Reducing File Size

[Mike C.]

I have finally discovered what I was doing wrong was not entering perl
correctly in the cmd line.  I have run it well on a dummy small file
before I tackle my 18M data file.  I just have a couple of questions. 
The only way I can see to get the "imbalance" to retained earnings after
setting starting balances for bank accounts is to add an income file
such as "accumulated earnings" in the year being specified after
gccull.pl is run and enter an amount that would be the total of retained
earnings?  This balance will then be reflected as retained earnings on a
balance sheet.
 I also have a number of old stock and bond accounts that have zero
balance that can't be deleted because of multiple transactions.  Is the
best change them to "bank" accounts before running gccull.pl so all the
transactions will be deleted or is there a better way?
Thanks, this script should make a major difference in the time to load
and save my files.
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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>
>