Leftover Files

Joseph Mack mack.joseph at epa.gov
Mon May 24 12:43:02 EDT 2004


Donald D Henson wrote:
> 
> SuSE Linux 9.1, gnucash 1.8.8, Gnome 2.4
> 
> After using GnuCash for awhile, there are a rather large number of files
> with the extensions of .log or .xac accumulated in the same folder with
> the basic file used to open a set of accounts. 

The .xac files are backups of your basic file. If you're happy that
everything is correct in your basic file, you can delete them.
I mv these to an xac directory, which I purge occasionally.
Since your gnucash file is binary, if you make some finger slippage
disaster, there is no easy way to debug your file to figure out
what you did to it. Once I had to use an xac file about a month
old to figure out what had happened to some entries (I'd moved a 
series of matching entries to a different account and had mis-moved one -
the result was that the balance that should have showed in my bank acount
no longer matched the statement from the bank for the previous month).

This brings up reconciling. If you move an earlier entry to another
account, the balance in the account will change, even though all the entries
are noted as reconciled. I assume then that an entry is reconciled, rather 
than the balance. Presumably someone else knows whether reconciliation 
applies to the balance or to the entry but I don't know. If reconciliation
applies to the balance, then it would be nice to be able to lock earlier
entries so that they can't be moved without an override.

I have no idea how to use a log file and I delete them.

Joe
-- 
Joseph Mack PhD, High Performance Computing & Scientific Visualization
SAIC, Supporting the EPA Research Triangle Park, NC 919-541-0007
Federal Contact - John B. Smith 919-541-1087 - smith.johnb at epa.gov


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