Moving instead of copying ?

Giuseppe Chillem · 04-09-2013, 05:58 PM

Hi,
as most libraries are on the same partition, could calibre be programmed to move the files instead of copying and then deleting them ?

Adoby · 04-09-2013, 11:48 PM

Yes it COULD. But I don't think it should. It is safer to first copy all the files, then if successful, delete the original files. Then all or none are moved. I suspect this is intentional.

I prefer safety before speed, when it comes to how calibre manipulates files.

If you need speed, invest in faster disks and more memory for disk caches.

BetterRed · 04-11-2013, 11:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adoby

Yes it COULD. But I don't think it should. It is safer to first copy all the files, then if successful, delete the original files. Then all or none are moved. I suspect this is intentional.

I prefer safety before speed, when it comes to how calibre manipulates files.

If you need speed, invest in faster disks and more memory for disk caches.

Adoby,

A move within a POSIX compliant partition is a heck of a lot safer than a copy, because it involves a lot less I/O.

A move is a copy and delete of an inode within the directory structure rather than copying and deleting whole files. Many file systems (NTFS, HFS+ etc) give the directory structure extra safeguards to reduce the chance of corruption - such as pre-allocating disk space, using contiguous clusters etc.

And, on a POSIX compliant file system Calibre in fact does do moves (copy and delete inodes) when a book or author is renamed within a Library (directory). So why not do the same when a book is moved between two Libraries (directories) in the same partition.

IMO GC has made a valid suggestion - that is in fact safer.

BR

kovidgoyal · 04-11-2013, 11:37 PM

No a move is not safer, the filesystem and the metadata.db database have to be kept in sync. That cannot be guaranteed with a move.

And calibre does not do a copy, it does a hardlink, then updates metadata.db and then a delete. That way the worst that can happen is you have extra files in your library, but metadata.db and the files can never be out of sync.

The only situation where calibre does a copy if is hardlinking fails because whatever filesystem you have your calibre library on is poorly implemented.

04-09-2013, 05:58 PM	#1
Giuseppe Chillem Groupie Posts: 178 Karma: 134 Join Date: May 2010 Device: IREX DR1000	Moving instead of copying ? Hi, as most libraries are on the same partition, could calibre be programmed to move the files instead of copying and then deleting them ? Last edited by Giuseppe Chillem; 04-09-2013 at 06:04 PM.

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04-09-2013, 11:48 PM	#2
Adoby Handy Elephant Posts: 1,737 Karma: 26785684 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Southern Sweden, far out in the quiet woods Device: Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	Yes it COULD. But I don't think it should. It is safer to first copy all the files, then if successful, delete the original files. Then all or none are moved. I suspect this is intentional. I prefer safety before speed, when it comes to how calibre manipulates files. If you need speed, invest in faster disks and more memory for disk caches.

04-11-2013, 11:37 PM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,164 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	No a move is not safer, the filesystem and the metadata.db database have to be kept in sync. That cannot be guaranteed with a move. And calibre does not do a copy, it does a hardlink, then updates metadata.db and then a delete. That way the worst that can happen is you have extra files in your library, but metadata.db and the files can never be out of sync. The only situation where calibre does a copy if is hardlinking fails because whatever filesystem you have your calibre library on is poorly implemented.

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