Creating epub with a2x versus ZIP

Question

Using this a2x command creates a valid .epub file (book.epub):

$ a2x -v -k -f epub -d book book.asc
a2x: archiving: mimetype
a2x: archiving: META-INF/container.xml
a2x: archiving: OEBPS/ch01.html
a2x: archiving: OEBPS/ch02.html
a2x: archiving: OEBPS/content.opf
a2x: archiving: OEBPS/docbook-xsl.css
a2x: archiving: OEBPS/index.html
a2x: archiving: OEBPS/pr01.html
a2x: archiving: OEBPS/toc.ncx

However, if I try to manually create an .epub archive using the artifacts (contained in book.epub.d) of the a2x command and zip command, the resulting .epub file is not valid:

$ zip -vr book.epub book.epub.d/ -x "*.DS_Store"
  adding: book.epub.d/  (in=0) (out=0) (stored 0%)
  adding: book.epub.d/META-INF/ (in=0) (out=0) (stored 0%)
  adding: book.epub.d/META-INF/container.xml    (in=255) (out=175) (deflated 31%)
  adding: book.epub.d/mimetype  (in=20) (out=20) (stored 0%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/    (in=0) (out=0) (stored 0%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/ch01.html   (in=1161) (out=686) (deflated 41%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/ch02.html   (in=679) (out=414) (deflated 39%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/content.opf (in=1288) (out=476) (deflated 63%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/docbook-xsl.css (in=5738) (out=1518) (deflated 74%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/index.html  (in=1156) (out=590) (deflated 49%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/pr01.html   (in=770) (out=485) (deflated 37%)
  adding: book.epub.d/OEBPS/toc.ncx (in=772) (out=325) (deflated 58%)

I suspect this is because the archive's files include book.epub.d in the paths. Is there a way to exclude this?

Answer 1

Here is the command I have used successfully:

zip -Xr epubfilename.ePUB mimetype  META-INF OEBPS -x \*.DS_Store

This places files in the right order (mime type first, then META-INF with container.xml next, finally everything else) and excludes .DS_store since it looks like you are on a Mac.

Note that you will need to do this from within the book.epub.d directory in your example to produce the correct output.

I also recommend double checking results with epubcheck (https://github.com/IDPF/epubcheck or http://validator.idpf.org) if you are not already doing so.

Answer 2

I do a succession of zip commands to zip an EPUB:

cd /home/bookdirectory (where mimetype, OEBPS and META-INF are subdirectories)
zip -X book.epub mimetype
zip -r book.epub META-INF
zip -r book.epub OEBPS

I had trouble for the longest time, until I figured that the -X was essential on the mimetype zip.

I notice your zip exclude is a lowercase x ..maybe switch that to upper-case?