[GNC] How to run GNUcash in portable fashion?

[Wm]

On 26/10/2018 21:27, aeneas wrote:
> Very nice reply!
> 
> It looks like knowing about GNC_DATA_HOME goes a long way toward solving my
> problem.  From what I can see I'm not using AQBANKING.  Also, I'd speculate
> that my scheme may not be be completely fool-proof.  I did search the
> registry for "gnucash" and found some KEYS.  This causes me to think that
> there could be some interference if different instances (i.e., different
> thumb drives with different peoples versions) of GNUcash were run on the
> same computer.  While I might expect some behavioral irregularity I'd also
> be inclined to think that this should NOT risk contamination of the files
> used to store the actual accounting records.
> 
> Just for the record I notice that the portableapps version of GNUcash (3.2)
> has a directory named GTKDataHome in addition to GNCDataHome.  In my case
> the GTKDataHome directory is still empty.  However, I am wondering if I
> could/should make some accommodation for whatever purpose that serves?
> Also, there is another directory named settings which contains files that
> appear to be exported from the registry.  To the extent that portableapps
> handles registry keys properly it is a better solution than my home grown
> hack.  However, another feature my technique provides is the installation of
> a new version without making any change to an existing version that is
> working just fine.  There are many circumstances under which preserving the
> ability to revert to, or for that matter switch back and forth between, a
> prior version is quite helpful and this can extend across several versions.
> 
> Anyway many thanks for the help.  It looks like my flash drive installation
> is now somewhat portable and I also appreciate learning about some other
> aspects of GNUcash which may be helpful in the future.
> 

You are likely to make a mistake rolling your own gnc portable.  The 
portableapps.com model is good but not always up to date, e.g. the 
problem with Portableapps was that they didn't notice when gnc moved 
stuff around [1]

If you really do need your gnc to be portable stick with PortableApps 
model and get them to follow changes, losing bits of closely integrated 
accounting data is generally not fun.

[1] a bad move in portable and non-portable terms, think disjointed backups.

-- 
Wm