How does one change the number of decimal places in stock account?

[Richard Dawson]

On Saturday, August 23, 2014 08:12:38 AM John Ralls wrote:
> On Aug 23, 2014, at 7:30 AM, Richard Dawson <rcdawson at att.net> wrote:
> > On Friday, August 22, 2014 10:13:18 PM you wrote:
> >> On Aug 22, 2014, at 8:30 PM, Richard Dawson <rcdawson at att.net> wrote:
> >>> I have an existing account that displays five decimal places in the
> >>> number
> >>> of shares column.  The company holding the account has now changed to 6
> >>> decimal places, and I would like to keep my tally equal to the tally on
> >>> my statements.
> >>> 
> >>> So, I edited the account and changed the "smallest fraction" setting
> >>> from
> >>> "Use Commodity Value" to 1/1000000.  I then attempted an entry.  All
> >>> seemed OK, except when I completed the entry it refused to update the
> >>> running balance. It just leaves the balance field blank.
> >>> 
> >>> I set the smallest fraction back to Commodity Value, and I was able to
> >>> add
> >>> entries and see the balance increment accordingly.
> >>> 
> >>> How can I change the number of decimals displayed for Shares added in a
> >>> transaction and for the running blance of shares?
> >>> 
> >>> You may wonder why one should fuss so much over a few millionths of a
> >>> share, but when your total number of shares is as small as mine a few
> >>> millionths is important!
> >> 
> >> Try editing the commodity's smallest fraction using Tools>Security
> >> Editor.
> >> 
> >> Regards,
> >> John Ralls
> > 
> > Unfortunately editing using tools>security editor gives the same result as
> > Edit>Account.  Changing the smallest fraction to 1/1000000 allows me to
> > input six decimal placed numbers "Shares" column, but the balance field
> > remains blank, even after I click the plus button to complete entering
> > the transaction.
> > 
> > Interestingly, once I enter a transaction with the smallest fraction set
> > to
> > 1/1000000, that transaction can no longer obtain a balance.
> 
> Please remember to copy the list on all replies, using "Reply all".
> 
> Looks like you've found a bug.
> What happens if you close that register page and reopen it?
> 
> What version of GnuCash, and what OS? If GnuCash isn't 2.6.3, can you
> upgrade and retest?
> 
> Regards,
> John Ralls


I managed to get 2.6.3 installed on a second computer running Linux 2.6.3.  (I 
didn't want to disturb an otherwise functioning version.)  I was unable to 
follow the instructions at http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Building#Ubuntu  for 
installing from source; Maybe I was able to follow, but it just didn't work.  
Eventually I installed a new repository using the command sudo add-apt-
repository ppain-muench/programs-ppa.  

2.6.3 ran OK, but still I cannot change the number of decimal places in an 
established stock account.