Data portability?

Geert Janssens janssens-geert at telenet.be
Wed Jun 22 07:01:39 EDT 2011


On dinsdag 21 juni 2011, Henry L. Voss wrote:
> Can a GnuCash datafile created on one platform be subsequently used on
> another platform?
> i.e., can a Linux business user send a data file to his Windows 7
> accountant and each access the data with their platform specific version
> of GnuCash?
> 
That should be possible indeed.

There are a few caveats though:
1. If the two computers use different number formats, that will cause 
troubles. For example if one PC uses the European format (1.500,00) and the 
other uses an American format (1,500.00). GnuCash will not be able to read the 
same file on two PC's. This should only rarely be an issue though.
Other than that, the data file should be completely platform neutral.

2. Any saved reports and reports still open when you close GnuCash are not 
saved in the data file itself and hence won't be available on the other PC. 
These things are stored in the .gnucash directory (the first in a file called 
saved-reports-2.x, the latter under books, in a file with the same basename as 
your data file). If you need them on both computers, you can copy these files 
over to the other PC in the proper locations.

3. Most of the preferences won't be set automatically. If you have tweaked 
anything under Edit->Preferences, you should do the same on the other PC. 
There is no easy way to simply copy preferences from one PC to another.

Best regards,

Geert


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