File storage question...should be easy fix

Geert Janssens janssens-geert at telenet.be
Wed Feb 2 06:33:53 EST 2011


On Wednesday 02 February 2011, Maf. King wrote:
> On Wednesday 02 February 2011 10:54:30 Geert Janssens wrote:
> > On Tuesday 01 February 2011, Steven Graham wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > >    I'm working off a new laptop and Windows 7.  I'm unfamiliar with
> > > 
> > > Windows 7, GNUCash, and Gnome for that matter.  I installed GNUCash,
> > > and let it do its thing.  It installed under program files and
> > > everything loads and works fine.  I'm getting into a bit of a mess
> > > however, in terms of where my data is being stored.  Under my User
> > > Account "Steve", several folders are automatically generated everytime
> > > I use GNUCash and it clutters up my "Steve" folder.  I specifically
> > > created a new folder "GNUCash" within "Steve" to which I saved my
> > > .gnucash financial data file to.  I move/delete the folders from my
> > > "Steve" folder to "GNUCash", but they continue to reappear everytime I
> > > use the program.  Most of them have no data contained within them, and
> > > seem to be just taking up space.  The folders are named as follows:
> > > .gconf
> > > .gconfd
> > > .gnome2
> > > .gnome2_private
> > > .gnucash
> > > 
> > > Is there a way to redirect where these folders live?  Its a bit of an
> > > eye-sore under my main account folder.
> > > Thanks for any help you can provide!!
> > 
> > Steven,
> > 
> > We are aware of this problem and there is a relatively simple workaround
> > until this is properly fixed in the code:
> > * locate the file C:\Program Files\GnuCash\etc\gnucash\environment (you
> > may have to adjust the path if you didn't install GnuCash in its default
> > location) * inside this file, add a line:
> > HOME={APPDATA}/GnuCash
> > * if you wish to keep the info that was stored in the dot directories
> > (.gnucash, .gconf,...) for your future GnuCash runs, move these
> > directories from your "Steve" folder into "c:\Documents and
> > Settings\Steve\AppData\Roaming\GNUCash"
> > I'm not completely sure about the destination directory. I don't have
> > Windows 7, so I can't test, but it should be something similar to that.
> > 
> > Does that help ?
> > 
> > Geert
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Another thought, and bear in mind that I haven't used Windows since version
> 98, so this may not even be possible.....
> 
> The "dot-folders" are supposed to be hidden - that is what the leading dot
> means to a Linux filesystem.
> Does Windows 7 still have the ability that DOS filesystems had to set a
> hidden flag on a directory name?
> 
> If so, rather than delete the offending folders, or forcing them to be in a
> non-standard place, why not set them as hidden?
> 
> Maf.
Because actually on Windows %APPDIR%\<application name> IS the standard 
location for such data. It's a matter of adapting the application to its host 
environment and not the other way around. The $HOME/.gnucash choice of paths 
is an old UNIX convention, but that is not how things work on Windows, nor Mac 
OS X for that matter.

There is a bug report for this in bugzilla [1] if you wish to add your 
comments.

Geert

[1] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=503722


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