[GNC] "No suitable backend" message trying to open an alias to a gnucash file

[Michael Hendry]

I’m using GC 4.4 on iMac, running OS X Catalina.

I want to place a book (say “BookA.gnucash”) in a Dropbox folder so that a deputy can take over in the event of my not being available at short notice.

Dropbox now requires original files, not aliases, in the Dropbox directory, so I can’t keep my books in ~/Documents/Accounts and provide links.

In any case, Apple seems to have broken the command-line tool “ln”, so I can’t use that mechanism.

Finder offers a means of creating an alias via right-clicking on a filename, so I tried putting BookA.gnucash in ~/Dropbox, and placing an alias called BookA.gnucash in ~/Documents/Accounts, but when I try to open BookA via the alias I get the “No suitable backend” message.

I’ve found this technique works OK for a simple text file, edited with MacVim.

A cron job that copied the current version of BookA.gnucash to Dropbox on a regular basis and as part of the shutdown sequence should work, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Any other suggestions?

Regards,

Michael