Calibre working directory

[paulfiera]

Is there currently a tweak or an option to specify calibre's temp directory?

I ask this because I've already excluded the calibre executables directory from my antivirus real time monitoring. I would also like to exclude the directory where calibre places its temporary files but I would not like to exclude %TEMP%.

Many thanks

[kovidgoyal]

read the environment variables part of the customizing calibre section of the user manual

[paulfiera]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

read the environment variables part of the customizing calibre section of the user manual

Many thanks, Kovid

I can see environment variables for storing configuration files and metadata.db, but not for specifying a directory where calibre saves temp files - those named "calibre_0.7.35_tmp__xxxxx".

•CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY - sets the directory where configuration files are stored/read.
•CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH - allows you to specify the full path to metadata.db. Using this variable you can have metadata.db be in a location other than the library folder. Useful if your library folder is on a networked drive that does not support file locking.
•CALIBRE_DEVELOP_FROM - Used to run from a calibre development environment. See Setting up a calibre development environment.
•CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_LANG - Used to force the language used by the interface (ISO 639 language code)
•CALIBRE_DISABLE_UDISKS - Used to disable the use of udisks for mounting/ejecting. Set it to 1 to use calibre-mount-helper instead.
•SYSFS_PATH - Use if sysfs is mounted somewhere other than /sys
•http_proxy - Used on linux to specify an HTTP proxy

Maybe I am not looking at the right place?

[kovidgoyal]

Ah I must have forgotten to add that. The relevant environment variable is TMP

[paulfiera]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Ah I must have forgotten to add that. The relevant environment variable is TMP

Thanks again.

But where do I enter that env. variable in calibre? We are not talking about system environment variables, right?

[paulfiera]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Ah I must have forgotten to add that. The relevant environment variable is TMP

Hi Kovid

I've entered CALIBRE_TMP as a system variable with a value of D:\Calibre - which I'd like to use for calibre's temporary files -, but I guess it's not right because calibre still uses D:\TEMP - which is my system %TMP% .

[itimpi]

I think that you need to start a command shell and the set the TMP environment variable just before launching Calibre (overriding the system default setting for that run of Calibre).

[paulfiera]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I think that you need to start a command shell and the set the TMP environment variable just before launching Calibre (overriding the system default setting for that run of Calibre).

Thanks, itimpi.

But then, that TMP variable will be used by other programs in the same session. What I'd really like would be the possibility of defining the temp directory for calibre.

[itimpi]

If you start Calibre via a shell script/batch file, then the setting only persists for that particular invocation.

[paulfiera]

Originally Posted by itimpi

If you start Calibre via a shell script/batch file, then the setting only persists for that particular invocation.

Many thanks, itimpi. It works.

I start calibre from a batch file...

SET TEMP=d:\calibre
"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe"

... and calibre stores the temp files in d:\calibre.

[itimpi]

Glad to hear that it worked.

Just a suggestion - you might want to start Calibre within the batch file using the START command as this starts Calibre in another process and the batch file window does not hang around.

[paulfiera]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Glad to hear that it worked.

Just a suggestion - you might want to start Calibre within the batch file using the START command as this starts Calibre in another process and the batch file window does not hang around.

Perfect.

START calibre.exe

Calibre exe is already in the PATH environment variable.

Many thanks, itimpi

[paulfiera]

A quick follow-up.

I do not have any metrics but both calibre and the viewer open definitely faster after excluding the calibre temp dir from an antivirus real time scanning.

But it looks like you have to point both TMP and TEMP environment variables to your calibre working directory. I guess this is because the application, some places looks after TMP and another after TEMP.

But hey, this is the best app I've gotten my hands on in the latest couple of years.

It would be great though to be able to configure this in calibre, like the way you can choose where to place your TIF folders in IE.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by paulfiera

I do not have any metrics but both calibre and the viewer open definitely faster after excluding the calibre temp dir from an antivirus real time scanning.

I too noticed some improvement. Every little bit helps.

Originally Posted by paulfiera

But it looks like you have to point both TMP and TEMP environment variables to your calibre working directory. I guess this is because the application, some places looks after TMP and another after TEMP.

Thanks for the info, I added this to my batch file.

Originally Posted by paulfiera

It would be great though to be able to configure this in calibre

This would be nice, add to it the ability to enter where you want your configuration directory to be and I could dump my batch file.

[paulfiera]

I've already submitted this as an enhancement request.

I don't think it would be so hard to implement

Is usertemp defined then

use usertemp

else

use temp environment

That's the idea of it. Nothing that would break existing installations.