Installation

[Maf. King]

On Tuesday, 13 February 2018 09:19:36 GMT Adrien Monteleone wrote:
> I stand corrected on the lock file, though other apps that I see use them
> make them hidden so the user isn’t confused.
> 
> I still don’t see ANY other software dumping backups or log files into my
> data directories for any other file type. Gnucash is the only one.
> Everything else seems to be happy and quite functional with either
> /var/log, /tmp or some variant depending on the OS. I have yet to open a
> data directory and see a pile of log or state-backups mixed in along with
> my actual data file I’m looking for. Have I just been lucky all these
> years? Why are users so confused then if this is ‘standard procedure?’
> (they should be quite used to it after all)
> 
> Regards,
> Adrien
> 

Making the lock hidden makes good sense, but that would break backward 
compatability for precisely those users that need a lock the most - different 
machines with probably different GC versions with data on a network share.

On the number of backups and strategy in GC, I agree, the number of files that 
can end up created in the data directory is unlike any other software that I 
know of.  OTOH, financial records are probably more valuable (and also probably 
a lot more work to recreate) than the average edited jpg or odt "letter to 
aunt Mabel" file, so a bit of auto-retention isn't a bad thing.

Heck, I'm not even sure that there is any point to the log files - the once or 
twice that I've wanted to reply one has involved business features which at 
the time didn't (and AFAIK, still don't) get logged.  Maybe a debug switch 
somewhere to enable logging for those that want it?  

Hence my idea of a parallel-named backups sub-directory.  Making the backups 
hidden would also work.  but keep them with (close to) the data file, not in 
some user-definable random place, IMHO.

Maf.


-- 
Maf. King
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