libdbi for postgresql

John Ralls jralls at ceridwen.us
Wed Aug 24 23:57:59 EDT 2011


On Aug 24, 2011, at 1:30 PM, James Wilde wrote:

> Thanks for your reply, Bunk3m.  Rest inline.
> 
> On Aug 24, 2011, at 13:13 , bunk3m wrote:
> 
>> James, over the long run sqlite3 will be easier to use than postgres. 
> 
> That's interesting.  I'm not a db man, but I've heard of postgres, mysql,
> oracle, but I'd never heard of sqlite3 until I started looking into
> Gnucash.  I quickly found a guide to using postgres with Gnucash, but
> I've not stumbled over any guides to using sqlite3.  Maybe you have a
> url or two?
>> 
>> I think using postgres is a bit of overkill (like storing Quicken data
>> in Oracle, perhaps).
> 
> For a non-db man, I agree.  Using any sql database is overkill.  It's
> just that, whilst Gnucash is the best accounting app in the world for 
> getting data in, I think even learning postgres will prove easier than
> trying to get decent reports from the non-db (i.e. xml) backend.
> Although now I've got reports in my locale format, the xml backend
> might be less of a pain.
>> 
>> But if you want to run postgres, you can find the installer packages at:
>> http://www.postgresql.org/download/macosx
>> I'm not sure if libdbi is included.  You can probably find out by
>> reading the package list.
> 
> Thanks for the tip.  I looked now, and found them under the postgres
> directory ALONG WITH A DOCUMENT ENTITLED "Gnucash 2-4-7 OSX Readme"!  I'm
> going to have a look at that as soon as I've finished this email.
>> 
>> You can also install the libdbi if you use Fink or Macports.  But then
>> you have to install one of those two environments.
> 
> That's what I wanted to avoid.  Once upon a time my first move when
> installing a new Solaris or linux machine was to install a development
> environment, with gcc and all the goodies.  I haven't needed this on my
> Mac, and I was hoping I wouldn't need it now.
>> 
>> Good luck!
>> B
>> 
>> PS sqlite3 is installed on the Mac by default and updated by the OS so
>> it is easier to manage and use.  You can access the database manually
>> using a jdbc driver and using some SQL front end like DbVisualizer.
> 
> Not apparently on my Mac Mini running Lion.  I did a search of the
> entire hard disk for sqlite3, earlier today, and the only thing it found
> was a couple of files in a download I made from (I think) source forge
> yesterday.

Well, it appears that you're not very good at looking:
$ athena-2:/Users/john> ls /usr/lib/libsqlite3.*
/usr/lib/libsqlite3.0.dylib@	/usr/lib/libsqlite3.dylib*

If you used Spotlight, too bad: It doesn't look for libraries... and it doesn't qualify as "searching the entire hard disk". If you want to do that, try "find / -iname *sqlite*".

SQLite3 is what Apple uses for the SQL backend of CoreData; it's a necessary component of quite a few of the applications included in OSX. For our (meaning Gnucash's) purposes, it provides a nice SQL interface combined with single file storage and no admin overhead maintaining a server. Since simply googling "sqlite3" provides plenty of references, including the SQLite3 homepage, perhaps you're being a bit contrary.

Regards,
John Ralls




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