ebook-convert won't work in a batch file since 0.6.17

[karunaji]

Hi Joop,

Thanks for the suggestion. It works but doesn't solve my problem. Starting a new process inherits the default code page (775 in my case). It means that I cannot use the unicode for metadata in command line parameters.

I speculate that calibre batch files stop running because calibre utilities internally sets the code page to unicode. Also it appears that Windows XP does not support unicode natively and it requires some internal add-on that breaks batch file processing.

Besides putting all metadata in the command line is not an elegant solution. Would it be possible to implement a solution that metadata can be read from a file?

[JvdW]

Originally Posted by karunaji

Hi Joop,
Besides putting all metadata in the command line is not an elegant solution. Would it be possible to implement a solution that metadata can be read from a file?

Sorry, I didn't register the fact that unicode is your problem.
Yes you can read the metadata back from a file. I do that too, from the test.env file I read back what c1.bat puts there. In my case a simple id=nn but you can extend that idea to parse the file line by line and put all the different columns into variables and use those to do other things.
Looks probably ugly but should be doable.

What commands are you using to set unicode?
and what internal addon are you talking about?

Regards,

Joop

[karunaji]

Thanks Joop,

Forget what I said. I was just looking at the ebook-convert.exe. But there is an option for ebook-meta for reading metadata from an OPF file. It was exactly that I was looking for.

[squawker]

I thought I was losing it till I found this thread. Still doesn't work in batch files in XP.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by squawker

I thought I was losing it till I found this thread. Still doesn't work in batch files in XP.

I believe it does, did you try to prefix it with the start command.

Start /wait ebook-convert.exe ....

The /wait option if you're stringing together commands in the batch file.

Spoiler:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\>start /?
Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command.

START ["title"] [/Dpath] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
[/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
[/WAIT] [/B]

• "title" Title to display in window title bar.
• path Starting directory
• B Start application without creating a new window. The application has ^C handling ignored. Unless the application enables ^C processing, ^Break is the only way to interrupt the application
• I The new environment will be the original environment passed to the cmd.exe and not the current environment.
• MIN Start window minimized
• MAX Start window maximized
• SEPARATE Start 16-bit Windows program in separate memory space
• SHARED Start 16-bit Windows program in shared memory space
• LOW Start application in the IDLE priority class
• NORMAL Start application in the NORMAL priority class
• HIGH Start application in the HIGH priority class
• REALTIME Start application in the REALTIME priority class
• ABOVENORMAL Start application in the ABOVENORMAL priority class
• BELOWNORMAL Start application in the BELOWNORMAL priority class
• WAIT Start application and wait for it to terminate command/program If it is an internal cmd command or a batch file then the command processor is run with the /K switch to cmd.exe. This means that the window will remain after the command has been run.

[squawker]

That did it! Thanks!

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I believe it does, did you try to prefix it with the start command.

Start /wait ebook-convert.exe ....

The /wait option if you're stringing together commands in the batch file.