Startup troubles for 2.4.0 under OS X

[David T.]

--- On Sun, 2/6/11, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

From: John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us>
Subject: Re: Startup troubles for 2.4.0 under OS X
To: "David T." <sunfish62 at yahoo.com>
Cc: gnucash-user at lists.gnucash.org
Date: Sunday, February 6, 2011, 10:02 PMPs: I will add info to the wiki about how to track
If it's an XML file I'm not likely to connect it with a
SQLite bug unless you hit me over the head with it... which
the xaccTransDateInternal may have done. Is there a
correspondingly huge log file? If there is, does it show
what dates are getting changed?

I am not seeing huge log files today, but I have in the past.

When I look at the log file just now I see:

mod	trans_guid	split_guid	time_now	date_entered	date_posted	acc_guid	acc_name	num	description	notes	memo	action	reconciled	amount	value	date_reconciled
-----------------
===== START
===== END
===== START
===== END
===== START
===== END
===== START
===== END
===== START
===== END
===== START
D	3419d8045ad74cf434e1599f56f18218	6899319eccb9490f9bcc4d5a3d231787	2011-02-06 21:26:40.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 21:26:40.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 00:00:00.000000 -0800								n	0/1	0/100	1969-12-31 16:00:00.000000 -0800
===== END
===== START
D	41f264721f8756903d29115848fb1251	12868df7aa2876419aca8e7787024ffb	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 00:00:00.000000 -0800								n	0/1	0/100	1969-12-31 16:00:00.000000 -0800
===== END
===== START
D	78fd1710a7315da5175ff3317ded6929	d2a5645380b6be5f156282ccff637153	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 00:00:00.000000 -0800								n	0/1	0/100	1969-12-31 16:00:00.000000 -0800
===== END
===== START
D	b8907a54ed5c3576b04c3f86ebd0c703	461bf9d0dd830b76a0b2390792f8d9a8	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 00:00:00.000000 -0800								n	0/1	0/100	1969-12-31 16:00:00.000000 -0800
===== END
===== START
D	783b85f5fa32c4dc4fdc638191c88a6b	06a78d4330e0ba96d3d73a88c7ffff34	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 21:26:41.000000 -0800	2011-02-06 00:00:00.000000 -0800								n	0/1	0/100	1969-12-31 16:00:00.000000 -0800
===== END

I note the odd timestamps: one with today's date but zero hours, and the other being the unix zero date 1969-12-31...

The timestamps aren't really so odd if you look at the header:  The two with times are the date/time the record was written and the date/time the record was entered in Gnucash. The date with no time is the transaction date you entered; no timeis recorded for that. The zero date/time is the reconciled date, indicating that the transactions aren't reconciled.
Unless you have auto-save disabled you'll have several log files for a normal session, and the first one will have the record of all the churning -- if it was something actually logged.
Another point to note is that the dates in the trace log are quite old -- one from 2003 and the other from 2006. It seems likely that the churning is from scrubbing; the why is a bit mysterious.
Indeed. This is a file that I have Repaired and checked multiple times, so I'd imagine it would be clean--certainly for transactions from 2006 and 2003. 

I wonder whether there is a connection between disk capacity and this error; I use an encrypted disk image for my financial data, and with Gnucash's log files, this sometimes gets down to 100MB free or so. The reason I mention it is that I cleared out the backup and log files (bringing the free space to 200MB), and the file loads much more quickly. I can't imagine why a full disk would force the kind of scrubbing you mention...

David

Regards,John Ralls