GnuCash 2.6.3 (portable) for Windows taking a LONG time to read/save file

John Ralls jralls at ceridwen.us
Sun Jun 29 02:37:18 EDT 2014


On Jun 28, 2014, at 3:46 PM, Lance Alligood <lalligood at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello. I've already sought help with the portable Windows version of
> GnuCash over at portable apps.com. (Feel free to look at the discussion
> thread here: http://portableapps.com/node/41588.) However, the problem is
> that I am still experiencing long times (2+ minutes) in reading in and
> saving my GnuCash data file. While I do not recall the precise date or
> version that this problem started, but I am pretty sure it started
> somewhere between v2.4.5 and v2.6.1. It has persisted continually since
> then.
> 
> Here is my setup:
> * I am currently running GnuCash v2.6.3 for Windows portable. There are a
> few different Windows PCs that I use. They are mostly Windows 7 64-bit but
> there's the occasional Windows XP SP3 I use.
> * I also run on my laptop GnuCash v2.6.1 for Ubuntu Linux, which is the
> current release in the Ubuntu 14.04 standard apt repository.
> * The flash drive where I store my data file--& normally run the GnuCash
> for Windows portable executable--is a Transcend 64GB USB 3.0 drive. For
> every other use, application, and/or operating system that I use this drive
> with, (aside from GnuCash for Windows) it reads & writes with exceptional
> speed.
> * My GnuCash data file is XML-based, ~600KB when compression is enabled or
> ~8.0MB when saved without compression. I use GnuCash purely for balancing a
> checking account & savings account. No online activity, no stocks, no
> reports, etc.
> 
> When using GnuCash for Ubuntu, my data file consistently loads and saves in
> well under 3 seconds, whether GnuCash is compressing the file or not. The
> laptop has USB 3.0 ports.
> 
> When using GnuCash for Windows portable, my same data file loads and saves
> in well OVER 2 MINUTES. Although my data file resides on the flash drive
> described above, I have taken great length to rule out the drive, the PC
> hardware, and even the operating system itself!
> * If I copy the datafile to the PC hard drive, it still takes 2+ minutes to
> load/save. (Probably can't be the flash drive.)
> * If I install & run GnuCash executable from the hard drive, it still takes
> 2+ minutes to load/save my data file. (Can't be an issue with the USB port.)
> * If I run a Crunchbang Linux virtual machine (using Virtualbox) on the
> same Windows PC & run GnuCash v2.4.5--that's the current release in
> Debian/Crunchbang repository--AND mount my flash drive in the VM, the
> read/write time of my data file drops back to the expected less than 5
> seconds! The Windows PC where I ran the VM only has USB 2.0 ports, so I
> expected it to be slightly slower than my Ubuntu laptop. (As the VM has to
> work with host Windows OS for the VM, it probably cannot be the Windows OS!)
> 
> So that leaves me with the conclusion that there must be something with the
> GnuCash Windows executable as it seems to struggle with reading in/saving
> to the same data file that GnuCash for Linux can read/write to much, much
> faster.
> 
> I would be willing to provide additional information, trace files, & even
> an obfuscated version of my data file (although I got a "Can't call method
> "getData" on an undefined value at ./gnucash-obfuscate.pl line 48." error
> when I tried it earlier), if that would assist in resolving this issue.
> 
> Thank you very much for your time & assistance with this.

I looked over the conversation on the Portable Apps site, and I see that you already tested without compression and with the SQL backend. The compression overhead seems high to me, but I haven't ever profiled it so I don't know whether that's typical or not.

That block of several thousand repetitions of "attempt to write disabled transaction log" messages looks like the meat of the problem. since it appears to start 8 seconds after program start and the next segment that you indicate is 18 minutes later. Since you say it takes only 2-3 minutes to load your file, it doesn't seem likely to me that those are going on for all 18 minutes. Is that correct? If so, what is the actual duration? Can you compare the log information of a windows and a linux run of GC? Is there really nothing else being logged in that segment of the log file?

Regards,
John Ralls




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