Setting the initial library for Calibre Portable to load

[haertig]

Software: Calibre Portable v5.44 running on Linux

I am wondering how to get Calibre Portable to startup opening the library "Novels" (see screen shot of directory structure attached below). Currently, it always starts up opening "CalibreLibrary" which is not a library itself (just a directory that contains libraries), and then I have to manually select "Novels" (or "Reference"). Which works fine, but it's an extra step at startup that I'd just as soon avoid.

Is there a setting within Calibre Portable to specify the initial library to open? Or is it possible to rearrange/rename my directory structure to cause "Novels" to be opened by default? All of these libraries are within the Calibre Portable directory structure (no symlinks, no NFS mounts, etc.)

[ownedbycats]

It's designed to always open CalibreLibrary.

I have successfully replaced the internal library folder with an (NTFS) directory junction pointing to the regular library, but that's kind of an awkward way to go about it if they're all in the same place.

[ownedbycats]

If the reason you're using portable is not for actual portability but because you want your appdata in a specific place, check out Calibre's env variables for a regular install.

[haertig]

Thanks. I assume "directory junction" must be a Windows filesystem term that is functionally similar to a Linux symlink or hardlink.

I am using Calibre Portable because I do indeed want this to potentially be portable, although this current installation is on my internal SSD. However, I may copy it to a thumbdrive sometime in the future.

Based on what you have said, I think I will try something like this (see attached screenshot of directory changes).

Thanks again!

[haertig]

The symlink works for my purposes. I misspoke when I previously said "or hardlink". You can't create a hardlink to a directory. I typed before my brain was engaged when I mentioned hardlink.

There is one minor glitch in this symlink workaround. When you initially start up Calibre, it indeed opens the desired library now. And you can see in the first attached screenshot below that all the libraries have their correct names (I have more libraries than just "Novels" and "Reference", but I only mentioned those two earlier to make things simpler). But once I choose a different library - Calibre successfully changes to that other library - then you can see in the Quick Switch listing that your current library has taken on the name of "CalibreLibrary" rather than it's true name. As you switch between other libraries, the "CalibreLibrary" moniker moves around to point to the current library (and the original name of the previous library is restored). This is a minor glitch that I can live with. It's easy to tell which library I am in just by looking at the book covers.

Thanks for your help!

[ownedbycats]

On NTFS, folder symlinks and directory junctions work pretty much the same, but symlinks are less transparent to applications and occasionally cause issues on less well-programmed ones. (So, a lot of games. )

[haertig]

SOLVED (I don't know how to mark the thread as solved, so I'm putting it here).