Bulk title rename in Calibre?

[DMcCunney]

I just imported 516 volumes into Calibre. They were in Palm PDB format, and originated as HTML that I converted to the Plucker format viewable on a Palm PDA with the Plucker viewer. Calibre happily converted them all to ePub.

The files comprise two series. One series has file names of the form "XXX <Title>", where XXX is a 3 digit number starting with 001.

The second has file has file names of the form "AAXXX <Title>", where AA is a two character prefix and XXX is a 3 digit number starting with 001.

The naming convention was needed to indicate series order on the Palm device. In ePub, it's not needed.

I'd like to do bulk renaming to strip the prefix from the volumes and just leave <title>, since Series order is handled in Calibre metadata and used by the viewer on the Android device I use for eBook viewing.

Is there a Calibre function or plugin that can do this? I could export the files and do it on the OS level with a utility, then re-import, but that makes preserving series order problematic. With the original names, I could create a virtual library, sort by name, and tell Calibre to automatically generate Series numbers beginning from 1 and get the correct numbering. Without the prefixes, it appears I'd have to do it manually, and I don't want to update series data one by one for 516 volumes. If I tell Calibre to auto-generate numbers, order is based on the time the file was actually added, which may not be the order for the series. (I discovered that after import, and it was why I had to create a virtual library and sort by name to get the correct sequence. While the volumes were imported in series order, the volumes were not all added in the order they were imported.)

I don't see anything in the Calibre manual about this, and no extant plugins appear to do it. Am I missing something?

Thanks in advance,
______
Dennis

[theducks]

Bulk mode Search and replace in REGEX mode will do this

BACKUP YOUR LIBRARY, this will rename all those book files (title folders)and can take a bit of time, have the computer running from the mains if battery powered.


Here you go
The optional space between the prefix and title is handled with the \s*

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by theducks

Bulk mode Search and replace in REGEX mode will do this

Thank you. I was assuming a regex search and replace if I exported and used an OS level utility.

BACKUP YOUR LIBRARY,

Since the library is hundreds of GB, that will be a process. I have a TB drive in an external enclosure I can use to do it.

this will rename all those book files (title folders)and can take a bit of time, have the computer running from the mains if battery powered.

Calibre and its library live on an always on 3.1ghz HP desktop running Win10 Pro, connected to mains power.

I understand about time: when I asked Calibre to convert from PDB to ePub, it took a while, and I watched my CPU peg at 100% usage as multiple Calibre worker processes were involved.

Here you go
The optional space between the prefix and title is handled with the \s*

Noted for future reference. This is something I would set up, start running, and go to bed, and look at results in the morning.

Thanks again.
______
Dennis

[theducks]

Dennis,
Calibre will do its normal, Copy the file to the new location, then delete the old folder.
How long this takes??? Depends a bit on you HW.

I always load my advice with cautions, so the user does not expect instantaneous completion, nor abort. I would guess 3 per second for an idea (does not include the Metadata backup file job queued in background)

[theducks]

BTW, the first step is a generic search for titles that need TLC.
WARNING there are titles that start with numbers, be sure to NOT include those in the group for BULK metadata S&R


Once you have done the initial batch(es), I expect future runs to be manual and run in a few minutes

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by theducks

Calibre will do its normal, Copy the file to the new location, then delete the old folder.
How long this takes??? Depends a bit on you HW.

The drive Calibre's library lives on is a 6gbit/sec SATA III HD device, so reasonably quick. SSDs are steadily dropping in price (I just got a 120GB model as a boot drive for an older device for $30 USD), so an SSD for the Calibre library to live on is a likely upgrade down the road.

But meanwhile, long running tasks are things I queue before going to bed. Stuff like this is likely to occupy enough of the system that trying to do other things while it's running is problematic, so start it and do something else like sleep.

I always load my advice with cautions, so the user does not expect instantaneous completion, nor abort. I would guess 3 per second for an idea (does not include the Metadata backup file job queued in background)

The cautions are understood. I tend to do the same, because I don't normally know the knowledge level of the person I'm advising and err on the side of ignorance when giving assistance.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by theducks

BTW, the first step is a generic search for titles that need TLC.
WARNING there are titles that start with numbers, be sure to NOT include those in the group for BULK metadata S&R

I have a variety of them. That's why carefully selecting the subset to feed to the bulk rename regex is step one.

Once you have done the initial batch(es), I expect future runs to be manual and run in a few minutes

Yeah, selecting a subset of the target files as a test is a good idea, and will give me an indicator of how long the process will take. (Long enough I won't want to twiddle my thumbs and wait.)

This is a longer term project, now that I have an approach to take. The files are converted on on my viewing device. Cleaning up titles is a when I get to it housekeeping item, because I'm fussy about details like that.
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Dennis