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 965 calibre
   

   useradd -u 965 -g 965 -M calibre
   

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
   

3. Make build executable:

   sudo chmod u+x ./build
   

4. Execute build:

   sudo ./build calibre
   

5. Proceed to configuration.

Configuration

1. Create folders for calibre files:

   sudo mkdir /calibre
   

   sudo mkdir /calibre/data
   

2. Create folder for logs:

   sudo mkdir /var/log/calibre
   

3. Create folder for backups:

   sudo mkdir /var/backups/calibre
   

4. Grant permit to all folders:

   sudo chown -R calibre:calibre /calibre
   

   sudo chown calibre:calibre /var/log/calibre
   

   sudo chown calibre:calibre /var/backups/calibre
   

5. Copy etc/init.d/calibre to /etc/init.d folder:

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

6. Copy usr/sbin/calibre to /usr/sbin folder:

   sudo cp ./usr/sbin/calibre /usr/sbin
   

7. Copy usr/bin/clutil to /usr/bin folder:

   sudo cp ./usr/bin/clutil /usr/bin
   

8. Make all files executable:

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

   sudo chmod a+x /usr/sbin/calibre
   

   sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/clutil
   

9. Register service:

   sudo update-rc.d calibre defaults
   

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

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

11. Start calibre service:

    sudo service calibre start
    

12. Create user account:

    sudo clutil manageusers
    

13. Restart calibre service:

    sudo service calibre restart
    

Management

Service management

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

User management

sudo clutil manageusers

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
   

2. Configure proxy:

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

3. Copy ./etc/apache2/sites-available/calibre.conf to /etc/apache2/sites-available folder:

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

4. Enable apache sites:

   sudo a2ensite calibre
   

5. Restart apache service:

   sudo service apache2 restart
   

HOW TO

How to use multiple libraries

1. Stop calibre service:

   sudo service calibre stop
   

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

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

3. Start calibre service:

   sudo service calibre start
   

How to provide anonymous access to the libraries

1. Stop calibre service:

   sudo service calibre stop
   

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

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

3. Start calibre service:

   sudo service calibre start
   

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 WITHAUTH should be true. After the changes are made, the container environment variable WITHAUTH can be changed to false again.

How to clear book metadata

sudo clutil clearmetadata <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 -

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