Reconciliation

[John Ralls]

> On Feb 23, 2015, at 8:19 AM, Andy Pastuszak <apastuszak at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thank you for the help.  Luckily I only have transactions back to Feb 1st.
> The question for me now is stick with sqlite3 backend or switch to XML?  I
> use GNUcash on 3 different computers in the house, so using the MySQL
> backend is appealing, since I don't need to deal with syncing my file
> across multiple PCs.  But, there is the question of backing up the data.
> 
> Is ayone else using the sqlite3 data file format besides me?

Yes. In the spirit of eating my own dog food I use the SQLite3 backend for my primary account file, but I don't use any of the business features so that part isn't as well tested as I would like, but it works fine for my use.

Note that to use MySql you'll need to set up a MySql server and use File>Save As... to log into it and create the database. MySql and SQLite3 are different database engines. The prerequisite for using MySql is that you're an experienced MySql DBA or you're willing to study elsewhere to become one. We're not able to offer much help with that here. 

You mentioned backing up the data: The usual backup-for-every-save regime that the XML backend uses wouldn't make any sense for SQL, so it isn't there. A simple automatic file backup works fine for SQLite3; since I use a Mac, TimeMachine does the job for me. I've no doubt that MySql provides some way to back up the database, but I don't know what it is. If you go that route you'll want to enable it.

If you access the database from more than one machine, make absolutely sure that you don't override the lock unless GnuCash has crashed. GnuCash still loads the whole DB into memory when it opens the DB and does no more reads, only writes, after that. It also makes no use of database table or record locking. You can easily corrupt your database by having it open in two machines at once.

Regards,
John Ralls