[Old Thread] calibre portable edition

astrodad · 05-30-2008, 11:13 AM

I find myself having to work on more than one system now, and when I travel I am on a different system then when I am at home. I tried putting the calibre database on my home network share, and using it via vpn but it's way too slow.

Now I am looking at Portable Apps, which you can run on a flash drive. Has anyone had any experience with these? I run firefox and it seems to be fine, but is there any way to get a Python app to run portable?

kovidgoyal · 05-30-2008, 11:51 AM

Yeah just copy the installation directory onto your flash drive and on each new computer, all you have to do is edit the PATH variable to include the calibre directory. At least, I think it should work like that.

RWood · 05-30-2008, 11:57 AM

I have a small network here (5 computers plus a SAN data store) and the database is very happy living on the SAN and accessed from the computers.

astrodad · 05-30-2008, 01:21 PM

Yeah the problem is when you have more than one system and you're in multiple locations. The other problem is when you have multiple platforms. I think I will try to install the Mac and Windows versions onto the Flash drive and then have them share a db file.

kovidgoyal · 05-30-2008, 01:24 PM

You can put the db file onto the flash drive as well and at least on linux/OSX just create a symbolic link to it from ~/library1.db

On windows you'll have to remember to copy the db file on and off the flash drive

astrodad · 05-30-2008, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can put the db file onto the flash drive as well and at least on linux/OSX just create a symbolic link to it from ~/library1.db

On windows you'll have to remember to copy the db file on and off the flash drive

Can't I just change the settings to point to the specific drive letter? I just have to ensure that on whatever system I am, that I mount the flash as a specific letter.

kovidgoyal · 05-30-2008, 02:22 PM

yeah that would work as well, but it might cause some problems if you ever run calibre from the harddisk while the flash drive is not mounted or is mounted elsewhere

pilotbob · 05-30-2008, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jplumey

Yeah the problem is when you have more than one system and you're in multiple locations. The other problem is when you have multiple platforms. I think I will try to install the Mac and Windows versions onto the Flash drive and then have them share a db file.

Take a look at jungle disk. It is cross platform... it creates a drive in "the cloud" and you can access it from any machine. Of course, you are using amazon's S3 service and you have to pay $.15 per/GB per month stored there.

BOb

astrodad · 05-30-2008, 02:52 PM

Holy smokes I never thought of that, and I have a Jungledisk account for backups. I wonder how calibre would perform with a large database on the cloud? I'll give it a shot and see how it works!

astrodad · 05-30-2008, 03:01 PM

Loading up a database from my jungle disk, where my sample db is about 94 MB, takes calibre about 45 seconds to load. That's not too bad. Let me do some imports and report some times.

I'm a 12 Mbs Comcast connection.

astrodad · 05-30-2008, 10:00 PM

Yeah this doesn't really work that well. Jungledisk uses a caching system and if you watch the Jungledisk monitor you'll see that the software needs to upload the entire contents of the file to the server again, despite the fact that I have the Plus option to do incremental uploads. I was going to try doing some kind of ssh mount to my Dreamhost account but that looks dicey too. Perhaps a better solution would be to modify Calibre to work with a networked database instead.

kovidgoyal · 05-30-2008, 10:50 PM

You should just be able to mount over a ssh connection. I've tried that and it works fine. On linux and os x use sshfs and on windows use sftpdrive

astrodad · 06-02-2008, 11:09 AM

I tried the SSH bit with some weird results. I can get it to work, but it's dog slow. From Windows it's not too bad, but from the Mac, using MacFusion (on top of MacFuse and sshfs) it's really slow. But it does work. I wonder if it's dreamhost (my hosting provider).

kovidgoyal · 06-02-2008, 02:37 PM

Maybe sshfs is just slow on the mac. But it is true that sqlite was never designed for use on a network filesystem.

astrodad · 06-02-2008, 03:07 PM

It's actually pretty useful on Windows, even though picture flow is useless now. On a Mac, it takes about twice as long to do anything. It's still worth it to me, though, considering how often I work with multiple systems. How much work would it be to use something like MySQL over SQLite?

05-30-2008, 11:13 AM	#1
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	[Old Thread] calibre portable edition I find myself having to work on more than one system now, and when I travel I am on a different system then when I am at home. I tried putting the calibre database on my home network share, and using it via vpn but it's way too slow. Now I am looking at Portable Apps, which you can run on a flash drive. Has anyone had any experience with these? I run firefox and it seems to be fine, but is there any way to get a Python app to run portable?

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05-30-2008, 11:51 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,849 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Yeah just copy the installation directory onto your flash drive and on each new computer, all you have to do is edit the PATH variable to include the calibre directory. At least, I think it should work like that.

05-30-2008, 11:57 AM	#3
RWood Technogeezer Posts: 7,233 Karma: 1601464 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Virginia, USA Device: Sony PRS-500	I have a small network here (5 computers plus a SAN data store) and the database is very happy living on the SAN and accessed from the computers.

05-30-2008, 01:21 PM	#4
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	Yeah the problem is when you have more than one system and you're in multiple locations. The other problem is when you have multiple platforms. I think I will try to install the Mac and Windows versions onto the Flash drive and then have them share a db file.

05-30-2008, 01:24 PM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,849 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You can put the db file onto the flash drive as well and at least on linux/OSX just create a symbolic link to it from ~/library1.db On windows you'll have to remember to copy the db file on and off the flash drive

05-30-2008, 02:22 PM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,849 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	yeah that would work as well, but it might cause some problems if you ever run calibre from the harddisk while the flash drive is not mounted or is mounted elsewhere

05-30-2008, 02:52 PM	#9
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	Holy smokes I never thought of that, and I have a Jungledisk account for backups. I wonder how calibre would perform with a large database on the cloud? I'll give it a shot and see how it works!

05-30-2008, 03:01 PM	#10
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	Loading up a database from my jungle disk, where my sample db is about 94 MB, takes calibre about 45 seconds to load. That's not too bad. Let me do some imports and report some times. I'm a 12 Mbs Comcast connection.

05-30-2008, 10:00 PM	#11
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	Yeah this doesn't really work that well. Jungledisk uses a caching system and if you watch the Jungledisk monitor you'll see that the software needs to upload the entire contents of the file to the server again, despite the fact that I have the Plus option to do incremental uploads. I was going to try doing some kind of ssh mount to my Dreamhost account but that looks dicey too. Perhaps a better solution would be to modify Calibre to work with a networked database instead.

05-30-2008, 10:50 PM	#12
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,849 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You should just be able to mount over a ssh connection. I've tried that and it works fine. On linux and os x use sshfs and on windows use sftpdrive

06-02-2008, 11:09 AM	#13
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	I tried the SSH bit with some weird results. I can get it to work, but it's dog slow. From Windows it's not too bad, but from the Mac, using MacFusion (on top of MacFuse and sshfs) it's really slow. But it does work. I wonder if it's dreamhost (my hosting provider).

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06-02-2008, 02:37 PM	#14
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,849 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Maybe sshfs is just slow on the mac. But it is true that sqlite was never designed for use on a network filesystem.

06-02-2008, 03:07 PM	#15
astrodad Guru Posts: 962 Karma: 568242 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kindle Paperwhite 1, iPad, iPhone	It's actually pretty useful on Windows, even though picture flow is useless now. On a Mac, it takes about twice as long to do anything. It's still worth it to me, though, considering how often I work with multiple systems. How much work would it be to use something like MySQL over SQLite?