[GNC] Scary moment

[Adrien Monteleone]

Not boring. Well detailed, thanks!

It looks like that rules out file-access issues.

Okay, last gasp here:

For safety, I'd make 2 copies for testing.

1. Update prices via GUI rather than CLI. Check if transactions 
disappear. Exit, reopen, check again. Since you were running the CLI 
update on Linux, perhaps I'd test that first.

2. On a second copy, do the CLI update again. Check for missing 
transactions. If so, you'd know this is repeatable.

If Both #1 & #2 corrupt data, then the issue is in the price update code.

If just #2, then it is something in gnucash-cli but not the GUI.

As I understand it, gnucash-cli is just a different interface to the 
same code the GUI uses, but since there is not yet clear MVC separation, 
there could be significant differences.

I'm sure someone else is using gnucash-cli for price updates. It is 
curious that no one else has noticed, or is getting, data corruption.

Regards,
Adrien

On 12/31/22 11:27 AM, R Losey wrote:
> My data file is stored on a NAS device (with redundant disks). I've been
> using GnuCash for seven years now, and have always kept it on the NAS and
> have had no issues like this before.
> 
> My machines are three separate physical machines (I have an recent iMac, a
> Windows 10 machine, and an older machine that runs Ubuntu). None of these
> are VMs.
> 
> I never double-click on a file; I always start the GnuCash GUI and it
> always loads the last file; I've been doing this for years, and it is the
> only GnuCash file I have, so I'm absolutely certain that I am using the
> same file.
> 
> I've never seen such a thing before, so I'm also very skeptical that the
> gnucash-cli stock update script would erase register transactions.
> 
> To recap, here is a timeline {with comments}
> *Fri*: Did the regular financial data-entry.  After finishing, I realized
> that I forget to write a couple of checks to charities, so I wrote the
> checks. {I believe that I also entered this into GnuCash, but it is
> possible I forgot and would just pick it up next week; this doesn't tally
> with notes I have in the checkbook and my own memory, but it is certainly
> possible. If I did enter it at this time, it was on the iMac}
> 
> later (late Fri or Sat) Ran the gnucash-cli command to update stock quotes
> on Linux - no errors
> 
> *Mon*: Ran stock quote update {and then felt foolish as I realized the
> markets were closed Monday.} Discovered that it only fetches current data,
> and should be run daily to get daily quotes.
> 
> *Tue*: Ran stock quote update (Linux)
> 
> Wed morning: Thought I'd update the Finance::Quote to 1.54 (I was running
> 1.52). In case I had problems, I ran an update using 1.52. First update
> failed because, while I had a C compiler installed (gcc), I did not have
> make (gmake). Installed make, and the update worked. Ran another stock
> update command and verified it is using 1.54
> 
> *Wed afternoon*: Did a preliminary check of where I stand with taxes. Ran
> my YTD transaction report to get info. Noticed it stopped at the end of the
> previous month. Changed config to end at end of current year. Re-ran
> report. Started entering in data; noticed that charity checks from Friday
> were missing. Assumed that I neglected to enter them, so I entered them.
> Re-ran the report; they are showing up.
> 
> *Wed evening*: Ran stock update. Modified the gnc-fq-update perl script to
> check for the existence of /usr/bin/make if running on Linux.
> 
> *Thu night*: ran stock update
> 
> *Friday morning*. Brought up GnuCash (Windows) to do regular data entry,
> and noticed that the charity checks are missing again. Wondered if I was
> somehow on an old data file. Looked at the directory where files are
> stored; sorted by last modified - no indication of a second file, and the
> GUI only has my standard file in the MRU list in the "File" Menu. Shut down
> Windows GnuCash; went to iMac, brought up Gnucash - still missing, and the
> automated entry made on the windows machine showed up, so they are pointing
> to the same file. Ran the transaction report, and the data that was there
> Wed was gone. Troubled, and thought about what could be different. Realized
> that I have been running the stock update program, and decided to not run
> it. Re-entered the charity checks, used the transaction report to verify it
> was present; double-checked the balance to verify that I hadn't somehow
> double-entered them. Shut down; back to Windows GnuCash: the checks are
> there.
> 
> 
> I've not run the stock update program since Thursday night, and I've not
> seen anything go missing. I find it hard to believe that it somehow messed
> around with the registers. I know that the GUI looks for the existence of
> the lock file, so that one gets a warning if the same data file is accessed
> at the same time. I don't know if the stock price update script has this
> check. If it doesn't, I thought that perhaps I ran an update with Gnucash
> up, and it overwrote the data. But that means that it was have to be before
> the auto-save kicked in (7 minutes on the Mac), and I'm just not sure that
> that was long enough.
> 
> I brought up the GnuCash GUI on Linux; it is at 4.8 (and, late Fri night, I
> verified that the charity checks showed up there as well).
> 
> So, there is a long, boring description of stuff.