Calibre

Calibre is a digital library management software tool.

WARNING:

Calibre is not a multi-user program. It is also not designed to share a library on a network drive.

The official recommendation is to use a content-server.

workarounds: http://james.jamesandkristin.net/2012/04/22/accessing-your-ebook-collection-managed-by-calibre-without-calibre-server

Documentation

user manual	https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/
server manual	https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/generated/en/calibre-server.html

Locations

8080	port
${CALIBRE_URL}/mobile	javascript-free version
/home/calibre/.config/calibre/server-users.sqlite	calibre server user database

Notes

calibre install

calibre server usage

calibre server configuration

calibre gui usage

Usage

Calibre is designed as a single-user application, but it's web-server is designed to host a variable number of users.

server

TODO:

Add --enable-auth after adding a user to calibre-server, and you can add books using the web-interface.

https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/server.html#managing-user-accounts-from-the-command-line-only

sudo -u calibre calibre-server --manage-users   # create/edit users (execute when calibre-server started w/o --enable-auth)

# Adding books from commandline
https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/generated/en/calibredb.html#add

calibredb \
  --library-path /mnt/smbshares/books/textbooks \
  --password <pass> \
  --username <user> \
  add \
  --authors "Smith John" \
  --tags "ComputerProgramming: Python, ComputerProgramming: Methodologies" \
  --title "Your Book"

gui

calibre --with-library=/mnt/book/textbooks                 # run calibre with a library in a specific location

Calibre > Calibre Library > Choose your calibre Library    # open a different library

Configuration

WARNING:

Calibre now explicitly disallows sharing a library over a network share. I have been adding books by means of the web interface.

If reading a calibre library off a samba-share, you must mount as CIFS with the option: nobrl, otherwise your database will appear corrupt due to locking.

//192.168.1.220/books             /mnt/books           cifs     auto,_netdev,users,nobrl,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0664,gid=smbshare,x-systemd.automount 0 0

NOTE:

This works fine to read, but fails when trying to add books to the library.

Try setting environment variable $CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH to read books off the network, but keep your own local database for them.

See https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/customize.html