Ubuntu 24.04 Converting epub to mobi format

Using the ebook-convert tool from Calibre

To convert an EPUB file to MOBI format on Ubuntu, you can use the ebook-convert tool from Calibre. Here’s how you can do it:

• Install Calibre

If you haven’t already, you can install Calibre using the following command:

sudo apt-get install calibre

Convert EPUB to MOBI

Use the ebook-convert command to convert your EPUB file to MOBI.
For example, to convert a file named book.epub to book.mobi, you would use:
ebook-convert book.epub book.mobi

Other file formats are also supported with ebook-convert

ebook-convert "book.azw3" "book.mobi"

Convert in bulk

• This assumes you have a Directory with books.epub you want converted to books.mobi in bulk.
• This script should be saved and run in said directory.

$EDITOR convert_epub_to_mobi.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Check if ebook-convert is installed
if ! command -v ebook-convert &> /dev/null
then
    echo "ebook-convert could not be found. Please install calibre."
    exit 1
fi

# Loop through all .epub files in the current directory
for file in *.epub; do
    # Check if the file exists (to avoid processing '.*.epub' which would be all files)
    if [ -f "$file" ]; then
        # Get the filename without the extension
        filename="${file%.epub}"
        # Convert the file
        ebook-convert "$file" "${filename}.mobi"
        echo "Converted $file to ${filename}.mobi"
    fi
done

Now you can run with bash or make excultable

• With bash

bash convert_epub_to_mobi.sh

• Make excultable

chmod +x convert_epub_to_mobi.sh

./convert_epub_to_mobi.sh

system wide script

If you are gonna be using a lot, can make script which you install in /usr/bin/ so you can just use:convert_epub_to_mobi /path/to/epub/files /path/to/output/mobi

$EDITOR convert_epub_to_mobi

#!/bin/bash

# Check if ebook-convert is installed
if ! command -v ebook-convert &> /dev/null
then
    echo "ebook-convert could not be found. Please install calibre."
    exit 1
fi

# Check if correct number of arguments are provided
if [ "$#" -ne 2 ]; then
    echo "Usage: $0 <source_directory> <output_directory>"
    exit 1
fi

SOURCE_DIR="$1"
OUTPUT_DIR="$2"

# Check if source directory exists
if [ ! -d "$SOURCE_DIR" ]; then
    echo "Source directory does not exist: $SOURCE_DIR"
    exit 1
fi

# Create output directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p "$OUTPUT_DIR"

# Loop through all .epub files in the source directory
for file in "$SOURCE_DIR"/*.epub; do
    # Check if the file exists (to avoid processing '*.epub' if no files match)
    if [ -f "$file" ]; then
        # Get the filename without the path and extension
        filename=$(basename "$file" .epub)
        # Convert the file, placing the output in the specified directory
        ebook-convert "$file" "$OUTPUT_DIR/${filename}.mobi"
        echo "Converted $file to ${filename}.mobi in $OUTPUT_DIR"
    fi
done

Make it Executable and Move to /usr/bin/:

sudo cp convert_epub_to_mobi /usr/bin/

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/convert_epub_to_mobi

Now you can run the script from anywhere by specifying source and output directories:

convert_epub_to_mobi /path/to/epub/files /path/to/output/mobi

• Example: will convert all epubs in Downloads to newly created Kindlebooks directory

convert_epub_to_mobi Downloads/ Kindlebooks

Notes:

• This script will create the output directory if it does not exist.
• It checks for the existence of the source directory before proceeding.
• The usage message helps remind users of the correct command structure if they forget.
• As before, ensure ebook-convert (part of Calibre) is installed on the system.
• Error handling for ebook-convert isn't included; you might want to add that for production use or for better user feedback on conversion failures.