data lost between sessions

hendrik at topoi.pooq.com hendrik at topoi.pooq.com
Sun Jan 25 08:30:51 EST 2009 

It almost sounds as if the transaction contained an 
invisible or nonprinting invalid character.

-- hendrik

On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 10:44:20PM -0600, Lenore Horner wrote:
> Thank you.  I had no idea how I could read the files.
> 
> I did that - used Smultron to read line numbers because Safari's view  
> source wouldn't show a status bar or line number but the layout looked  
> the same.
> 
> I could not see anything wrong with the offending transaction when  
> comparing it to previous transactions.  By cutting out the offending  
> transaction and then various parts of it I managed to figure out what  
> changes would cause Safari to open the file without the red complaint  
> box.  I tried cutting out various pieces of the description to no  
> avail.  I finally deleted the entire description and retyped it.  That  
> works.  I have no idea why.
> 
> Now to reinstall Gnucash (updating mangled things so I'm starting  
> over) and see if the file is readable.
> 
> 
> On Jan 20, 2009, at 3:19 PM, Andy Den Tandt wrote:
> 
> > A reply off-list to help you find the position of the problem, but I  
> > am not a gnucash developer, so if you have located the place of the  
> > problem, an extract or screenshot of that position might be helpful  
> > for the developers.
> >
> >
> > By “sort of readable” you mean that you are seeing some of your  
> > account names, but it’s all data that is appended, eg account name  
> > transaction date transaction description, …?
> >
> > As far as I remember, Safari shows the XML as far as it understands  
> > it but without the XML tags. By scrolling till the end and trying to  
> > find a unique text (transaction description?), you can also have a  
> > clue where the error in the file approximately is.
> >
> > Next step is to open the XML file in a way that shows the line number.
> > First option is in Safari/Firefox to “Show Source”. My firefox  
> > brings up a separate window and the statusbar at the bottom displays  
> > line and column number, but I first have to click somewhere for that  
> > info to appear.
> > Second option is to open the XML into a plain text editor. The  
> > standard Mac editor will do, but you will have to ensure that it is  
> > showing line numbers. Again, memory is rusty, but you might have to  
> > change the mode to plain text and disable line wraps. The statusbar  
> > should also show line and column numbers.
> >
> > At the indicated position, what do you see?
> > -          just a single special character, but the XML continues  
> > nicely afterwards?
> > -          garbage?
> > -          ….?
> >
> > Andy
> >
> >
> > Van: Lenore Horner [mailto:LenoreHorner at sbcglobal.net]
> > Verzonden: maandag 19 januari 2009 23:55
> > Aan: Andy Den Tandt
> > CC: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > Onderwerp: Re: data lost between sessions
> >
> > Andy,
> >
> > Thanks for the directions.
> >
> > I did that and Safari opened a page that was only sort-of readable,  
> > but came with a big, red header of
> > This page contains the following errors:
> >
> > error on line 5214 at column 73631: internal error
> > Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.
> >
> >  How do I go about figuring out what the error actually is?
> >
> > Lenore
> >
> > On Jan 19, 2009, at 15:33 PM, Andy Den Tandt wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > A long shot - but like the modification dates, maybe you see an  
> > (error)
> > message that points you in the right direction:
> >
> > The data files are gzip compressed XML files. Do you see anything  
> > wrong with
> > the XML?
> >
> > Instructions are based on Windows, you will have to compensate for mac
> > behavior ;-)
> > - Rename .xac file to test.gz
> > - uncompress
> > - rename extracted file to test.xml
> > - drag the test.xml file onto Safari or Firefox.
> >
> > Observe whether the browser reports any errors in parsing the XML.
> > Also: is all your data in the XML of the 40K file? What's the  
> > difference
> > with your 20K file? Only the creditcard transactions or is anything  
> > else
> > missing?
> >
> > Andy
> >
> > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> > Van: gnucash-user-bounces at gnucash.org
> > [mailto:gnucash-user-bounces at gnucash.org] Namens Lenore Horner
> > Verzonden: maandag 19 januari 2009 20:19
> > Aan: Robert G Palmer Jr
> > CC: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > Onderwerp: Re: data lost between sessions
> >
> >
> > On Jan 19, 2009, at 12:35 PM, Robert G Palmer Jr wrote:
> >
> >
> > No, that's the only date/time. If all your other documents have the
> > correct date and time, then I'd say that is not the problem (create
> > a new TextEdit file and save it then check the date and time with
> > 'Get Info...' from the Finder.
> > That's working fine.  It did just now occur to me that I use relative
> > data and time in the finder and that perhaps that got screwed up in
> > the finder some how.
> >
> >
> >
> > I think the quit process may be the key. What are you doing when you
> > quit? Do NOT just quit X11. you should use the GnuCash 'File' menu
> > to quit GnuCash first, then you can quit x11.  Quitting x11 with GC
> > running would be the equivalent of pulling the plug on your computer
> > with Numbers running (or any other program running)
> > Good grief, No!  Of course I quite the program before quitting the
> > windowing system.
> >
> > While this might help avoid future errors.  None of this helps with
> > how to open my existing file without having half the data wiped out as
> > I open it.  (Open the 40kB file and then save it and suddenly it's a
> > 20kB file with no credit-card charges).
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Robert.
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > On Jan 19, 2009, at 1:23 PM, Lenore Horner
> > <LenoreHorner at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >
> > Date and time are correct in System preferences.  This is the only
> > time I know about.  Does anyone know some other date I should be
> > looking at?
> >
> >
> > On Jan 19, 2009, at 12:15 PM, Donald Allen wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Lenore Horner
> > <LenoreHorner at sbcglobal.net
> >
> > wrote:
> > I'm on a Mac.  System date I can check.  I don't know equivalent of
> > bios date.
> >
> > I would definitely pursue the date issue first (I think Ken's
> > instinct to focus on that is correct). This is not normal Gnucash
> > behavior, Mac or otherwise (plenty of people run it on Macs happily
> > and they would not be happy, as you are not, if transactions are
> > randomly being thrown on the floor) -- it is something funky about
> > your system, perhaps interacting in a bad way with Gnucash. Verify
> > that the date and time is correct, and if not, find out why not.
> >
> > /Don Allen
> >
> >
> > On Jan 19, 2009, at 11:51 PM, hermit wrote:
> >
> > Is your bios and system date the same?  I don't know where the
> > program
> > gets the date from, but I would check that.
> >
> > Ken
> >
> > Lenore Horner wrote:
> > On Jan 19, 2009, at 9:50 PM, Lenore Horner wrote:
> >
> >
> > Twice in the last two months I have opened Gnucash to find
> > significant numbers of transactions missing from the registers.
> > Last month it was an entire block of time missing.  I was able
> > to go
> > back (very far back!) to an uncorrupted .xac file and then run
> > all
> > the subsequent .log files.  This was tedious, but did seem to
> > have
> > restored all my data.  That was on 2.2.6.  Thinking that perhaps
> > there was a bug that had been fixed, I upgraded to 2.2.7 (the
> > latest
> > version in MacPorts in Dec. 2008).  Imagine my disgust when I
> > opened
> > Gnucash this morning to find that all of the charges in both my
> > credit card accounts are missing.  My other accounts appear to be
> > ok.  The credit charges are also missing in the relevant expense
> > accounts.
> >
> > I have not crashed the computer or shut it down without closing
> > Gnucash and X11.
> >
> > I have checked in Gnucash and the Filter is set to show all
> > transactions.
> >
> > The only thing that would even have read the file between this
> > morning when it is corrupted and day before last when I entered a
> > transaction (which does exist) would be the TimeMachine backing
> > things up to an external drive.
> >
> > Here are the last few lines of .xac and .log files.  Note that
> > the
> > file I saved on the 17th is significantly larger than the file
> > opened this morning on the 19th.  I have done nothing myself
> > beyond
> > opening the file, so the deletions are all Gnucash inventions.
> > <pastedGraphic.png>
> >
> >
> > Obviously, I will try re-opening the last .xac file that is 40kB.
> > However,  repeated data-loss is absolutely unacceptable in a
> > piece
> > of accounting software.  Does anyone have any clue why this is
> > occurring?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Lenore
> >
> >
> > I have just opened the last 40kB file and done a save-as to a new
> > file
> > name.  The new file (and I did nothing but open it and save) is
> > 20kB.
> > No charges are present in my credit card accounts.
> >
> > It appears to me that the file is being corrupted by being opened.
> >
> > I noticed that the date my system attaches to the last 40kB file
> > is
> > wrong.  Could this be causing problems?  If so, how do I fix it.
> >
> > At this juncture, it appears to me that opening any further files
> > is
> > futile because they will promptly become corrupted.
> >
> > One person has suggested this may be a hard drive failure.  I ran
> > two
> > different disk scan utilities and both reported no problems with
> > the
> > disk.  Furthermore, other files aren't being corrupted.
> >
> > Lenore
> >
> >
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