[GNC] Merge gnucash files

David Cousens davidcousens at bigpond.com
Sat Jun 27 21:28:12 EDT 2020


Joe ,

Yes you would need to either concatenate the log files or apply them sequentially.  That would not be too difficult in
practice as the file structure is fairly simple but there are some limitations. Unless the file on your wife's computer
was cloned from your own file, i.e. a direct copy of the file, it will likely not work as the log files use the GUID's
for the accounts rather than an account name. As long as the file was cloned after all the accounts are setup, the GUIDs
for the accounts should be be the same. You would also have to setup the user preferences to retain copies of the log
files. I think the default is to delete them after a set period but this could be changed and you could manually delete
them after copying the transactions.

Not necessarily so however if if an import of an account tree was used to create the same account structure in a totally
separate data file. It also may be simpler than a file sysnchronisation or dropbox where you have the possibility of two
users accessing the common file simultaneously. With a dropbox the file on the server is usually synchronized within 1-2 
minutes of changing a local copy on a linked machine. You would need to establish some protocols  for advising when
another user has the file open in that case which can be challenging. 

At present the database backends are not yet setup for multiple simultaneous users but that is a future objective

David

On Sat, 2020-06-27 at 17:54 -0500, Joseph Hesse wrote:
> David,
> 
> Thank you for your reply.  I hope I am replying in the correct way for 
> this mailing list.
> 
> As regards your answer, if my wife enters her transactions over a period 
> of time, say a month, then
> I would have to concatenate all the log files for this period (omitting 
> header info) before importing
> them.  What's your though on this?
> 
> Joe
> 
> 
> 
> On 6/26/20 11:50 PM, David Cousens wrote:
> > Joe,
> > 
> > One possibility is to copy the log file which takes in the transactions you wish to have copied into the other file
> > and
> > open it with the other copy of gnucash. I don't know if this will work or not but it is worth a try. not sure
> > whether
> > the replay  log file capability chekcs that the file opened is a backup copy of the current data file or not before
> > importing it. If it does check the file identity renaming it may help. Problematical if there are any differences in
> > account structures though  I keep my files in a dropbox account so I can access them from any of several devices
> > (but
> > not at the same time). Other options are to use a file synchronization program like Unison to keep the files in sync
> > after any changes are made.
> > 
> > David Cousens
> > 
> > 
> > On Fri, 2020-06-26 at 12:19 -0500, Joseph Hesse wrote:
> > > Suppose I make a copy of my gnucash file so I now have the 2 files, the
> > > original A.gnucash and the copy B.gnucash.
> > > If my wife adds/deletes transactions in B.gnucash to one of the credit
> > > card accounts, is there a way I can
> > > merge her transactions from B.gnucash to A.gnucash so that A.gnucash has
> > > all her transactions?
> > > 
> > > Thank you,
> > > Joe
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > gnucash-user mailing list
> > > gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
> > > -----
> > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
> 
> 
-- 
Dr David R Cousens
B.Sc, M.Prof. Acc., Ph.D., G.C.Ed



More information about the gnucash-user mailing list