[GNC] Database storage

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Chris,

On 2024-09-18 18:32, Chris Miller via gnucash-user wrote:

> Is there support for database storage? I see reference to sqlite3,
> PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Sqlite3 is obviously supported, since I can
> simply save my content as sqlite3 in preference to XML, but I'd really
> like to use either PostgreSQL or MySQL, because, that makes GnuCash
> client server, and probably lets me run on distributed client machines.
> If GnuCash can communicate with a database, it probably doesn't matter
> where the database is.
>
> What is the authoritative position for configuring database storage?
> Where are the instructions about how to do it?

Have a look at the GnuCash "Tutorial and Concepts Guide" 
<https://gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=guide>. See 
especially section 2.4. "Storing your financial data".

Since you mention "probably lets me run on distributed client machines", 
take especial note of the warning,

> Use of a SQL back end for storage implies to many that GnuCash has 
> fully implemented DBMS features, including multi-user and incremental 
> data manipulation. However, GnuCash does not currently implement these 
> features, although it is a long term goal of the development team.
In other words, if you have GnuCash store data in a database, GnuCash 
reads all its data out of the database when it starts, and writes all 
the data back when it stops. It does not write and commit each 
transaction as it goes.