sequential use of Gnucash on multiple computers

[Carsten Rinke]

Hi,

if you have a central server in place, and you don't mind about version 
control, than "Unison" is a very simple solution for file and directory 
synchronization.

I use it for backup and network file transfer - as said, it does not 
support version control. But from my point of view this is easier then SVN.

It also synchronizes against a USB stick, if you would like to avoid a 
central server topology. Then the USB stick is an offline backup at the 
same time. If it is anyway only one person that deals with that, this 
might be a sufficient solution...

Kind regards,
/Carsten


On 05/20/2013 11:27 AM, Liz wrote:
> On Mon, 20 May 2013 09:14:45 +0000
> Steven Hale <email at stevenhale.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>> 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.
> Steve could you write this up for the FAQs?
> It makes a lot more sense than a single file shared over the network /
> internet.
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