sequential use of Gnucash on multiple computers

[Steven Hale]

> Date: Sun, 19 May 2013 08:47:40 +0100
> From: Peter von Kaehne <refdoc at gmx.net>
> Subject: sequential use of Gnucash on multiple computers
>
> All work is done by one user. Up to this point all work was only ever
> done on one computer. It would be better if we could use several
> computers - in sequence, not concurrently. There is no likelihood at all
> that there is even accidental concurrency - as it would be the same user
> on each computer.
>
> I am thinking of setting up something which automatically uploads and
> downloads onto a shared server, or maybe a dropbox account or something
> similar.

Have a look at "subversion".  It is a package intended for sharing
source code, but I find it just as useful for sharing my gnucash file
between different computers.

I simply "checkout" my file on each computer I use.  Then when I've
made changes I "commit" them back to the central repository, and run
"update" on any other PC.

It's best to turn off file compression in gnucash so that it uses
plain ASCII text XML files.  This way, subversion can see exactly what
has changed and only commit the differences.  This reduces the
bandwidth required for each update over the network.  Using subversion
also has other significant advantages.  It's like an automatic backup
from one PC to another.  Also, you can checkout old revisions, so if
you realise you've made a load of mistakes and want to go back to how
your file was a week ago, that is very easy to do.

You will need a server somewhere to host your repository.  I use my
home PC and simply run subversion over ssh.

> Which files should shared? Just the account files or also some gnucash
> setup files (i.e. in .gnucash/?)

You can share just your .xml file.  That's fine.  But I also add
.gnucash and .gconf/apps/gnucash to my repository so that it also
stores my preferences.  For example, the account tabs I leave open
when closing gnucash also get propagated to each other PC.

I create a subversion repository for pretty much everything I do.  I
couldn't work without it.

Steve.