[GNC] Will the file myStuff.gnucash work on Linux & Windows machines?

[Colin]

I'll just add 2 points here:

1. I sync my GnuCash (SQL) file across Linux and macOS. In the past 3
months have not run into any issues whatsoever. I see people mention this
use case regularly on the list, so it sounds like GnuCash is quite robust
across multi-platform usage.

2. For anyone running Gnome as your desktop environment on Linux, recent
versions of the file manager support Google Drive syncing out of the box.
But... let me put in another recommendation for Syncthing. It is completely
open-source, and I've been using it as a Google Drive / Dropbox replacement
for about a year.

Yes it requires more time to set up and configure than a commercial product
with a centralized server, just like most open-source software. But the
rewards of that investment are significant. You retain full control of your
data and have much more fine-grained control of the sync system than
commercial offerings provide. Not to mention it is free, and the longer you
use it, the more the savings you've gained will add up.

Since it is a peer-to-peer program with no centralized server, I chose to
set up a Raspberry Pi as a peer device. This way, there's always at least
one device online to receive / push changes to others. My favorite feature
is the optional File Versioning, which I set up on the RasPi. This way,
whenever a file is changed on any device, the RasPi keeps a time-stamped
copy of the previous version. I've used it to restore files I deleted or
changed several times. The peace of mind this provides is priceless!

Best,
Colin


> On Mon, 12 Oct 2020 at 18:13, Chris Green <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 12:30:22PM +1000, David H wrote:
> > > 1. Dropbox syncs between the cloud and the local pc's automagically for
> > me
> > > so a copy of the updated file is always copied down to the local pc
> into
> > > the Dropbox folder when the pc is turned on.
> > >
> > > 2.  I run FreeFileSync manually on demand to just sync the data file in
> > my
> > > local Dropbox folder with my local GnuCash data folder.  You can set it
> > up
> > > to run automatically or on a schedule I think from memory - never
> > bothered
> > > with that myself tho as I want to sync when I'm happy with the GnuCash
> > > updates I've done in the current session. Having it locally in the
> > Dropbox
> > > folder and the Gnucash data folder is handy when you've really screwed
> > > things up in Gnucash - you can just copy the latest unupdated file from
> > the
> > > Dropbox folder back over the screwed up one in the GnuCash data folder
> if
> > > worst comes to worst :-).
> > >
> > > 3. I'm just using FreeFileSync to sync the file from my local Dropbox
> > > folder to my local Gnucash data folder.
> > >
> > > There are other options for syncing out there such as Rsync.
> > >
> > As I've noted elsewhere in this thread Syncthing is excellent and
> > works 'transparently' once set up, no need for the user to do anything
> > to keep files synchronised.  It's pretty simple to set up too.
> >
> > --
> > Chris Green
>
>
>