Calibre copying instead of moving files

[mbirth]

When handling large PDFs, I've noticed that, when changing e.g. author or book name, instead of simply renaming the files/folder or moving the book folder to the new author's folder, Calibre seems to copy everything and then delete the files/folder from the previous location.

So what should take a fraction of a second (rename/move) suddenly takes several seconds per book - because everything is duplicated and then the old versions deleted.

I didn't find any option in the Preferences to change this behaviour. Did I miss it? Or is there another way to change this?

[kovidgoyal]

It doesnt copy, it uses hard links. Only if the underlying silesystem doesnt support hardlinks are full copies done. And no it cant move as the operation needs to be atomic, which means that if something fails during the multistep operation the entire operation can be canceled without affecting the original book folder.

[slm]

I don't have any specific information on Calibre's implementation of this approach to moving and renaming.

However, before trying to modify this behavior, you should understand that this is a safety measure--it prevents losing the data if something happens in the middle of the move/rename (either a mechanical fault or a software bug).

It is a very bad idea to try to bypass this behavior, just as it would have been a very bad idea for Calibre itself to do moves in the way you would prefer,

[BetterRed]

@mbirth - which filesystem are you using, and on which OS (Windows, MacOS or Linux)?

Hardlinks are not supported on FAT, FAT32 or exFAT.

BR