about ten seconds to get off the bus.

And if I'm working with a really big Photoshop file that takes a while to save, then the situation is even more challenging.

In general, my Mac has been very reliable. If something really bad happens and I have to force close a program or, even worse, if my laptop crashes, the files are generally still there when I reopen it. Photoshop and Numbers are really good about that, and I can save all my Dreamweaver files instantaneously.

Of course, if you just write novels or pulp fiction and don't have to work with images or spreadsheets or do a lot of research, then you have the luxury of saving your Sigil file every ten seconds.