dshap/calibre repository overview

⁠Calibre web server

Docker image for book management web server.

Container runs as non-root user. This user owns calibre process and owns calibre files.

To run container next volumes should be mapped:

• folder for calibre files
• logs folder
• backups folder

⁠Installation

⁠Installation from docker image

1. Pull docker image
2. Create user and group to own calibre files and to run docker container:

   sudo groupadd -g 1195 calibre
   

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   useradd -u 1195 -g 1195 -M calibre
   

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3. Proceed to configuration

⁠Installation from source

1. Pull project sources from version control system
2. Create user and group to own calibre files and to run docker container:

   sudo useradd -r calibre
   

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   sudo groupmod -g 1195 calibre
   

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   sudo usermod -u 1195 calibre
   

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3. Make build executable:

   sudo chmod u+x ./build
   

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4. Execute build:

   sudo ./build calibre
   

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5. Proceed to configuration

⁠Configuration

1. Obtain configuration files and scripts from the container:

   cd ~
   

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   mkdir conf
   

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   sudo chown calibre:calibre ~/conf
   

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   sudo docker run \
       --rm \
       -v ~/conf:/export \
       dshap/calibre:9.11.0 export-assets
   

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2. Create folders for calibre files:

   sudo mkdir /calibre
   

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   sudo mkdir /calibre/data
   

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   sudo chown -R calibre:calibre /calibre
   

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3. Create a folder for logs:

   sudo mkdir /var/log/calibre
   

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   sudo chown -R calibre:calibre /var/log/calibre
   

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4. Create a folder for backups:

   sudo mkdir /var/backups/calibre
   

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   sudo chown -R calibre:calibre /var/backups/calibre
   

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5. Copy service configuration file:

   sudo cp ~/conf/etc/init.d/calibre /etc/init.d
   

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   sudo chmod a+x /etc/init.d/calibre
   

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6. Copy docker run script:

   sudo cp ~/conf/usr/sbin/calibre /usr/sbin
   

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   sudo chmod a+x /usr/sbin/calibre
   

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7. Copy util script:

   sudo cp ~/conf/usr/bin/clutil /usr/bin
   

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   sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/clutil
   

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8. Remove temporary config folder:

   sudo rm -rf ~/conf
   

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9. Register service:

   sudo update-rc.d calibre defaults
   

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10. Specify library name in /usr/sbin/calibre file:

    docker run ... -e LIBRARIES="<library_name>" ...
    

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11. Start calibre service:

    sudo service calibre start
    

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12. Create user account:

    sudo clutil manageusers
    

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13. Restart calibre service:

    sudo service calibre restart
    

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⁠Management

⁠Service management

sudo service calibre (start|stop|status|restart)

⁠User management

sudo clutil manage-users

⁠Database management

sudo clutil calibredb command [options] [arguments]

calibredb command is passed to the running docker container with clutil utility.

If calibredb command requires library path to be specified, then library name (as specified in the LIBRARIES environment variable) should be used. The clutil utility translates library name to the library path. For example, to list the specified book fields in the library <library_name>, next command can be used:

sudo clutil calibredb list --library-path <library_name> -f id,authors,author_sort,title,series,series_index,publisher,tags

⁠Create backup

sudo clutil backup <filename>

Backup file /var/backups/calibre/<filename>.tar.gz will be created.

⁠Restore backup

sudo clutil restore <filename>

⁠Command line (bash)

sudo clutil bash

⁠Apache mod_proxy configuration

Calibre web server can be located with another web applications. For example, mercurial, bugzilla, wiki etc can be run as docker containers on the same host. In this case apache server can be used to redirect requests to different docker containers.

1. Enable apache mod_proxy:

   sudo a2enmod deflate headers proxy proxy_ajp proxy_balancer proxy_connect proxy_html proxy_http rewrite
   

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2. Configure proxy:

   <VirtualHost *:80>
       ...
       ProxyPreserveHost On
       <Proxy *>
           Order allow,deny
           Allow from all
       </Proxy>
       ...
   </VirtualHost>
   

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3. Copy site configuration file:

   sudo cp ~/conf/etc/apache2/sites-available/calibre.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available
   

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4. Enable apache sites:

   sudo a2ensite calibre
   

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5. Restart apache service:

   sudo service apache2 restart
   

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⁠HOW TO

⁠How to use multiple libraries

1. Stop calibre service:

   sudo service calibre stop
   

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2. Specify libraries names (with colon as a delimiter) in /usr/sbin/calibre file:

   docker run ... -e LIBRARIES="library-1:library-2:library-3" ...
   

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3. Start calibre service:

   sudo service calibre start
   

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⁠How to provide anonymous access to the libraries

1. Stop calibre service:

   sudo service calibre stop
   

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2. Specify container environment variable WITH_AUTH in /usr/sbin/calibre file:

   docker run ... -e WITH_AUTH="false" ...
   

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3. Start calibre service:

   sudo service calibre start
   

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Everyone can access the libraries, but no one can make changes. To upload new books, or to change the book metadata, the container environment variable WITH_AUTH should be true. After the changes are made, the container environment variable WITH_AUTH can be changed to false again.

⁠How to clear book metadata

sudo clutil clear-metadata <library> <column_name>

This command will clean the specified <column_name> for all books in the specified <library>.

The valid column names are:

• identifiers
• languages
• pubdate
• publisher
• timestamp
• rating

⁠How to remove books

To remove the book with id <id> from the library <library_name>, the next command can be used:

sudo clutil calibredb --library-path <library_name> remove <id>

Multiple book ids can be specified (with comma separator, or with range):

sudo clutil calibredb --library-path <library_name> remove <id1>,<id2>,<id3>

sudo clutil calibredb --library-path <library_name> remove <id1>-<id3>

⁠How to remove excessive permissions

Calibre gives 777 permit to all folders in the libraries. Calibre also gives execute permission to the log files. To remove excessive permissions, just restart calibre service:

sudo service calibre restart

⁠How to create cron job for backups

sudo crontab -l | { cat; echo "minute hour * * * /usr/bin/clutil backup <filename>"; echo ""; } | sudo crontab -