Where does Gnucash save it backup files when using mysql data source

[L. D. James]

On 07/05/2015 04:34 AM, Colin Law wrote:
> On 5 July 2015 at 09:18, L. D. James <ljames at apollo3.com> wrote:
>> ...
>> I've only worked with a
>> few accounting problems, I believe all of the ones I've seen perform a
>> backup when exiting.  It appears the developers have a lot of concern for
>> the novice computer users who neglect to backup and are later crying trying
>> to find a way to recover their precious data once the active version becomes
>> corrupted... just like a number of users in previous different threads have
>> been afraid to upgrade for fear of losing their data. I've told them in each
>> case to just backup their data, or use one of the default backed up
>> versions.
> I don't think a novice computer user will be using mysql or
> postgreSQL.  A system administrator setting those up must understand
> how to maintain and back up the databases.  I don't think gnucash
> should get involved in that.
>
> For sqlite I believe the database is simply a single file, so I
> imagine in that case gnucash could use a similar backup strategy to
> the one it uses for xml files.
>
> Colin

I am an IT professions.  All the people I work with are novice computer 
users.  I don't know many doctors, lawyers, or other business 
professional and even accountants that are not novice computer users.  
The normal computer users depend on the facilities and features built 
into the software they use.

Many of the people using this mailing list are not actually novice 
computer users.  However, even these people who are not novice computer 
users are having lots of problems asking for support for doing very easy 
things.  Having the features I'm describing, of which you're saying an 
IT person should get involved in are things that will make it easier for 
us helping in this list to give support to the users.

Gnucash doesn't have to have any features.  But it has features to make 
things easier and safer for the people using them.  Some of these 
important things can be computerized and not have to depend on the 
operator's timely research to figure out how to do.  If you are paying a 
lot of attention to the thread, even a simple upgrade is causing 
problems with lots of people trying to get support.  I can figure most 
of it out.  But some people are having days and weeks of downtime trying 
to upgrade to the latest version.  They are more than just novice 
computer users, but they are still depending on the expertise of the 
developers to build in features to make using the software safe and easy.

Word processor developers have concern for their users time and they 
build in version backups to help the user avoid losing a few minutes or 
hours in creating a document.  I can't understand why you would be so 
animate to suggest that having some safeguard version features in an 
accounting program which could result in years of work and data lost 
shouldn't be considered.

I don't think a person using the benefit of a database engine should be 
required to be a database engine expert to have the facility built into 
the program.  The mysql database is a very powerful resource that, by 
John's reference may become the default storage format.  I wouldn't 
expect that all accountants should now have to go to school to learn 
mysql programming and management.  Again, are you noticing that many of 
our users in this thread are actually having problems finding the data 
files that are simple text files?

I'm not suggesting these features haphazardly.  I'm suggesting them as a 
facility to allow us who are giving support to have it easier in giving 
the users support.   To me it's enough to hope that some of our users 
can understand accounting.  I really don't expect for a lot of our users 
to have a degree in computer science of database development and 
maintenance to use the application.  That would make our user-ship 
extremely small.

And by the way, I have accountants bring their computers to me all the 
time to recover their precious data, after a computer crash, or an OS 
upgrade.  Most of the time it's extremely simple.  The OS and program 
files are using in a directory and their data is usually somewhere 
else.  Usually a quick online search to find out the default extension 
of the data files and I quickly have their data restored.

I don't know who your clients are.  But none of my clients truly 
understand what a database engine or xml file is.  They barely 
understand what a zip archive is.  The ones who has a clue for some of 
this couldn't put it into words.

-- L. James

-- 
L. D. James
ljames at apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames