gnucash/README
Linas Vepstas 8b84f3c4c2 updates
git-svn-id: svn+ssh://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk@1276 57a11ea4-9604-0410-9ed3-97b8803252fd
1998-10-06 02:23:14 +00:00

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############## WARNING ######################
************ BETA RELEASE ******************
THIS IS VERSION 1.1, WHICH IS A BETA RELEASE.
THINGS MAY BE BROKEN
IF YOU WANT TO USE XACC, USE VERSION 1.0.18 INSTEAD!!
##############################################
GnuCash
-------
gnucash is a program to keep track of your finances. It is similar in
concept to Quicken(TM). Although GnuCash still lacks the advanced
features of Quicken, it does have the basic functionality. Some
of the features of GnuCash are:
- Multiple Accounts
- Each account keeps a running balance and
a reconciled balance, so you can keep track
of the checks that have clear your account.
- A simple interface. If you can use the
register in the back of your checkbook,
you can use GnuCash.
- QuickFill... if you begin typing a description
in the description fields, and it matches an
previous transaction, hitting <TAB> will copy
the previous transaction. Handy if you have
similar transactions on a regular basis.
(such as depositing your paycheck every week :)
- Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios. Track stocks
individually (one per account) or in portfolio
of accounts (a group of accounts that can be
displayed together).
- Multiple Currencies. Multiple currencies are
supported, as well as currency trading accounts.
Note this is still broken in many ways...
- Quicken File Import. Import Quicken QIF files.
Advanced Features
-----------------
GnuCash offers some features not usually found
in simpler accounting programs.
- Sub-accounts: A master account can have a hierarchy
of detail accounts underneath it. This allows similar
account types (e.g. Cash, Bank, Stock) to be grouped
into one master account (e.g. Assets).
- Double Entry:
Every transaction can appear in two
accounts; one account is debited and the other is
credited with exactly the same amount. With
double-entry, a transaction edited in one window
will be automatically updated in all other windows
showing that transaction, and in both of the
accounts.
- Income/Expense Account Types (Categories).
When used properly
with the double-entry feature, these can be used
to create both Balance Sheet and Profits &amp; Losses
reports. For example, savings account interest,
stock dividends, or paychecks can be marked as
both a deposit in a bank account, and as income in
an Income account type, using the double-entry
(transfer) feature. Similarly, credit card charges
can be noted in the credit card account, as well
as in a corresponding expense account.
- General Ledger: Multiple accounts can be displayed
in one register window at the same time. This can
ease the trouble of tracking down typing/entry errors.
It also provides a convenient way of viewing a
portfolio of many stocks, by showing all transactions
in that portfolio.
Home Page:
----------
http://gnucash.org/
Origianl X-Accountant home page:
http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~rclark/xacc
Important Note:
---------------
Numerous core dumps have been reported that occur with lesstif
version 0.82. These core dumps do not occur with lesstif v 0.81,
nor with RedHat Motif, and appear to be gone with lesstif 0.83.
If it's crashing, please try using a different motif, or the
statically-linked Motif version, as described below.
Running:
--------
The binary-only distribution includes two binary files: 'xacc.bin'
and 'xacc-static.bin'. The former requires a Motif shared library;
the latter has Motif statically linked in. If you have Motif,
then just run xacc. If you do not have Motif, then copy
'xacc-static.bin' to 'xacc.bin'.
Access to the on-line help documentation requires the that
the environment variable XACC_HELP be set to the 'Docs'
directory. The 'xacc' shell script sets this variable to
the configured directory before running the main program,
so you don't have to set this by hand.
If you want to override the path to the Docs directory:
For csh/tcsh
% setenv XACC_HELP /usr/local/share/xacc/Docs
or, for bash/bsh/ksh/sh
% set XACC_HELP=/usr/local/share/xacc/Docs
% export XACC_HELP
You can then start GnuCash at the command-line, with
"xacc" or "xacc <filename>", where <filename> is a
GnuCash account file. Sample accounts can be found in
"data" subdirectory. *.dat files are GnuCash accounts that can
opened with the "Open File" menu entry. *.qif files are
Quicken Import Format files that can be opened with the
"Import QIF" menu entry.
Building & Installing:
----------------------
These steps does not apply to binary distributions; only to
source distributions.
Normally, to build and install GnuCash, all you have to do is:
# ./configure
# make
# make install
You can build Motif, Gnome, and Qt versions.
Depending on your make target, you'll produce:
gnucash.motif
gnucash.motif.static
gnucash.gnome
gnucash.gnome.static
gnucash.qt
Whichever one you produce last ends up the target of a local
gnucash.bin symlink, so that you can always run the local ./gnucash
script to see the last flavor that you built. The ./gnucash script
also handles making sure that you're using files from the source dir
rather than an install tree just like the old ./xacc script did.
You'll use "make install" when you want to do a normal FSSTND /usr/ or
/usr/local style install where everything scatters across the
filesystem in foo/gnucash/* directories. You'll use "make
install-opt" when you want a /usr/local/opt/gnucash style install
where everything just installs into local bin, doc, share, etc dirs.
I couldn't think of a better way to handle this, or I would have used
it.
So the two most likely sets of build instructions would be as follows:
For a full system install (gnucash is installed as part of the
system):
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
make motif
make install
For an /opt style install
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/opt/gnucash
make motif
make install-opt
Status:
-------
As of version 1.0.18:
GnuCash is known to work in the following configs:
Linux 2.x.x -- Intel w/ RedHat Motif
Slackware 3.4 -- Intel w/ Mootif (OSF Motif 2.0.1)
Linux 2.x.x -- Intel w/ Lesstif v0.81
SGI IRIX -- MIPS
IBM AIX 4.1.5 -- RS/6000 http://www-frec.bull.com/
Unixware 7 -- Intel
SCO OpenServer 5.0.4 -- Intel
See http://linas.org/linux/xacc for precompiled binaries for these platforms
GnuCash seems to be having problems with:
Solaris -- Sparc -- won't compile due to va-args in XmHTML
Linux 2.x.x -- Intel w/ Lesstif v0.82
Download Sites:
---------------
All of the precompiled binaries & the latest source versions can be found
at http://linas.org/linux/xacc However, it is recommended that the master
sites for each particular binary be used instead, for two reasons:
1) bandwidth
2) OS-specific info & support
IBM AIX 4.1.5
-- SMIT-installable images
http://www.bull.de/pub/
see also http://www-frec.bull.com/
SCO OpenServer 5.0.4
http://www.sco.com/skunkware/osr5/x11/apps/xacc/VOLS.tar
Unixware 7
-- use pkgadd to install
http://www.sco.com/skunkware/uw7/x11/apps/xacc/xacc.pkg.gz
SGI Irix
-- in SGI install format
-- warning, this is a very down-level version
http://linas.org/linux/xacc/xacc-1.0b7-sgi-irix.inst.tar
Linux Debian
-- use debian tools to install
http://linas.org/linux/xacc/xacc_1.0.15-1_i386.deb
That's all folks!
Getting Source with CVS
-----------------------
A read-only version of the cvs tree is available on the net.
To access it, first, login, as so:
cvs -d :pserver:cvs@linas.org:/home/cvs/cvsroot login
The password is "guest"
To get a copy of the source, do a
cvs -d :pserver:cvs@linas.org:/home/cvs/cvsroot checkout xacc
Main Developers:
----------------
Robin Clark <rclark@hmc.edu> wrote the original X-Accountant in Motif
as a school project, taking it to version 0.9 by October 1997.
Linas Vepstas <linas@linas.org> liked what he saw: the GUI was slick,
the code was documented and well structured, and it was all GPL'ed.
And so he re-wrote it: adding cell-widgets to XbaeMatrix, so that
the combobox and arrows would make an even slicker GUI, rewrote the
X-Accountant internals to add double-entry, an account heirarchy,
split out a transaction mini-engine, add support for stocks, and spiff
up the help menus. This was version 1.0 as of January 1998. Since
then, for version 1.1, the engine was expanded & refined, and the
register window code completely redesigned and made mostly
Motif-(and GUI-)independent. Did some prototype OFX work.
Jeremy Collins <linux@cyberramp.net> publicized the GnoMoney project
widely and broadly, and then changed its name to GnuCash. Jeremy
created the gnucash.org web site, registered the domain, got the
initial GTK/gnome code working.
Rob Browning <rlb@cs.utexas.edu> abused everyone for not using perl,
and then added guile/scheme support. Rob maintains the build
infrastructure, is handling the whole guile/perl extension language
thing, and is dealing with configuration & configurability.
Fixes & Patches:
----------------
Fred Baube <fred@moremagic.com> for attempted Java port/MoneyDance
Christopher B. Browne <cbbrowne@hex.net> for perl stock scripts
George Chen <georgec@sco.com> for MS-Money QIF's & fixes
Jeremey Collins <linux@cyberramp.net> for GnoMoney & GTK port
Ciaran Deignan <Ciaran.Deignan@bull.net> for AIX binary version
Tyson Dowd <tyson@tyse.net> for config/make patches & debian maint.
Koen D'Hondt <ripley@xs4all.nl> for Solaris patches to XmHTML
Bob Drzyzgula <bob@mostly.com> for budgeting design notes
Dave Freese <DFreese@osc.uscg.mil> for leap-year fix
Otto Hammersmith <otto@bug.redhat.com> for RedHat RPM version
Jon K}re Hellan <jk@isdn-a33.itea.ntnu.no> misc core dump fixes
Tom Kludy <tkludy@csd.sgi.com> for SGI Irix port
Ted Lemon <mellon@andare.fugue.com> for NetBSD port
G. Allen Morris III <gam3@ann.softgams.com> for QIF core dump
Peter Norton <spacey@inch.com> for a valiant attempt at a GTK port
OmNiBuS <webmaster@obsidian.uia.net> web site graphics & content
Gavin Porter <maufk@csv.warwick.ac.uk> for euro style dates
Ron Record <rr@sco.com> for SCO Unixware & OpenServer binaries
Dirk Schoenberger <schoenberger@signsoft.com> for Qt/KDE port
Christopher Seawood <cls@seawood.org> for XbaeMatrix core dump
Richard Skelton <rich@brake.demon.co.uk> for Solaris cleanup
Henning Spruth <spruth@bigfoot.com> for German text & euro date rework
Ken Yamaguchi <gooch@ic.EECS.Berkeley.EDU> QIF import fixes; MYM import
... and I am sure that I have missed many others ...