Losing files in Calibre

al35 · 04-20-2010, 01:02 PM

Hi! I suddenly realized that it's easy to lose files in Calibre. For some books, I have several versions of the book in the same format (pdf). I usually choose one version as the main file, and add everything else as a zip archive. It turns out that it doesn't work -- when adding a zip file, Calibre looks inside it and replaces the existing pdf in the book entry by the pdf from the zip file. I lost quite a few files this way before I realized what was going on.
Is this an intended feature or a bug? Is it possible to tell Calibre to treat zip files as a black box, so that it doesn't extract files from it? Generally, I think it would be a good idea if Calibre asked for confirmation any time it wants to replace one file with another.
Also, why does it compress all html to zip files?

itimpi · 04-20-2010, 01:59 PM

At the moment only one format of a particular books can be stored. As for storing files as a "black box" have you tried any other compression schemes (e.g. rar). I do not know whether Calibre looks into those as well.

HTML is put into a ZIP file as it is very rare for an HTMl e-Book to consist of a single file. Normally there are images, stylesheets etc as well. Calibre gathers these all up into the ZIP file. As a by-product you save some space. Calibre has to have built-in ZIP support because ePub books are basically just a ZIP of the contained files. You can always change the extension of an epub book to .zip and then easily open it to look at the contents.

Starson17 · 04-20-2010, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itimpi

At the moment only one format of a particular books can be stored. As for storing files as a "black box" have you tried any other compression schemes (e.g. rar). I do not know whether Calibre looks into those as well.

I checked RAR format. It does look into those. AFAICT, if there is a single book format in ZIP or RAR, it gets extracted and stored instead of the ZIP/RAR container. If there are multiple books (at least multiple PDFs, which I tested) they do not get extracted and the container is stored.

I'm also not sure if calibre overwrites when you drag into the main library GUI, or only when you drag into the open metadata edit dialog screen. I would not expect an overwrite in the former case.

speakingtohe · 04-20-2010, 02:41 PM

you could password protect your zips perhaps
Helen

kovidgoyal · 04-21-2010, 07:33 AM

Go to Preferences->plugins->file type plugns and disable the Archive Extract plugin

al35 · 04-21-2010, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Go to Preferences->plugins->file type plugns and disable the Archive Extract plugin

Thanks!

04-20-2010, 01:02 PM	#1
al35 Enthusiast Posts: 38 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2008 Device: PRS505	Losing files in Calibre Hi! I suddenly realized that it's easy to lose files in Calibre. For some books, I have several versions of the book in the same format (pdf). I usually choose one version as the main file, and add everything else as a zip archive. It turns out that it doesn't work -- when adding a zip file, Calibre looks inside it and replaces the existing pdf in the book entry by the pdf from the zip file. I lost quite a few files this way before I realized what was going on. Is this an intended feature or a bug? Is it possible to tell Calibre to treat zip files as a black box, so that it doesn't extract files from it? Generally, I think it would be a good idea if Calibre asked for confirmation any time it wants to replace one file with another. Also, why does it compress all html to zip files?

04-20-2010, 01:59 PM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	At the moment only one format of a particular books can be stored. As for storing files as a "black box" have you tried any other compression schemes (e.g. rar). I do not know whether Calibre looks into those as well. HTML is put into a ZIP file as it is very rare for an HTMl e-Book to consist of a single file. Normally there are images, stylesheets etc as well. Calibre gathers these all up into the ZIP file. As a by-product you save some space. Calibre has to have built-in ZIP support because ePub books are basically just a ZIP of the contained files. You can always change the extension of an epub book to .zip and then easily open it to look at the contents. Last edited by itimpi; 04-20-2010 at 02:01 PM.

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04-20-2010, 02:41 PM	#4
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	you could password protect your zips perhaps Helen

04-21-2010, 07:33 AM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,840 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Go to Preferences->plugins->file type plugns and disable the Archive Extract plugin

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