multiple non-concurrent users was Re: Any distros have GNUcash 1.8.x yet?

[David]

On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Matthew Vanecek wrote:

> > I am interested in multiple non-concurrent users on a single
> > workstation, and I think the xml backend does not set the permissions
> > on the data and lock files in a way that allows another user to easily
> > share the .xac file.  (I am far from expert on gnu/unix permissions so
> > maybe there is something easy I can do without migrating to postgresql.)
> > 
> 
> chmod g+rw file.xac should work, if all the users are in the same group.

This doesn't work for me.

This is because gnucash does each save as the UID and GID of the user
(regardless of membership of other groups) and with the default
permissions 0644 (of course I need at least 0660).  

Instead I have created a directory mycash - owned by the cash group,
with permissions  0775 (rwxrwxr-x) (though I dare say I could tighten
that down for some privacy.)

It turns out that a gnucash "save" actually creates a new file
file.xac (a new inode) having renamed the original file.xac as a
backup.  So actually the group does not need write permissions on the
file, only on the directory.

I have yet to test how this will deal with stale lock files (probably
not as well as the 'ssh to a dedicated user' solution), but I will put
this into practice with our household accounts.

David
p.s. I have the gnucash 1.6.2 SuSE Linux 7.3 distro rpm