[GNC] GnuCash very slow to start up and quit

R. Victor Klassen rvklassen at gmail.com
Mon Jun 14 07:00:58 EDT 2021


When I had speed problems it was much more extreme.  I had been using SQLite.  I switched to XML, and then switched back, and the effect of saving it in a different format, and reading it back was enough to make a dramatic improvement.  There was something in the data file that made it slow, and that was cleaned up by the change of format.

> On Jun 13, 2021, at 6:45 AM, David Carlson <david.carlson.417 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Speed depends on not only the factors that you have identified, but other
> factors as well.  I have an instance of release 3.8 running in a Linux Lite
> environment within a  Virtualbox on a laptop.  Of course this hardware has
> its limits too.
> 
> I happen to normally store my compressed XML datafile on a Network Attached
> Storage device connected via Ethernet in (probably unencrypted) SMB
> protocol, which I thought was a speedy connection.  However, I recently set
> up an alternate arrangement on a locally attached USB 3.0 memory stick and
> found that file saves in particular sped up from around 30 seconds to
> around 2 or 3 seconds.  This is anecdotal information as I currently am not
> in a position to perform a controlled experiment.  I suspect that there
> must be a kink in the Ethernet possibly limiting it to 1 MHz or 10 MHZ.
> instead of the 100 MHz I expect on my rather dated network.  I do know that
> the network saves take roughly the same amount of time when Wi-Fi is used
> as the transmission medium, but there is still one ethernet cable between
> the router and the NAS.  That connection could be 1 Gigahertz if the cable
> is good enough.  I will be checking that when I get a chance in a week or
> two.
> 
> On Sun, Jun 13, 2021 at 5:11 AM Tim Hume <tim at nomuka.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Sunday, June 13th, 2021 at 18:28, Saša Janiška <gour at atmarama.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> Just wonder how does SQLite back-end compare with XML and whether you
>>> recommend one over the other? (my XML is 20MB uncompressed and under
>>> VCS).
>> 
>> I just ran a test. My data file is 37 MByte in SQLite format, and 52 MByte
>> when in XML and uncompressed. However, the compressed XML is under 4 MByte.
>> 
>> It took 1m 17s to open GnuCash with the compressed XML file, and 55s with
>> the SQLite file. I'd recommend the SQLite format based on these tests.
>> 
>> My CPU is currently an i5 6300U. I was looking at a small PC with a Ryzen
>> 7 4700U CPU. Given GnuCash runs on a single thread, I suspect speedup in
>> loading the data will be about 1.5 times given it seems to be CPU bound.
>> I'm not sure if I'm going to upgrade. The advantage of my current setup is
>> that it's on a laptop, so if the power goes out (which it does frequently
>> enough) I don't lose everything. Mind you, I wouldn't mind the extra speed.
>> Once GnuCash is loaded, it's fast enough to do the tasks I want it to do,
>> so I normally just keep it open.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Tim
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> 
> 
> -- 
> David Carlson
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