[GNC] Is the .gnc suffix now the default?

[Geert Janssens]

Op dinsdag 24 augustus 2021 10:20:06 CEST schreef Chris Green:
> On Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 02:05:38AM +0200, Frank H. Ellenberger wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Am 23.08.21 um 19:37 schrieb D. via gnucash-user:
> > > Per
> > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/FAQ#Q:_What.27s_the_GnuCash_file_extensio
> > > n.3F
> > > 
> > > ".gnucash" is the data file extension.
> > > 
> > > -------- Original Message --------
> > > From: Chris Green <cl at isbd.net>
> > > Sent: Mon Aug 23 12:59:30 EDT 2021
> > > To: gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> > > Subject: [GNC] Is the .gnc suffix now the default?
> > > 
> > > I'm running gnucash 4.4 on Linux, I see the man page now shows:-
> > > 
> > > SYNOPSIS
> > > 
> > >        gnucash [options] [ accounts.gnc ]
> > > 
> > > Has .gnc replaced .gnucash as the account file default suffix now?
> > 
> > Fixed in Maint: commit 3832765: Update file extension in man pages
> 
> OK, thanks, so is it .gnc or .gnucash? 

.gnucash

> Personally I'd much prefer
> .gnc for less clutter in directory listings and a more 'standard'
> three letter suffix.

I don't think it's more 'standard'. It used to be a DOS restriction that has shaped habit for 
many Windows users and developers. This is no longer the case even on Windows (.docx, 
.xslx,...)
While effectively short, a three letter extension is much less expressive and susceptible to 
extension collisions (which do happen). That is two applications can end up using the same 
extension for their files but are not compatible. So your system can't reliably determine which 
application to open when such a file is double-clicked.


> Or, even better, no suffix at all but that only
> really works on *nix systems where the suffix is mostly unnecessary.

File extension is still optional. And it is on all platforms. However if you want to have file 
associations, extensions are the way to go - even on linux (for desktop environments such as 
KDE or Gnome that is).

As you are mainly command line focused this doesn't affect you that much of course.

Regards,

Geert