Installing GNU Cash with PostGreSQL

[Phil Longstaff]

On July 9, 2009 08:24:57 pm Anders Johansson wrote:
> How do I install GNU Cash to use PostGreSQL as the backend?  I am running
> Win XP Pro, service pack 3.  I currently have GNU Cash 2.2.9 and willing to
> experiment with 2.3.2, but would like to try it using the PostGreSQL
> backend.
>
> Thanks,
> Anders

The 2.3.2 win32 setup .exe is on sourceforge.  Download it and install it.  It 
should contain everything required to access a postgresql db.

The File -> Open and Save As menu entries are changed.  In the past, they were 
simple file dialog boxes.  Now, they are new dialog boxes.  In the top left 
corner is a combo box indicating what type of file or connection to use.  For 
Open, default is "file", other entries are "mysql" or "pgsql".  For Save As, 
default is "sqlite3", other entries are "xml", "mysql" or "pgsql".  If the 
setting is "file", "sqlite3" or "xml", the top right portion of the dialog will 
be disabled and the bottom section will be enabled.  This section is a 
standard file access dialog.  If the setting is "mysql" or "pgsql", the bottom 
section is disabled and the top right section is enabled.  This section 
contains 4 text entry fields where you can enter hostname, db name, username 
and password.

Once you have your postgresql server setup, start gnucash.  Open your existing 
gnucash file.  Use Save As, switch to "pgsql", then enter hostname, dbname, 
username and password.  The username must be for a user with authorization to 
create a database if it doesn't already exist.

With postgresql, you might get a popup dialog telling you that the db has 
contents which will be overwritten, even though this is a newly created db.  
This is a bug.  Just press OK.

Good luck.  After this, there should be very little difference, other than the 
fact that all changes (e.g. new transactions) are saved automatically, so you 
do not need to save on exit.

Phil