[GNC] How to save Gnucash and Lock file issues

[Adrien Monteleone]

If you try to open the file with a text editor (I used Atom, because TextEdit complained about something wrong with UTF-8 in the file) you will see this at the beginning:

SQLite format 3 

If it is an sqlite format.

If it is the compressed XML, you’ll see gibberish/non-printable character.

If you uncompress the file, and try to read it with a text editor, you’ll of course see XML.

I’m not sure if there is any other way to tell. (short of using a hex editor, etc.)

Regards,
Adrien

> On Dec 4, 2018, at 1:55 AM, Maf. King <maf at chilwell.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Lorrie,
> 
> Are you sure you are using an XML file for your GC data?  IIRC, using the 
> SQLite format stops the creation of the timestamp backup files.
> 
> I'm not entirely sure how to check what format the file is in, but if you do a 
> file-> Save As and look at the options in that dialog box it *may* shed some 
> light.  Cancel if you don't actually want to rename the file, of course.
> 
> 0.02
> Maf.
> 
> 
> On Tuesday, 4 December 2018 03:13:38 GMT David Cousens wrote:
>> Lorrie,
>> 
>> That looks OK apart from not creating the backup file which should have been
>> created when you opened the file to to make the change , saved it and then
>> closed the file. (I noticed in an earlier post you mentioned adding an .xml
>> file extension. There is no need to do that as the .gnucash is the correct
>> extension.)
>> 
>> There should have been a file
>> 
>> finances.gnucash.<date-timestamp>.gnucash
>> 
>> with the same <date-timestamp> roughly as the log file. It may differ by a
>> few seconds.
>> <date-timestamp> has the format "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS".
>> 
>> In most cases the datestamp on the log file and the backup file only differ
>> by 1-2 s on my system with the backup file created first and then the log
>> file.
>> 
>> There is a preference in the Edit->Preferences General tab where you can set
>> the file retention period for the backups and log files.  I usually leave
>> it at the default of 30 days as I have terrabytes of free space on my
>> system but it is generally a good idea to set this so you have a few backup
>> and logfiles on your system so you can recover maximum data if you ever
>> have a file corruption issue. This is only likely if GnuCash or the OS
>> crashes while writing to the file.
>> 
>> David Cousens
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -----
>> David Cousens
>> --
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> 
> -- 
> Maf. King
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> 
> 
> 
> 
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