Mobiperl Mobiperl - Perl tools for handling MobiPocket files

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by samhain

If anyone has any ideas that could help it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

- Steven

Can you share your command line with us. A bad command line is usually the reason for messages like this.

BOb

[kevindorsey]

I had to re-upload perl, it kept freezing up on me. Did this happen to anybody else?

[samhain]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Can you share your command line with us. A bad command line is usually the reason for messages like this.

BOb

Hi Bob,

I tried several since I also figured it was the quotes and/or ' that were causing issues.

The last one had no quotes and no spaces, no ', just to see if it would work:

mobi2mobi --outfile HarryPotter-Book1-test1.mobi --updatedtitle HarryPotterandtheSorcerersStone --addauthor JKRowling Book1.mobi

This failed.

Other examples tried are:

mobi2mobi --outfile HarryPotter-Book1-test1.mobi --updatedtitle HarryPotterandtheSorcerersStone --addauthor JKRowling Book\ 1\ -\ Harry\ Potter\ and\ the\ Sorcerer\'s\ Stone.mobi

mobi2mobi --outfile HarryPotter-Book1.mobi --updatedtitle "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone" --addauthor "JK Rowling" Book\ 1\ -\ Harry\ Potter\ and\ the\ Sorcerer\'s\ Stone.mobi

mobi2mobi --outfile HarryPotter-Book1.mobi --title "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone" --author "JK Rowling" Book\ 1\ -\ Harry\ Potter\ and\ the\ Sorcerer\'s\ Stone.mobi

All failed with the same error.

I also tried without specifying an "outfile" to see if data could just be added:

mobi2mobi --updatedtitle 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone' --addauthor 'J.K. Rowling' Book\ 1\ -\ Harry\ Potter\ and\ the\ Sorcerer\'s\ Stone.mobi

This did not cause an error, but also did not appear to work according to mobils.


If I am using it wrong on the command line please let me know.

Thanks

- Steven

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by samhain

mobi2mobi --outfile HarryPotter-Book1-test1.mobi --updatedtitle HarryPotterandtheSorcerersStone --addauthor JKRowling Book1.mobi

I just looked at the docs, I don't see that --updatedtitle is a valid option? I only see --title and --prefixtitle

BOb

[samhain]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I just looked at the docs, I don't see that --updatedtitle is a valid option? I only see --title and --prefixtitle

BOb

If you run the command without any options it shows the following:

Usage: mobi2mobi [options] filename
Options: --outfile FILENAME
--title TITLE
--updatedtitle TITLE
--prefixtitle PREFIX
--author AUTHOR
--addauthor AUTHOR
--description DESCRIPTION
--subject SUBJECT
--language LANGUAGE
--publisher PUBLISHER
--databasename NAME
--patch
--fiximagesize
--gen3imagefix
--exthtype TYPE
--addexthtype TYPE
--exthdata DATA
--delexthtype TYPE
--delexthindex INDEX
--booktype TYPE
--addthumbnail FILENAME
--coverimage FILENAME
--coveroffset OFFSET
--mbpfile FILENAME
--savecover FILENAME
--savethumb FILENAME
--imagerescale 0|1

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by samhain

If you run the command without any options it shows the following:

AH... I must have an older version then.

Are you sure the book you are editing is truly a mobipocket file? I think it can be TextRead or MOBIBOOK?

I think the beginning of the file tells you this if you open in a text editor.

But, that may not be it, I am sure Tommy will be along soon and tell you what's up.

BOb

[tompe]

If I remember correctly --updatedtitle is only needed for a MobiPocket book where updated title is set in the EXTH header and I think only Kindle books used that. So try with just --title and see if this work.

[tompe]

There might be a problem with -addauthor if not author is speicifed. So try --author instead.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by samhain

substr outside of string at /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.6//MobiPerl/MobiHeader.pm line 750.

If you just do mobi2mobi on the input file what is the output?

The error messages seems to indicated that an existing EXTH header should be in the data but when trying to set a value the data is to short. This is code patched by pdurrant so maybe he remember better what the code does and can give an idea about the problem.

[samhain]

Originally Posted by tompe

If you just do mobi2mobi on the input file what is the output?

The error messages seems to indicated that an existing EXTH header should be in the data but when trying to set a value the data is to short. This is code patched by pdurrant so maybe he remember better what the code does and can give an idea about the problem.

Ah ha! I suspect you have hit the problem. This is not a "real' mobi file. This is a PDF that has been converted to a mobi file. So I am sure that it does not have a correct EXTH header. Would it be possible to somehow add/create this?

I suspcet the solution is that when creating the mobi via html2mobi (or whatever) one should remember to add the appropriate --title or --author flags at that time.

The output of mobi2mobi Book1.mobi is:

Merlin-2:books steve$ mobi2mobi Book1.mobi
Database Name: Unknown
Version: 0
Type: BOOK
Creator: MOBI
Seed: 144
Resdb:
AppInfoDirty:
ctime: -911426252 - Wed Feb 12 22:02:28 1941
mtime: -911423833 - Wed Feb 12 22:42:47 1941
baktime: -911423833 - Wed Feb 12 22:42:47 1941
---------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------
START IMAGE INDEX: 128
COVER IMAGE INDEX: 0
PDHEADER Version: 1
PDHEADER Length: 522248
PDHEADER NRecords: 127
PDHEADER Recsize: 4096
PDHEADER Unknown: 2
MOBIHEADER doctype: MOBI
MOBIHEADER length: 0
MOBIHEADER booktype: 2 - BOOK
MOBIHEADER codep: 65001
MOBIHEADER uniqid: 1379812394
MOBIHEADER ver: 3
MOBIHEADER exthflg: 0
MOBIHEADER language: 0 - 0 - 0 - NEUTRAL -
LONGTITLE:
LASTID: 0
-----------------

- Steven

[samhain]

Calibre - ebook management software

Hello all,

I just discovered this opensource program at http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/wiki

I have not tried it much yet, but it claims to support the kindle2 and has great capabilities in terms of converting other ebook formats into .mobi formats.

Currently it is capable of reading .mobi files, but it only writes metadata to LRF, RTF and OPF formats. I think it would be interesting, although I don't know how hard, to combine the Mobiperl .mobi metadata support with this project.

Anyways, I thought people here might be interested in taking a look at this software.

- Steven

[nrapallo]

Ahhhh, Junior members....

Calibre has a separate forum here at MobileRead.com and both software packages have been open sourced for years now. Most members here use one or both packages regularly.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by samhain

Ah ha! I suspect you have hit the problem. This is not a "real' mobi file. This is a PDF that has been converted to a mobi file. So I am sure that it does not have a correct EXTH header. Would it be possible to somehow add/create this?

Given the title of the book in question, I also wonder if this is a legal file.

[samhain]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Given the title of the book in question, I also wonder if this is a legal file.

Feel free to report me to the Police, or anyone else you so choose.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Given the title of the book in question, I also wonder if this is a legal file.

We have to give him the benefit of the doubt. He could have scanned in the book himself and is trying to create an ebook. Or, he could have just used the book title as an example.

BOb