[GNC] Unable to open GnuCash file: "No suitable backend was found for <FILE>."

[Tomer Altman]

On 7/12/23 6:26 PM, john wrote:
>
>
>> On Jul 12, 2023, at 16:16, Tomer Altman <me at tomeraltman.net> wrote:
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Due to filesystem errors, I had to reinstall MacOS on my 2015 Macbook 
>> Air (current OS version: Monterey 12.6.7). After doing so, and 
>> restoring my files from a TimeMachine backup using Migration 
>> Assistant, I started getting this error when trying to open my 
>> accounting file:
>>
>> "No suitable  backend was found for <FILE>."
>>
>> (where "<FILE>" is a stand-in for the actual file name)
>>
>> I was at the time using a version of GnuCash from December 2022. I 
>> then reinstalled using the installer available from gnucash.org 
>> (current version: "5.3+(2023-06-26)" ). Unfortunately, the error 
>> persists.
>>
>> Looking at this error message in the mailing list archives, it seems 
>> like this has something to do with using the SQLite back-end. I 
>> looked at the 'environment' text file, and it is implementing already 
>> the environment variable recommended as a fix:
>>
>> GNC_DBD_DIR={SYS_LIB}/dbd
>>
>> It seems like my install is still unable to find the libraries that 
>> it needs, though.
>>
>> It's unclear to me how to diagnose which version of the back-end my 
>> file is using, since I cannot open it. Using 'file' and 'head' shows 
>> that it is not XML, and I am unable to decompress the file using 
>> Gzip. I'm also unable to open it using the sqlite3 command line tool.
>>
>> So, two questions:
>>
>> 1. What's the correct way to verify the back-end type using something 
>> other than GnuCash itself?
>>
>> 2. What is wrong with my fresh install that is preventing me from 
>> opening up the file?
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any and all advice and assistance!
>
> If it's a SQLite file you can open it with sqlite3, provided by macOS. 
> Just open Terminal and run
>    sqlite3 /path/to/my/gnucash/file
> You can use the `.tables` command to list the tables and `.schema 
> <tablename>` to show the structure and compare it with 
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/SQL.
>
> 99% of the time when users report this problem it's because they're 
> trying to open a log file or a .gcm file instead of their actual book.
>
> Regards,
> John Ralls
>
Hi John,

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it.

I've tried doing what you are suggesting. Let's say that my "<FILE>" 
name is "foo.gnucash". When I type the following:

sqlite3 foo.gnucash

 > .tables

I get:

"Error: file is not a database"

I thought to myself, "Perhaps the SQLite3 file was corrupted?" So I went 
to a TimeMachine backup of the directory from April (before any issues 
with my laptop), and copied over foo.gnucash to a temporary directory. 
This file would open successfully with GnuCash. Using the command line, 
I see that 'file' correctly identifies it as a gzip compressed file.

So it seems that this was an issue with the foo.gnucash file getting 
corrupted, perhaps from the filesystem errors that I was experiencing. 
Thanks for prompting me to debug this further. I'll restore my file 
using the *.gnucash backup files, and by adding in the relevant log files.

If I may be so bold as to suggest a UI improvement: Telling the user "No 
suitable backend was found for <FILE>" implies that the file is fine, 
it's just that there's no back-end to support it. That impression was 
bolstered by the mailing list discussion of missing library paths. I'd 
suggest wording that makes it clear that the *FILE* is the issue, as in 
it's either the wrong type, or it is corrupted. Perhaps, "<FILE> is not 
a recognized GnuCash formatted file."

Thanks again for your help!

Cheers,

~Tomer






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