having difficulty downloading Sigil onto Linux

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks mrmikel. I went to the site but I'm not comfortable working in the terminal yet. (I went there once, with lousy instructions on how to use it, and had a heck of a time getting out of it.) It's like Harry was saying, I need to learn more about Linux. Once familiar, it'll probably seem easy. Right now, it seems uber complicated. Appreciate your help. Thank you.

You get out or CANCEL a terminal program in the terminal the same way as on Windows.

Ctrl-C to cancel (at the next breaking point)
type exit to close the window

You can copy the full Calibre (or any other) command line from the browser and Paste it into the terminal, then press enter (or edit)

Only some of the Linux commands are different. But many of the basic console interface rules are the same.

Win: dir /w > foo.lst
Lin: ls -l > foo.lst

Unix existed BEFORE DOS and Windows.
M$ stole (borrowed?) heavily from it and CPM (also before MSDOS)

The 'man' pages were (and still are) my friend:

man -k <keyword>

IMHO M$ misnamed their version of the tool to 'Help'

what does that mean ? or Why doesn't IT WORK?

still applies
man just does not imply it will help

[PeterT]

There is also the apropos command that can give a list of commands for a given keyword.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

It's very simple, just copy-paste.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T to open the terminal, right-click and select paste,
(here's the code again)

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main()"

then hit enter. You will be prompted for your login password, to confirm that you should be doing this (to prevent accidental malware installations, etc.) and calibre will install itself. I'd be very surprised if anything went wrong, this isn't debugging or manipulation of configuration scripts or anything.

It's one of the more foolproof things the terminal gets used for. In fact, basic copy-paste stuff like this might be a good way to start getting used to the terminal.

Gory details on what's happening in that command -- well, not really gory: It uses the python programming language to download and run the auto-installation script from the calibre website. Pretty simple, and about the only thing that could go wrong is your internet connection.

Thanks for simplifying it for me. One catch was it asked me what directory I wanted to install it in, but I just hit 'enter' again and it started installing it. Calibre seemed to (unless I'm really tired) make a nicer pdf from an epub than I remember it making in Windows. And it was fun looking at the Edit-Calibre thing. I at least am comfortable that I'll be able to make epubs in Linux now. Oh, and I did wonder (see screenshot) about the final bit in the terminal window (about automatic updates or what have you). And I thought the terminal window was the full screen. Oh well. I'm learning. I liked the Edit-calibre, but it didn't seem to be quite Sigil either. No spell check and the "view" window doesn't notify you when you make a code error. (Huge for somebody like me.) But it was definitely do-able. (Next up trying to get Sigil.) Thanks so much for all the help.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by theducks

You get out or CANCEL a terminal program in the terminal the same way as on Windows.

Ctrl-C to cancel (at the next breaking point)
type exit to close the window

You can copy the full Calibre (or any other) command line from the browser and Paste it into the terminal, then press enter (or edit)

Only some of the Linux commands are different. But many of the basic console interface rules are the same.

Win: dir /w > foo.lst
Lin: ls -l > foo.lst

Unix existed BEFORE DOS and Windows.
M$ stole (borrowed?) heavily from it and CPM (also before MSDOS)

The 'man' pages were (and still are) my friend:

man -k <keyword>

IMHO M$ misnamed their version of the tool to 'Help'

what does that mean ? or Why doesn't IT WORK?

still applies
man just does not imply it will help

Thanks ducks. Worked like a charm. I wrote it all down. I won't be intimidated by getting stuck in there anymore. And I'll be more comfortable copying and pasting programs in there too. Greatly appreciated.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by PeterT

There is also the apropos command that can give a list of commands for a given keyword.

Thanks Peter. Not exactly sure what you mean, though. I know when I got stuck in the terminal before I typed 'help' and that gave me a bunch of info. that eventually led to me getting out. Is it similar? Like type 'apropos'?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks for simplifying it for me. One catch was it asked me what directory I wanted to install it in, but I just hit 'enter' again and it started installing it. Calibre seemed to (unless I'm really tired) make a nicer pdf from an epub than I remember it making in Windows. And it was fun looking at the Edit-Calibre thing. I at least am comfortable that I'll be able to make epubs in Linux now. Oh, and I did wonder (see screenshot) about the final bit in the terminal window (about automatic updates or what have you). And I thought the terminal window was the full screen. Oh well. I'm learning. I liked the Edit-calibre, but it didn't seem to be quite Sigil either. No spell check and the "view" window doesn't notify you when you make a code error. (Huge for somebody like me.) But it was definitely do-able. (Next up trying to get Sigil.) Thanks so much for all the help.

There are no automatic updates. "Automate future installs" just means, like when you installed it just now, you can specify where to install each time you run the installation command.

For instance, instead of:

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main()"

you can use:

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"

and it will skip asking you for directory to install into, since you already told it to use the default directory.

This is how you update calibre -- by reinstalling. There is actually a cool way to automatically update, which I can help you with if you want. (see HERE)

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks Peter. Not exactly sure what you mean, though. I know when I got stuck in the terminal before I typed 'help' and that gave me a bunch of info. that eventually led to me getting out. Is it similar? Like type 'apropos'?

type:

apropos keyword

and you will get a list of commands that are associated with the concept of "keyword".

Like this for example:

schwartze@ltsp22:~$ apropos calibre
calibre (1)          - launch Calibre Graphical User Interface
calibre-customize (1) - part of calibre
calibre-debug (1)    - part of calibre
calibre-fontconfig (1) - font configuration tool for calibre
calibre-parallel (1) - parallel tool for calibre
calibre-server (1)   - part of calibre
calibre-smtp (1)     - part of calibre
calibredb (1)        - part of calibre
ebook-convert (1)    - part of calibre
ebook-meta (1)       - part of calibre
epub-fix (1)         - part of calibre
fetch-ebook-metadata (1) - part of calibre
lrf2lrs (1)          - part of calibre
lrs2lrf (1)          - part of calibre
markdown-calibre (1) - markdown tool for calibre
pdfmanipulate (1)    - part of calibre
web2disk (1)         - part of calibre

[mrmikel]

It does notify you if you make a code error. You will see underlines that were not there before, or see whole sections change color. It is pretty subtle, but it is there. Try inserting class="anything in a <p> tag and stop and you will see a color change that doesn't go away until you finish it up.

It doesn't have spell check or clips. Those are the big lacks for me.

But there are some turbo charged ways of searching and replacing that are on the horizon that could save tons of time.

It doesn't behave like Sigil. It doesn't insist on perfect code, which is a good reason to run the book check often. It is much better than the rest at pointing just where you have a problem.

[eschwartz]

And there is going to be spell-checker, it just isn't finished yet.

Clips are waiting for the more important stuff to be finished first.

For an editor that is only a few months old, it is incredibly feature-rich.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

There are no automatic updates. "Automate future installs" just means, like when you installed it just now, you can specify where to install each time you run the installation command.

For instance, instead of:

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main()"

you can use:

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"

and it will skip asking you for directory to install into, since you already told it to use the default directory.

This is how you update calibre -- by reinstalling. There is actually a cool way to automatically update, which I can help you with if you want. (see HERE)



type:

apropos keyword

and you will get a list of commands that are associated with the concept of "keyword".

Like this for example:

schwartze@ltsp22:~$ apropos calibre
calibre (1)          - launch Calibre Graphical User Interface
calibre-customize (1) - part of calibre
calibre-debug (1)    - part of calibre
calibre-fontconfig (1) - font configuration tool for calibre
calibre-parallel (1) - parallel tool for calibre
calibre-server (1)   - part of calibre
calibre-smtp (1)     - part of calibre
calibredb (1)        - part of calibre
ebook-convert (1)    - part of calibre
ebook-meta (1)       - part of calibre
epub-fix (1)         - part of calibre
fetch-ebook-metadata (1) - part of calibre
lrf2lrs (1)          - part of calibre
lrs2lrf (1)          - part of calibre
markdown-calibre (1) - markdown tool for calibre
pdfmanipulate (1)    - part of calibre
web2disk (1)         - part of calibre

Thanks eschwartz. So with the apropos thing, so you get all those commands. So then what? Do you choose one if you wish? And then if you decide to do that, how do you choose it?

And yeah, I'd be interested in the automatic updating of Calibre.

This is how you update calibre -- by reinstalling.

Do you uninstall first? And does this apply to all Linux updating of software?

Thanks.

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

It does notify you if you make a code error. You will see underlines that were not there before, or see whole sections change color. It is pretty subtle, but it is there. Try inserting class="anything in a <p> tag and stop and you will see a color change that doesn't go away until you finish it up.

It doesn't have spell check or clips. Those are the big lacks for me.

But there are some turbo charged ways of searching and replacing that are on the horizon that could save tons of time.

It doesn't behave like Sigil. It doesn't insist on perfect code, which is a good reason to run the book check often. It is much better than the rest at pointing just where you have a problem.

Thanks mrmikel. I went back and played around with it and I can see what you were saying. It's different than Sigil (and Sigil's warnings of what was wrong could be hard to find.) But with this though, if you don't complete your code, it just doesn't print the whole paragraph! (Yikes! Although I'm sure I'm exaggerating what happens.) It was good to see it though. (I don't know how I missed it before.) I'm getting more and more comfortable with it. And I don't know about its checking feature. It was telling me I had errors when that epub I was testing was cleared by EpubCheck. But I could always just check the epub more frequentlly at Epubcheck if I wanted. What about Tidy print and Pretty print (do I have the names right? The "cleaning" features in Sigil you set in "preferences"?) Does the Calibre Editor have anything like that?

[mrmikel]

There are similar but not identical features. There is beautify all files and Fix HTML under Edit.

They are capable screwing things up. But unlike Sigil, you can set a checkpoint to restore back to and nearly any action is undoable even after a global replace.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

Thanks eschwartz. So with the apropos thing, so you get all those commands. So then what? Do you choose one if you wish? And then if you decide to do that, how do you choose it?

apropos is just a way of informing you about commands, so if you want to use one, say "apropos calibre" told you that "ebook-convert" is "part of calibre" you then go ahead and type "ebook-convert".

And then you get

Usage: ebook-convert input_file output_file [options]

Convert an ebook from one format to another.

input_file is the input and output_file is the output. Both must be specified as the first two arguments to the command.

The output ebook format is guessed from the file extension of output_file. output_file can also be of the special format .EXT where EXT is the output file extension. In this case, the name of the output file is derived from the name of the input file. Note that the filenames must not start with a hyphen. Finally, if output_file has no extension, then it is treated as a directory and an "open ebook" (OEB) consisting of HTML files is written to that directory. These files are the files that would normally have been passed to the output plugin.

After specifying the input and output file you can customize the conversion by specifying various options. The available options depend on the input and output file types. To get help on them specify the input and output file and then use the -h option.

For full documentation of the conversion system see
http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html

Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-convert that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks.

Options:
  --version       show program's version number and exit

  -h, --help      show this help message and exit

  --list-recipes  List builtin recipe names. You can create an ebook from a
                  builtin recipe like this: ebook-convert "Recipe Name.recipe"
                  output.epub


Created by Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>

Which tells you how to use it. Many commands, if they need to be used on something, will show you the help message when the file that must be acted upon wasn't specified.

And yeah, I'd be interested in the automatic updating of Calibre.

This is how you update calibre -- by reinstalling.

Do you uninstall first? And does this apply to all Linux updating of software?

Thanks.

Most linux software gets updated through the Software Center -- or rather, the Update Manager which is connected to the Software Center. (But both of them come as one in the command line. "apt-get" followed by "install program-name" to either install something new or update it, or followed by "upgrade" to update everything.)

calibre is different -- since it gets weekly updates, you can't rely on the version in the software center, which doesn't get updated after the Ubuntu version gets released. Ubuntu updates programs only if they're really important ones, like the browser, or if they have security fixes, or a volunteer does it.

So Kovid Goyal bundles everything needed to run calibre in one zipped folder, and the command

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"

unzips it to the default (or specified) location, then makes shortcuts in the application menu. Re-running this will overwrite the previous folder, in effect this leaves calibre upgraded without having to *actually* uninstall.

---

Okay, updating automatically. Go to the software center and install the program "gnome-schedule". This is the GUI interface for linux's equivalent to the Task Scheduler. Your computer will already have the command-line version, "crontab", installed. You can use that too, just run "crontab -e", but you will have to edit a text file within the terminal. So use gnome-schedule for now.

Run the following command in the terminal (It must be run as the root user, or you cannot create a task as the root user):

gksu gnome-schedule

Then create a task (one guide is here: http://www.maketecheasier.com/easy-w...sks-in-ubuntu/) that will run

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"

every week on Friday, at say, 6 in the morning, so you will presumably be asleep when it updates. (we don't want to upgrade while we try to run it. )


For bonus points, you can use the commands listed at this thread HERE (again) which will first check to see if calibre was updated, then shutdown calibre if it's currently running.

Store this as calibre-upgrade.sh;

#!/bin/bash

calibre-debug -c "import urllib as u; from calibre.constants import numeric_version; raise SystemExit(int(numeric_version  < (tuple(map(int, u.urlopen('http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/latest_version').read().split('.'))))))"

UP_TO_DATE=$?

if [ $UP_TO_DATE = 0 ]; then
        echo "Calibre is up-to-date"
else
        killall calibre calibre-server
        sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"
fi

and then run that file in the task scheduler.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Gregg Bell

So with the apropos thing, so you get all those commands. So then what? Do you choose one if you wish? And then if you decide to do that, how do you choose it?

It's not a proper interface. It just prints the list and takes you back to the state you were before. Typical situations:

- You didn't find what you were looking for. You may try now a different keyword: type "apropos ebook", for example.

- You found something that looks promising, but you want to learn more about it. Try reading the man page: type "man ebook-convert". (Note that you could have typed this before, if only you knew there was something called "ebook-convert".)

- You found exactly what you wanted. Just run the command: type "calibre". (As above, you could have typed this before, "apropos" is simply doing some search and displaying the results.)

[Gregg Bell]

Originally Posted by Jellby

It's not a proper interface. It just prints the list and takes you back to the state you were before. Typical situations:

- You didn't find what you were looking for. You may try now a different keyword: type "apropos ebook", for example.

- You found something that looks promising, but you want to learn more about it. Try reading the man page: type "man ebook-convert". (Note that you could have typed this before, if only you knew there was something called "ebook-convert".)

- You found exactly what you wanted. Just run the command: type "calibre". (As above, you could have typed this before, "apropos" is simply doing some search and displaying the results.)

Wow, that really simplifies it for me. Thanks Jellby. I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

apropos is just a way of informing you about commands, so if you want to use one, say "apropos calibre" told you that "ebook-convert" is "part of calibre" you then go ahead and type "ebook-convert".

And then you get

Usage: ebook-convert input_file output_file [options]

Convert an ebook from one format to another.

input_file is the input and output_file is the output. Both must be specified as the first two arguments to the command.

The output ebook format is guessed from the file extension of output_file. output_file can also be of the special format .EXT where EXT is the output file extension. In this case, the name of the output file is derived from the name of the input file. Note that the filenames must not start with a hyphen. Finally, if output_file has no extension, then it is treated as a directory and an "open ebook" (OEB) consisting of HTML files is written to that directory. These files are the files that would normally have been passed to the output plugin.

After specifying the input and output file you can customize the conversion by specifying various options. The available options depend on the input and output file types. To get help on them specify the input and output file and then use the -h option.

For full documentation of the conversion system see
http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/conversion.html

Whenever you pass arguments to ebook-convert that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks.

Options:
  --version       show program's version number and exit

  -h, --help      show this help message and exit

  --list-recipes  List builtin recipe names. You can create an ebook from a
                  builtin recipe like this: ebook-convert "Recipe Name.recipe"
                  output.epub


Created by Kovid Goyal <kovid@kovidgoyal.net>

Which tells you how to use it. Many commands, if they need to be used on something, will show you the help message when the file that must be acted upon wasn't specified.



Most linux software gets updated through the Software Center -- or rather, the Update Manager which is connected to the Software Center. (But both of them come as one in the command line. "apt-get" followed by "install program-name" to either install something new or update it, or followed by "upgrade" to update everything.)

calibre is different -- since it gets weekly updates, you can't rely on the version in the software center, which doesn't get updated after the Ubuntu version gets released. Ubuntu updates programs only if they're really important ones, like the browser, or if they have security fixes, or a volunteer does it.

So Kovid Goyal bundles everything needed to run calibre in one zipped folder, and the command

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"

unzips it to the default (or specified) location, then makes shortcuts in the application menu. Re-running this will overwrite the previous folder, in effect this leaves calibre upgraded without having to *actually* uninstall.

---

Okay, updating automatically. Go to the software center and install the program "gnome-schedule". This is the GUI interface for linux's equivalent to the Task Scheduler. Your computer will already have the command-line version, "crontab", installed. You can use that too, just run "crontab -e", but you will have to edit a text file within the terminal. So use gnome-schedule for now.

Run the following command in the terminal (It must be run as the root user, or you cannot create a task as the root user):

gksu gnome-schedule

Then create a task (one guide is here: http://www.maketecheasier.com/easy-w...sks-in-ubuntu/) that will run

sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"

every week on Friday, at say, 6 in the morning, so you will presumably be asleep when it updates. (we don't want to upgrade while we try to run it. )


For bonus points, you can use the commands listed at this thread HERE (again) which will first check to see if calibre was updated, then shutdown calibre if it's currently running.

Store this as calibre-upgrade.sh;

#!/bin/bash

calibre-debug -c "import urllib as u; from calibre.constants import numeric_version; raise SystemExit(int(numeric_version  < (tuple(map(int, u.urlopen('http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/latest_version').read().split('.'))))))"

UP_TO_DATE=$?

if [ $UP_TO_DATE = 0 ]; then
        echo "Calibre is up-to-date"
else
        killall calibre calibre-server
        sudo python -c "import sys; py3 = sys.version_info[0] > 2; u = __import__('urllib.request' if py3 else 'urllib', fromlist=1); exec(u.urlopen('http://status.calibre-ebook.com/linux_installer').read()); main(install_dir='/opt')"
fi

and then run that file in the task scheduler.

Thanks eschwartz. That was a lot of good info. in your post.

So the appropos is kind of like a stepping stone thing (one thing--hopefully--leads to another).

Tried your Calibre automatizing. Unfortunately ran into a couple of roadblocks. First I couldn't find a program called Gnome-schedule in the Ubuntu Software Center. I found something similar and installed that (called Scheduled Tasks) (see screenshot 035). It looked really similar so I went with it. And then when I put that command "gksu gnome-schedule" in the terminal, it said I hadn't installed it, so I hit enter and it was installing it, but then it aksed me what's in the screenshot (034), and I was definitely in over my head at that point so I bailed. I may try again or there must be some way they notify you to get updates. (I get update notices all the time when I open Calibre in Windows.) Reallly appreciate the help. (Sorry I didn't make better use of it.)

Originally Posted by mrmikel

There are similar but not identical features. There is beautify all files and Fix HTML under Edit.

They are capable screwing things up. But unlike Sigil, you can set a checkpoint to restore back to and nearly any action is undoable even after a global replace.

Thanks mrmikel. Would you say 'Beautify' is similar to Print Tidy and 'Fix HTML' is like Tidy Print? I got to trust Pretty Print, but never Tidy Print. And I saw the restore feature. That is awesome. I'd hate to see Sigil go, but if it has to, it's nice that something (and someone) is filling the void. Thanks a lot.

[mrmikel]

I think that is about right, Gregg. I would trust the Fix HTML more than Tidy, but I would be Reagan-esque about it: Trust but verify! It is just about impossible to conceive of every case when you are creating a way to do something.

To me, Linux is just about similar enough in appearance to Windows to lead you to think they are similar. They are not. Windows is a closed environment within the program itself, but Linux is designed to be built from parts, if I understand it correctly. It impresses me a something like a Formula One car, which can be souped up for fantastic performance, but which may require a ride along mechanic!