Backup and Log File Retention Question

[Fred Bone]

On 7 January 2016 at 20:55, Mike Overholt said:

[...]
> I manually deleted about 2
> months’ worth of files through Windows Explorer without problem. The
> oldest files are currently dated 2015-12-01 (38 days old) and my retention
> settings are currently at 25 days. There are 13 backup files and 29 log
> files that have been created since my original message. There are 50 files
> older than 25 days.

Are these all related to the same base file?

The auto-delete-on-close applies only to the files related to the one you 
have just been working on. Do you have more than one "primary" file?

My primary file is called "accounts-3.gnucash". The files that get 
deleted when I close the program are those called
 accounts-3.gnucash.<date>.gnucash and
 accounts-3.gnucash.<date>.log
and not any others that may be in the same directory.

In addition I have about ten "testing" files which I use when trying 
things out (and e.g. after a program update), some of which have not been 
touched for years. Their associated backup and log files are only 
auto-deleted when I visit the relevant base file.

Some people, perhaps after a major problem (such as a failed large 
import) have reverted to a backup - which of course has a different name 
- and carried on from there. The usual complaint is that the filename is 
ridiculously long (which it will be if you do this three or four times) 
but it will also tend to result in the problem you describe: ancient 
backups and logs, here associated with previous versions of the primary 
file.