NAME¶

calibredb - calibredb

calibredb command [options] [arguments]

calibredb is the command line interface to the calibre database. It has several sub-commands, documented below.

calibredb can be used to manipulate either a calibre database specified by path or a calibre Content server running either on the local machine or over the internet. You can start a calibre Content server using either the calibre-server program or in the main calibre program click Connect/share  →  Start Content server. Since calibredb can make changes to your calibre libraries, you must setup authentication on the server first. There are two ways to do that:

To connect to a running Content server, pass the URL of the server to the --with-library option, see the documentation of that option for details and examples.

GLOBAL OPTIONS¶

LIST¶

calibredb list [options]

List the books available in the calibre database.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

ADD¶

calibredb add [options] file1 file2 file3 ...

Add the specified files as books to the database. You can also specify folders, see the folder related options below.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

REMOVE¶

calibredb remove ids

Remove the books identified by ids from the database. ids should be a comma separated list of id numbers (you can get id numbers by using the search command). For example, 23,34,57-85 (when specifying a range, the last number in the range is not included).

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

ADD_FORMAT¶

calibredb add_format [options] id ebook_file

Add the e-book in ebook_file to the available formats for the logical book identified by id. You can get id by using the search command. If the format already exists, it is replaced, unless the do not replace option is specified.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

REMOVE_FORMAT¶

calibredb remove_format [options] id fmt

Remove the format fmt from the logical book identified by id. You can get id by using the search command. fmt should be a file extension like LRF or TXT or EPUB. If the logical book does not have fmt available, do nothing.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

SHOW_METADATA¶

calibredb show_metadata [options] id

Show the metadata stored in the calibre database for the book identified by id. id is an id number from the search command.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

SET_METADATA¶

calibredb set_metadata [options] book_id [/path/to/metadata.opf]

Set the metadata stored in the calibre database for the book identified by book_id from the OPF file metadata.opf. book_id is a book id number from the search command. You can get a quick feel for the OPF format by using the --as-opf switch to the show_metadata command. You can also set the metadata of individual fields with the --field option. If you use the --field option, there is no need to specify an OPF file.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

EXPORT¶

calibredb export [options] ids

Export the books specified by ids (a comma separated list) to the filesystem. The export operation saves all formats of the book, its cover and metadata (in an OPF file). Any extra data files associated with the book are also saved. You can get id numbers from the search command.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

CATALOG¶

calibredb catalog /path/to/destination.(csv|epub|mobi|xml...) [options]

Export a catalog in format specified by path/to/destination extension. Options control how entries are displayed in the generated catalog output. Note that different catalog formats support different sets of options. To see the different options, specify the name of the output file and then the --help option.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

SAVED_SEARCHES¶

calibredb saved_searches [options] (list|add|remove)

Manage the saved searches stored in this database. If you try to add a query with a name that already exists, it will be replaced.

Syntax for adding:

calibredb saved_searches add search_name search_expression

Syntax for removing:

calibredb saved_searches remove search_name

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

ADD_CUSTOM_COLUMN¶

calibredb add_custom_column [options] label name datatype

Create a custom column. label is the machine friendly name of the column. Should not contain spaces or colons. name is the human friendly name of the column. datatype is one of: bool, comments, composite, datetime, enumeration, float, int, rating, series, text

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

CUSTOM_COLUMNS¶

calibredb custom_columns [options]

List available custom columns. Shows column labels and ids.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

REMOVE_CUSTOM_COLUMN¶

calibredb remove_custom_column [options] label

Remove the custom column identified by label. You can see available columns with the custom_columns command.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

SET_CUSTOM¶

calibredb set_custom [options] column id value

Set the value of a custom column for the book identified by id. You can get a list of ids using the search command. You can get a list of custom column names using the custom_columns command.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

RESTORE_DATABASE¶

calibredb restore_database [options]

Restore this database from the metadata stored in OPF files in each folder of the calibre library. This is useful if your metadata.db file has been corrupted.

WARNING: This command completely regenerates your database. You will lose all saved searches, user categories, plugboards, stored per-book conversion settings, and custom recipes. Restored metadata will only be as accurate as what is found in the OPF files.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

CHECK_LIBRARY¶

calibredb check_library [options]

Perform some checks on the filesystem representing a library. Reports are invalid_titles, extra_titles, invalid_authors, extra_authors, missing_formats, extra_formats, extra_files, missing_covers, extra_covers, failed_folders

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

LIST_CATEGORIES¶

calibredb list_categories [options]

Produce a report of the category information in the database. The information is the equivalent of what is shown in the Tag browser.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

BACKUP_METADATA¶

calibredb backup_metadata [options]

Backup the metadata stored in the database into individual OPF files in each books folder. This normally happens automatically, but you can run this command to force re-generation of the OPF files, with the --all option.

Note that there is normally no need to do this, as the OPF files are backed up automatically, every time metadata is changed.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

CLONE¶

calibredb clone path/to/new/library

Create a clone of the current library. This creates a new, empty library that has all the same custom columns, Virtual libraries and other settings as the current library.

The cloned library will contain no books. If you want to create a full duplicate, including all books, then simply use your filesystem tools to copy the library folder.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

EMBED_METADATA¶

calibredb embed_metadata [options] book_id

Update the metadata in the actual book files stored in the calibre library from the metadata in the calibre database. Normally, metadata is updated only when exporting files from calibre, this command is useful if you want the files to be updated in place. Note that different file formats support different amounts of metadata. You can use the special value 'all' for book_id to update metadata in all books. You can also specify many book ids separated by spaces and id ranges separated by hyphens. For example: calibredb embed_metadata 1 2 10-15 23

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

SEARCH¶

calibredb search [options] search expression

Search the library for the specified search term, returning a comma separated list of book ids matching the search expression. The output format is useful to feed into other commands that accept a list of ids as input.

The search expression can be anything from calibre's powerful search query language, for example: calibredb search author:asimov 'title:"i robot"'

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

FTS_INDEX¶

calibredb fts_index [options] enable/disable/status/reindex

Control the Full text search indexing process.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

FTS_SEARCH¶

calibredb fts_search [options] search expression

Do a full text search on the entire library or a subset of it.

Whenever you pass arguments to calibredb that have spaces in them, enclose the arguments in quotation marks. For example: "/some path/with spaces"

AUTHOR¶

Kovid Goyal

COPYRIGHT¶

Kovid Goyal