calibredb

NOTE:

On macOS, the command line tools are inside the Calibre bundle, e.g. /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/console.app/Contents/MacOS/.

Documentation

calibredb [GLOBAL-PARAMETER ...] SUBCOMMAND EBOOK [EBOOK ...]

Global parameters

The following parameters can be used with the subcommands below:

Do not notify the running Calibre GUI (if any) that the database has changed. Use with care, as it can lead to database corruption!

add

Add the specified files as books to the database.

-a AUTHORS, --authors AUTHORS: Set the AUTHORS of the added book(s).
-c PATH, --cover PATH: PATH to the cover to use for the added book.
-d, --duplicates,: Add books to database even if they already exist. Comparison is done based on book titles.
-l LANGUAGES, --languages LANGUAGES: A comma separated list of LANGUAGES.
-t TITLE, --title TITLE: Set the TITLE of the added book(s)
-T TAGS, --tags TAGS: Set the TAGS of the added book(s).

add (Additional parameters for directories)

You can also specify directories.

-1, --one-book-per-directory: Assume that each directory has only a single logical book and that all files in it are different e-book formats of that book.
-r, --recurse: Process directories recursively.

list

List the books available in the Calibre database.

--ascending: Sort results in ascending order.
-f FIELDS, --fields FIELDS: The FIELDS to display when listing books in the database. Should be a comma separated list of fields.; Available fields: author_sort, authors, comments, cover, formats, id, identifiers, isbn, languages, last_modified, pubdate, publisher, rating, series, series_index, size, tags, timestamp, title, uuid. Default: title,authors. The special field all can be used to select all fields.
--for-machine: Generate output in JSON format, which is more suitable for machine parsing. Causes the line width and separator options to be ignored.
--limit NUMBER: The maximum NUMBER of results to display. Default: all.
-s QUERY, --search QUERY: Filter the results by the search QUERY. For the format of the search query, please see the search related documentation in the User Manual.
--sort-by FIELDS: The FIELDS by which to sort the results.; Available fields: author_sort, authors, comments, cover, formats, id, identifiers, isbn, languages, last_modified, pubdate, publisher, rating, series, series_index, size, tags, timestamp, title, uuid. Default: id.

calibre --shutdown-running-calibre
calibredb add --one-book-per-directory '.'