Reducing File Size

[Mike C.]

Thanks for your response.  I don't have a problem renaming gcCull.pl. My
database is .gnucash which I assume is XML and I can have it compressed
or uncompressed.  From there I am lost in Windows.  Do I put the
gcCull.pl file in the Perl bin directory and then how do I run the
program.  All the exe files in Perl just give a command line when
executed.  We clearly don't speak the same language and maybe this won't
work with Windows.
Mike

On 1/3/2011 7:21 PM, Doug Pastorello wrote:
> Mike,
> You can rename the attachment.bin file to gcCull.pl. I have no
> experience in doing this on a Windows system, but I'll try giving some
> insight based on my Lunix work. In Linux, the GnuCash database is an XML
> file, which is compressed. My script works on the XML file directly, so
> the database needs to be uncompressed before using the script. I expect
> there is a Windows tool that can be used to uncompress the DB. Maybe
> there is another Windows user in the community here that can describe
> how to access the GnuCash XML database.
> There are also Windows versions of Perl. Once installed, you should be
> able to do something like "perl gcCull.pl my_db.xml 2009". This should
> create a new XML file, less the old transactions. You should be able to
> compress this new XML (optional?) and open it in GnuCash.
> This script does not "zero out" any accounts. It just removes old
> transactions. You will need to restore the opening balances for your
> accounts. That is why I recommended that you do an account summary
> report on the original DB. This data can be used to correct the balances
> in the new DB. The stock and mutual fund account transactions (splits)
> are not deleted. However, the 'bank' portions of the transactions are
> deleted. That is why I recommend running a "Check&Repair" on the new DB.
> I hope this helps. Let me know if you have other questions.
> --Doug.
>
> On Sun, 2011-01-02 at 16:53 -0600, Mike C. wrote:
>> Thanks for your response to my issue but I am afraid I don't understand
>> how to use it.  I don't speak Linux.  I downloaded your attachment that
>> is called attachment.bin, not gcCull.pl.  Now I don't know what to do
>> with it to install in in Perl and then how do I run it?  I am not
>> familiar with gunzip as it is a Linux zip program.  I have a Windows zip
>> function but I am not sure why the data file needs to be zipped.
>> Does your script zero all the income and expense accounts and put the
>> new in equity and leave the stock and mutual fund asset accounts without
>> change?  It would be great if that is the case.  Then I could delete the
>> unneeded stock asset accounts.
>> Hope you can help this Linus illiterate **Windows user.
>> Mike
>>
>> On 1/2/2011 10:43 AM, Doug Pastorello wrote:
>>> Mike,
>>> I have a script that I use to remove old transactions/splits from the
>>> Gnucash file. This will reduce the size of your database. See the
>>> following thread;
>>> http://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-user/2010-April/034407.html
>>>
>>> 	--Doug.
>>>
>>> On Sun, 2011-01-02 at 10:29 -0600, Mike C. wrote:
>>>> I have the same problem that several others have mentioned.  Since I
>>>> converted over 15 years of Quicken data the Gnucash file is now 1845 KB
>>>> after compression and takes a long time to load or to generate reports. 
>>>> I would like to eliminate old data that is no longer needed without
>>>> affecting the current account totals. 
>>>> It seems like I can delete asset accounts that have a zero balance
>>>> without causing a problem.  I have lots of accounts that are stock or
>>>> bond purchases that have long since been sold.  Is there a problem with
>>>> this action to reduce the data file size?
>>>> The other accounts I would like to delete are the income accounts
>>>> (dividend/interest/capital gains) associated with these stocks and
>>>> bonds.  I know I can delete the accounts and move them to Total Income
>>>> but that doesn't reduce the data.  Also doing a close books doesn't
>>>> reduce the data detail.  I would like to eliminate the detail without
>>>> affecting the total assets on the balance sheet.  Does anyone know of a
>>>> way of accomplishing this?
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Mike
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>
>