kindle_collect - read and write Amazon Kindle collections

Copyright (C) 2011  Christian Garbs <mitch@cgarbs.de>
Licensed under GNU GPL v3 or later

Homepage: http://github.com/mmitch/kindle_collect


This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
It might harm your Kindle, it's still experimental.


Mode of operation:
------------------

1. Mount your kindle as a USB mass storage device, e.g. to /mnt/kindle

2. Use your favourite file manager to add and remove documents from
   your documents directory at /mnt/kindle/documents.  You can also
   add/remove audio files under /mnt/kindle/audibles.  The Kindle
   supports subdirectories as far as I can see.

3. Export your current collections with kindle_collect:
   $ kindle_collect --read /mnt/kindle > some_file.txt

4. Edit the collection text file some_file.txt with your favourite text
   editor:

   %% lines mark the beginning of a new collection.  You can edit the
      collection name to rename a collection.  You can also add new
      collections by adding new %% lines.

   ++ lines are the "last accessed" time for a collection, you
      propably don't want to touch it.

   !  missing documents lines tell you that some documents referred
      in the collection cannot be found by kindle_collect.  When you
      write the new collection file back to your Kindle, these
      references are irrevokably lost (but the documents were missing
      anyway, so it should not be a problem).

   All other lines are filenames of documents or audio files.

   Just move those filenames to the collections where you want them
   (copy or move the whole line).  Unassigned files are listed in the
   collection named ___unsorted__ at the end.  A file can be part of
   none, one or multiple collections.

5. Upload the new collection file to your Kindle:
   $ kindle_collect --write /mnt/kindle < some_file.txt

   This overwrites the old system/collections.json, you might want to
   back it up for your first tries.

6. Now unmount and unplug your Kindle.

7. Restart your kindle by sliding the power switch for 20 seconds.

8. Wait for the reboot and enjoy your new collections!


Steps 7 and 8 seem to be necessary to make the kindle read your new
collection file instead of overwriting it with it's own old copy from
it's internal memory.  This is sad, but unsorted collections are worse.


TODO:
-----

* Add wildcards to add whole directores instead of single files.

* Try this on other hardware, only Kindle 3 has been tested so far.

* Don't show (autogroup?) bookmark files like .pdr for .pdf or .mbp for .txt.