GnuCash LCK file on OSX 10.x hoses TimeMachine

[Shane MacPhillamy]

I agree it's probably a bug in TimeMachine. It would seem there is some attribute associated with the file, and/or the system call that is used to create the file that causes the issue with TimeMachine and/or Spotlight.

I've experienced this issue consistently with different versions of GnuCash and OSX over the past 18 ~ 24 months. I posted the issue as it is not obvious initially as to what may be causing your TimeMachine volume to suddenly run out of space - I'm not optimistic Apple will react to trying to fix what appears to be quite an obscure issue.

Cheers, Shane
On 07/03/2013, at 12:59 PM, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:

> 
> On Mar 6, 2013, at 3:32 PM, Shane MacPhillamy <rcoaic at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> TimeMachine issues an error in the system log when it encounters the GnuCash LCK file of the form:
>> 
>> 7/03/13 7:20:02.690 AM com.apple.backupd[355]: Error: (-48) SrcErr:NO Copying /Users/user/Documents/GnuCash/Accounts/UserFinances.LCK to /Volumes/TimeMachineMtLioniMac/Backups.backupdb/study3/2013-03-05-150751.inProgress/39CE1C17-9A89-4C9B-910C-5A775D55BA45/Macintosh HD/Users/user/Documents/GnuCash/Accounts
>> 
>> A subsequent TimeMachine backup run will then backup the entire volume again, as though starting from scratch - you will see a message similar to backing up 40.6 MB of 60MB with the upper limit continuing to increase without bound until the entire volume has been copied again.
>> 
>> My present workaround is to specifically exclude the LCK file, otherwise I get messages from TimeMachine complaining it has run out of space, when in reality it should have plenty of free space to store incremental backs.
>> 
> 
> Strange. I've never had a problem with that. But I'd say that's a bug in TimeMachine rather than a Gnucash problem. The lock file is a perfectly ordinary -- and empty -- file.
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls
> 
>