Is it possible to run a truly read-only server?

[crash369]

Hello

Is it still the case that the content-server cannot coexist with the desktop version of Calibre?

I like to use the desktop version to add, update, and organize my ebook collection, but it would be nice to also make this available over the internet.

However, the content server fails to start when it does not have write permissions to the library directory. Also there are warnings in the FAQ that you cannot run the content server and the desktop version simultaneously.

So it seems that despite the default settings for the content server being "read-only", the server still wants to write in the library directory and mess around with the database.

Is there any way to stop that? All I want is read-only access to the library from the web, preferably via hardened container instance. If that is not possible with Calibre, does anyone have alternative suggestions?

Thanks

[kovidgoyal]

You can run the content server from within the GUI, so they can co-exist perfectly well. You cannot run them as separate processes however.

And no the server cannot ever be read-only.

[badbob001]

What I do is:

• Run calibre portable (I'm on windows).
• When calibre gui is closed, automatically copy calibre folder to network storage.
• On server host, schedule it to periodically (like nightly 4am) stop the server, copy down the calibre folder from network storage, and start the server.

[crash369]

That is unfortunate.

[BetterRed]

FWIW the calibre-spy plugin is a 'read only' client, see Index of plugins. And the version 2 server was 'read only', in the sense that it didn't support metadata editing.

BR

[crash369]

Thanks for the idea, but it seems to be a GUI as well, and not meant to be run as a server.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by crash369

Thanks for the idea, but it seems to be a GUI as well, and not meant to be run as a server.

You might have misunderstood.

The version 2 server provides access to calibre libraries via an HTTP browser, just like version 3 or 4. It is 'read only' because it lacks any write capabilities.

I use it to get books from my calibre libraries via an Authors notebook in Evernote. I don't need write access in that context, so there was no value in re-jigging the hooks I had created in Evernote for calibre-server 2 access to work for calibre-server 3 (or 4) access - i.e. IIABDFI.

Calibre-spy is a read-only GUI client that allows multiple users to access the same library concurrently - its primary usage is to overcome the one-instance-only restriction in the standard calibre GUI. I don't know if it can access a library on a server - i.e. if you can open a calibre library via an HTTP URI instead of a calibre library file path - you'd need to ask the author if it is not obvious from the doco. If you can use an HTTP URI, you would use it with the current version of calibre-server.

BR