50 char limit?

BrianG · 01-24-2010, 11:06 PM

There seems to be a 50 character limit on the names of directories and files in the Calibre Library on disk. This seems to fix itself when a file is copied to a device (e.g. the file name is not truncated), but this is a problem in writing technology to automatically sync the device wiht the Calibre library.

Is this limit avoidable? configurable? Necessary?

I think it can be avoided by using some of the file naming parameters in Preferences, but removing the character limit (if possible) is preferable.

Thanks,
BrianG

kovidgoyal · 01-24-2010, 11:26 PM

IIRC there's a total character limit of 250 but I don't think there's an individual component limit.

itimpi · 01-25-2010, 11:15 AM

As far as I know the limit cannot be changed. There are also potential problems if the author and/or title contains non-ASCII characters as Calibre typically converts these to underscores for storing files in its library.

However if you extract the path for a book from the Calibre metadata.db file it will be correct, and that way you do not have to be aware of what transformation Calibre might do on a path.

01-24-2010, 11:06 PM	#1
BrianG Member Posts: 23 Karma: 22 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Kindle DX	50 char limit? There seems to be a 50 character limit on the names of directories and files in the Calibre Library on disk. This seems to fix itself when a file is copied to a device (e.g. the file name is not truncated), but this is a problem in writing technology to automatically sync the device wiht the Calibre library. Is this limit avoidable? configurable? Necessary? I think it can be avoided by using some of the file naming parameters in Preferences, but removing the character limit (if possible) is preferable. Thanks, BrianG

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01-24-2010, 11:26 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,618 Karma: 28549044 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	IIRC there's a total character limit of 250 but I don't think there's an individual component limit.

01-25-2010, 11:15 AM	#3
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	As far as I know the limit cannot be changed. There are also potential problems if the author and/or title contains non-ASCII characters as Calibre typically converts these to underscores for storing files in its library. However if you extract the path for a book from the Calibre metadata.db file it will be correct, and that way you do not have to be aware of what transformation Calibre might do on a path.

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