Recreating Container.xhtml

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by SigilBear

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 never mentioned shutting your computer down let alone restarting it when going to lunch, or to sleep. I didn't think I was being unclear. What I meant was; I don't understand anyone walking away from their computer (for lunch, or for bed) with a document left open in an editing program--saved or unsaved. When I'm not working on the document, I close it. Multi-tasking is fine. But unless you're telling me you work for 48 hour stints, then multitasking (hard core or otherwise) has nothing to do with leaving programs running with valuable documents open when you're not at your computer.

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

What I meant was; I don't understand anyone walking away from their computer (for lunch, or for bed) with a document left open in an editing program--saved or unsaved. When I'm not working on the document, I close it.

You wouldn't even walk away from your computer with a SAVED document open? Wow.

It would be interesting to know what the standard practice is. If I was still using Microshaft I probably wouldn't touch my computer without a security guard. But I've had very few problems since upgrading to a Mac.

And closing saved files doesn't work for everyone. Like I said, I do a lot of multi-tasking. If I close a dozen saved Photoshop files, there is a handy "Open Recent" feature that allows me to quickly reopen SOME files. But there are limits.

If I had a panic attack every time it was time for lunch and closed all my files - even saved files - then how long would it take to reopen them, find the exact place where I was working on each file, etc., etc.? If I'm copying stuff between a spreadsheet, Photoshop, a database, a text editor and Sigil, it becomes more trouble than it's worth.

Between my Mac and all my other software programs, I know I'm going to have an occasional problem. But if the only way to deal with those rare problems is to close and reopen all my files every time I eat lunch, go to the restroom or check the mail, then I'm not going to get much work done. For me, that would be insanity.

In the meantime, many, if not most, of the software programs I use have some really good features for recovering lost work.

[DiapDealer]

I'm a Linux user by the way. Have been for decades. I'm no stranger to Microsoft, but it's not what I use for my development machine (nor my everyday machines).

I'm not panicking and I'm not paranoid. But when I leave my computer for any length of time, documents I care about are not open in editing programs. When I'm at my computer, I multitask with the best of them.

But I'm done with this. The tiny number of Sigil users who've reported being burned by Mac's tendency to delete temp files left open for more than 48 hours assures me that doing so is not "typical" behavior. And for those who it is typical behavior, Sigil provides a way to set its scratch directory to somewhere in your user directory so it doesn't get harvested by the system temp cleanup (though I still believe it's your penchant for diddling with epub archives via eCan Crusher that is probably the root of your issues, rather than Mac's temp-file cleanup).

[theducks]

Power outages happen.
IMHO another reason for not leaving with a file open in Edit Mode.

NB I also have a UPS under my desk that has >30 minutes with the worst case load (more than 1 computer up).
Belt, suspenders and a Life Ring

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

And for those who it is typical behavior, Sigil provides a way to set its scratch directory to somewhere in your user directory so it doesn't get harvested by the system temp cleanup

Yes, KevinH and Doitsu did a great job explaining all of that, making this a very informative and helpful discussion.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

(though I still believe it's your penchant for diddling with epub archives via eCan Crusher that is probably the root of your issues, rather than Mac's temp-file cleanup).

I doubt it. I'm not aware that eCan Crusher modifies the Container.XML file, and it turned out to be exactly the fix I was looking for.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The tiny number of Sigil users who've reported being burned by Mac's tendency to delete temp files left open for more than 48 hours assures me that doing so is not "typical" behavior.

I wasn't aware that Mac's tendency to eat temp files was typical behavior. I don't recall ever experiencing it until I started using Sigil. Frankly, I find the idea that a computer would prey on a file - saved or unsaved - that's left open during lunch or for more than 24 or 48 hours a little bizarre. Never heard of that one before.

I guess it just goes to show that Mac's aren't perfect. Maybe Apple should install some kind of "Time's Up!" warning before your Mac starts cannibalizing temp files.

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by theducks

Power outages happen.
IMHO another reason for not leaving with a file open in Edit Mode.

NB I also have a UPS under my desk that has >30 minutes with the worst case load (more than 1 computer up).
Belt, suspenders and a Life Ring

I'm not sure if a power outage would affect me or not. If the power went out, I assume my Mac would continue running on battery power.

I have accidentally unplugged it at night, waking up to find it dead. But as soon as I plug it in, all my programs generally open up just as I left them.

Time Machine is another nice feature, though I haven't used it enough to be really familiar with it.

[kovidgoyal]

Just FYI, Apple's crazy policy of deleting "expired" temp files has bitten me in calibre as well. The solution is to not use /tmp as the temporary directory. Instead use the user cache directory as the temporary directory. You can get that by passing _CS_DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR to the confstr() function. That is what calibre does on macOS to work around this issue.

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just FYI, Apple's crazy policy of deleting "expired" temp files has bitten me in calibre as well. The solution is to not use /tmp as the temporary directory. Instead use the user cache directory as the temporary directory. You can get that by passing _CS_DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR to the confstr() function. That is what calibre does on macOS to work around this issue.

Wow, thanks for verifying that. I don't understand what you mean by "passing _CS_DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR to the confstr() function," though. I assume that's a fix specific to Calibre? I think I fixed my problem by just creating a custom folder per KevinH's instructions.

I'm going to spend some more time learning about Calibre. If I remember correctly, it allows you to put images in subfolders, which is something Sigil can't do (I think). I have to revisit that thread. It's just a bit of a pain having over 500 images in one "Images" folder.

Hopefully, I'll be past the learning curve when I start working on my third ePub.

[kovidgoyal]

My post was not for you, but for the Sigil developers, so they can prevent this problem happening to others on macOS in the future. Using a custom temp folder will of course fix the problem also, but it requires every user to know how to do it in advance.

[KevinH]

Hi Kovid,
Thanks! Allowing users to set their own temp path outside the OS temp has already bitten us as novice users were setting that path and then playing with Sigil temp files while Sigil was running. The fact that ~/Library/Caches/ is hidden from novice users by default on OSX should help in that regard.

[Doitsu]

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.

BTW, in macOS you can drag & drop files from a Finder window into the Terminal window. I.e., you'd enter:

unzip -t

and then drag and drop the epub file from the Finder window into the Terminal window. (macOS will automatically add the path and escape it, if necessary).

You also might want to try the following command:

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

This will list all files in your epub. To check whether your epub contains a container.xml file, you can use the following command:

unzip -l -v /users/sigilbear/Documents/epubs/Symbols/Geobop3.0.epub | grep container.xml

The output of this command should look like this:

NNN Defl:X NNN 31% YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM 9aa7f027 META-INF/container.xml

(The text marked in Magenta will vary for each file.)

If you don't get any output for this command, the epub is missing container.xml.

Originally Posted by SigilBear

I'm going to spend some more time learning about Calibre. If I remember correctly, it allows you to put images in subfolders, which is something Sigil can't do (I think).

You should definitely give Calibre Editor a try. Kovid did a great job duplicating all major Sigil features and even added some beginner-friendly features that Sigil lacks. I personally prefer Sigil, but this is just a personal preference, because when it comes down to the core features, there really isn't anything missing in Calibre Editor.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

You should definitely give Calibre Editor a try. Kovid did a great job duplicating all major Sigil features and even added some beginner-friendly features that Sigil lacks. I personally prefer Sigil, but this is just a personal preference, because when it comes down to the core features, there really isn't anything missing in Calibre Editor.

- I use both (for EPUB 2.0)

@Sigil-Bear - the calibre editor is a separate program to the library manager, which means it can be executed directly like Sigil.

I guess the Live CSS viewer is a beginner-friendly feature, but very useful as a 'second opinion' when faced with Byzantine CSS code. It also adds some sophisticated features: checkpoint/restore, regex functions, and multi-lingual spellcheck. I also like its Words and Links reports. There's no Book View

BR

[SigilBear]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

BTW, in macOS you can drag & drop files from a Finder window into the Terminal window. I.e., you'd enter:

unzip -t

and then drag and drop the epub file from the Finder window into the Terminal window. (macOS will automatically add the path and escape it, if necessary).

Great tips; thanks.