portable database?

[ilovejedd]

Help, the CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY doesn't seem like it's doing anything. First I tried the batch file above, didn't work. Then I switched %cd% for an absolute path, didn't work either. Last, I added it via My Computer >> Properties >> Advanced >> Environment Variables and still didn't work.

I tried it on two computers (XP Pro SP2, Vista Ultimate SP1) and one virtual machine (XP Pro SP3) using Calibre 0.4.128 (what I have installed) and Calibre 0.4.127 (version where the CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY was introduced based on the changelog).

Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

You can check what config directory calibre is using with

calibre-debug -c "from calibre.utils.config import config_dir; print config_dir"

[ilovejedd]

That's just it. No matter what I try, Calibre still uses %appdata% and ignores the value of the CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY environment variable. It doesn't matter if %appdata%\calibre already exists or not. Calibre still uses it.

[kovidgoyal]

Its not picking up the environment variable in that case. What does the following print out

calibre-debug -c "import os; print os.environ['CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY']"

[ilovejedd]

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "debug.py", line 105, in <module>
  File "debug.py", line 89, in main
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "os.pyo", line 423, in __getitem__
KeyError: 'CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY'

Thank you very much for the extremely quick replies.

Additional info:
This was using Calibre 0.4.128.

[kovidgoyal]

That means the variable is not present in the process environment. Try rebooting.

[ilovejedd]

Thanks for the help with troubleshooting. Unfortunately, having to reboot the PC kinda defeats the whole "portable" thing.

Is it possible to include parsing of a config.ini/calibre.ini file inside the calibre install directory? The .ini file could then contain the path of the config files and (and maybe even the path of the library/database) relative to the calibre directory.

Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

You only need to reboot if you're adding the environment variable via the control panel. You probably just have to modify your bat file to get it to correctly set the environment variable. Again some one familiar with bat files will have to help you with that

[ilovejedd]

Thanks for the tip. Finally figured out my mistake.

I was using:

set CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY = %CD%

instead of:

set CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY=%CD%

Yep, stupid spaces got me.

Tested the fixed batch file on three systems (two PCs w/o Calibre and one VM with Calibre already installed). It seems to work quite well. It didn't overwrite the config files in the native installation of Calibre which is a good thing. Oh well, I'm just happy it doesn't leave any traces in the host computer.

portablecalibre.bat

@echo off
cd config
set CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY=%cd%
cd..
cd calibre
calibre.exe --with-library  ..\calibre-db
exit

Thanks again for all the help and thanks for this wonderful program.

[sn123py]

would be in short:

portablecalibre.bat

@echo off
set CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY=%cd%config
cd calibre
calibre.exe --with-library  ..\calibre-db
exit

regards,
Friedhelm.

[markz68]

Originally Posted by sn123py

would be in short:

portablecalibre.bat

@echo off
set CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY=%cd%config
cd calibre
calibre.exe --with-library  ..\calibre-db
exit

regards,
Friedhelm.

So, what directory structure would I use on my USB key for this .bat file to work? And where do you put the .bat file? In the program directory?

[itimpi]

You are obviously not experienced at reading batch files

The bat file assumes that relative to where it is located on the USB disk you have the following sub-folders:
config
calibre
calibre-db
The config folder is where calibre is going to store its private config information; the calibre folder has a copy of the calibre binaries (in effect a copy of what is normally installed to C:\Program Files\calibre); and the calibre-db folder is where the calibre database is located.

If you want a different folder structure you can modify the .bat file accordingly.

You would normally navigate to the .bat file on the USB stick using Windows Explorer, and then double-click/open the batch file to run it.

[athrarn]

Hi, can you provide a full example of a valid batch?

Thanks.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by athrarn

Hi, can you provide a full example of a valid batch?

Not sure what you mean?

The calibre-portable.bat file that is supplied in the resources sub-folder of the calibre install IS a valid batch file. If you use the folder structure mentioned in at the top in the comments then it will work unmodified. If you want to use alternative locations for any of the files then you need to edit in the paths you want to use instead.