From 487ddeb4a4fed7a770efac15a1e04b31450afa7b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: John Ralls Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2014 18:50:51 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Bug 721608 - Supported Platforms list in 2.6.0 README.txt dates from 2.0.x Reviewed and updated to reflect current status. git-svn-id: svn+ssh://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk@23675 57a11ea4-9604-0410-9ed3-97b8803252fd --- README | 324 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------------------- 1 file changed, 135 insertions(+), 189 deletions(-) diff --git a/README b/README index e05710aca5..14a4564711 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -31,93 +31,94 @@ balanced books. Features include: - - An easy-to-use interface. If you can use the - register in the back of your checkbook, you - can use GnuCash. Type directly into the register, - tab between fields, and use quick-fill to - automatically complete the transaction. - The interface is customizable from within the - application itself (no editing config files :) ) - - Scheduled Transactions: GnuCash now has the ability to - automatically create and enter transactions, remind when - a transaction is due, give a choice of entering a transaction - or postponing it and remove an automated transaction after a - certain period. - - Mortgage & Loan Repayment Druid: Used to setup a variable + - An easy-to-use interface. If you can use the register in the back + of your checkbook, you can use GnuCash. Type directly into the + register, tab between fields, and use quick-fill to automatically + complete the transaction. + + - Scheduled Transactions: GnuCash has the ability to automatically + create and enter transactions, remind when a transaction is due, + give a choice of entering a transaction or postponing it and + remove an automated transaction after a certain period. + + - Mortgage & Loan Repayment Assistant: Used to setup a variable payment loan scheduled transaction. - - Small Business Accounting Features: GnuCash now can be used + + - Small Business Accounting Features: GnuCash can be used for Customer and Vendor tracking, Invoicing and Bill Payment, and using different Tax and Billing Terms in a small business. - - OFX Import: GnuCash is the first free software application - to support the Open Financial Exchange protocol that many - banks and financial services are moving to use. The - development of OFX and HBCI support has also resulted in - an improved transaction matching system that more accurately - picks duplicate transactions. - - HBCI Support: GnuCash is the first free software application - to support the German Home Banking Computer Interface protocol - which includes statement download, initiate bank transfers - and direct debits. - - Quicken File Import: Import Quicken QIF style files. - QIF files are automatically merged to eliminate - duplicate transactions. - - Reconcile window with running reconciled - and cleared balances makes reconciliation easy. - - Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios: Track stocks - individually (one per account) or in portfolio - of accounts (a group of accounts that can be - displayed together). - - Get Stock & Mutual Fund quotes from various web sites, - update portfolio automatically (more funds being added - regularly). - - Reports: Display Balance Sheet, Profit&Loss, Portfolio - Valuation, Transaction Reports, or account balance tracking, - or export them as HTML. You can write your own custom - report if you know a little Scheme. Reports can now be performed - over an accounting period! - - Multiple Currencies & Currency Trading: Multiple - currencies are supported and can be bought and - sold (traded). Currency movements between accounts - are fully balanced when double-entry is enabled. + + - OFX Import: GnuCash can import downloaded OFX/QFX files and + retrieve account info and transactions via OFXDirect. The results + are passed through a transaction matching system that accurately + picks duplicate transactions and assigns contra accounts based on + similar previously-imported transactions. + + - HBCI Support: GnuCash also supports the German Home Banking + Computer Interface protocol which includes statement download, + initiate bank transfers and direct debits. + + - Quicken File Import: Import Quicken QIF style files. QIF files + are automatically merged to eliminate duplicate transactions. + + - Reconcile window with running reconciled and cleared balances + makes reconciliation easy. + + - Stock/Mutual Fund Portfolios: Track stocks individually (one per + account) or in portfolio of accounts (a group of accounts that can + be displayed together). + + - Get Stock & Mutual Fund quotes from various web sites, update + portfolio automatically (more funds being added regularly). + + - Reports: Display Balance Sheet, Profit&Loss, Portfolio Valuation, + Transaction Reports, or account balance tracking, or export them + as HTML. You can write your own custom report if you know a + little Scheme. Reports can be run over any arbitrary period. + + - Multiple Currencies & Currency Trading: Multiple currencies are + supported and can be bought and sold (traded). Currency movements + between accounts are fully balanced when double-entry is enabled. + - New Multi-Currency Transaction Handling: GnuCash no longer - requires separate currency exchange accounts to handle - multiple currency transfers. - - Chart of 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). - - Split Transactions: A single transaction can be split - into several pieces to record taxes, fees, and - other compound entries. - - Double Entry: When enabled, every transaction must - debit one account and credit another by an equal amount. - This ensures that the "books balance": that the - difference between income and outflow exactly equals - the sum of all assets, be they bank, cash, stock or other. - - Income/Expense Account Types (Categories): - These serve not only to categorize your cash flow, - but when used properly with the double-entry feature, - these can provide an accurate Profit&Loss statement. - - 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. + requires separate currency exchange accounts to handle multiple + currency transfers. + + - Chart of 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). + + - Split Transactions: A single transaction can be split into several + pieces to record taxes, fees, and other compound entries. + + - Double Entry: Every transaction must debit one account and credit + another by an equal amount. This ensures that the "books + balance": that the difference between income and outflow exactly + equals the sum of all assets, be they bank, cash, stock or other. + + - Income/Expense Account Types (Categories): These serve not only to + categorize your cash flow, but when used properly with the + double-entry feature, these can provide an accurate Profit&Loss + statement. + + - 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. + - Written in C with embedded scheme support via Guile. + - File access is locked in a network-safe fashion, preventing - accidental damage if several users attempt to access the - same file, even if the file is NFS-mounted. - - Provides a byte-stream format, which allows accounts and - account groups to be transmitted to other processes - via pipes or sockets. - - International date handling, many different translations. - - New User Manual and Help: A brand new user help has been - written which focuses on how to do tasks in conjunction - with a Tutorial and Concepts guide that gives the user - background information on using GnuCash. - - Redesigned Menu's: The GnuCash menu's have been redesigned - to conform more with the new GNOME Human Interface Guidelines. + accidental damage if several users attempt to access the same + file, even if the file is NFS-mounted. + + - SQL storage is supported using MySQL, Postgresql, and + SQLite3. Note that this does not support multiple concurrent + access. + + Home Page: http://www.gnucash.org/ @@ -135,23 +136,31 @@ The following packages are required to be installed to run GnuCash: [see README.dependencies] -To be able to use certain features of GnuCash, such as reports and -network stock price downloads, you must have the following packages -below installed (in addition to those listed above). +The optional online stock and currency price retrieval feature requires Perl. This is generally already installed on Gnu/Linux and *BSD, and MacOSX. - perl: Almost any version of perl5 should work. I run perl-5.004 +In addition, some perl modules need to be installed. You can run the +script 'update-finance-quote' as root to obtain the latest versions of +required packages. This program requires an C compiler, which is +generally already installed in Gnu/Linux and *BSD, but must be +installed separately on MacOSX; on versions 10.6 and earlier, install +Xcode from the distribution DVD or by downloading from +http://developer.apple.com (you'll need to log in with your Apple ID); +for 10.7 and 10.8, you can get Xcode for free from the App store. 10.9 +has a cool feature that detects an attempt to compile and offers to +install the command-line build tools for you. -In addition, some perl modules need to be installed. You can run -the script 'update-finance-quote' as root to obtain the latest -versions of required packages. +Microsoft Windows users can use the "Install Online Quotes" program in the Start menu's Gnucash group. -To use the new import features (OFX and HBCI) you need to obtain +To use the OFX and HBCI import features you need to obtain the following; libofx: This library provide support for OFX file imports. GnuCash-2.0.0 and newer needs at least the version libofx-0.7.0 or newer. Sources can be found at http://sourceforge.net/projects/libofx/ - aqbanking: This library provide support for HBCI online actions. + aqbanking: This library provide support for HBCI and openOFX online actions. + Three libraries, Ktoblzcheck, Gwenhywfar, and AQBanking, are required. + All may be obtained from + http://www2.aquamaniac.de/sites/download/packages.php ####### Running @@ -187,18 +196,12 @@ GnuCash responds to the following environment variables: #################### Internationalization -------------------- -Message catalogs exist for many different languages. These are -enabled with environment variables. For example, - -Francais, in bash: - export LANG=fr_FR - -Francais, in tcsh: - setenv LANG fr_FR - -German version: - export LANG=de_DE +Message catalogs exist for many different languages. In general +GnuCash will use the locale configured in the desktop environment if +we have a translation for it, but this may be overridden if one +likes. Instructions for overriding the locale settings may be found at +http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Locale_Settings ##################### Building & Installing @@ -215,20 +218,15 @@ Prior to building GnuCash, you will have to obtain and install the following packages: - libtool: Available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu. + autoconf, automake, and libtool: Available at ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu. RPM's and debs are widely available with most distributions. gnome development system: headers, libraries, etc. - libxml: available from ftp.gnome.org - - SWIG: 1.3.28 or later is needed. See http://www.swig.org or - http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1645 - (Note: g-wrap has been dropped completely in gnucash 2.2.0 and - is no longer needed.) + libxml2: available from ftp.gnome.org - texinfo: If you are building from SVN, you need the GNU texinfo - package, version 4.0 or later. + SWIG: 2.0.10 or later is needed. See http://www.swig.org or + http://sourceforge.net/projects/swig/ What you'll need to get and install in order to make sure you have all of these pieces properly installed for your particular operating @@ -296,83 +294,37 @@ details. Supported Platforms ------------------- -GnuCash 2.x, is known to work with the following operating systems: +GnuCash 2.x is known to work with the following operating systems: GNU/Linux -- x86, Sparc, PPC -Solaris -- Sparc FreeBSD -- x86 OpenBSD -- x86 -MacOS X -- PPC - -Previous versions have been known to work on the following platforms, but -their current status is unknown: +MacOS X -- PPC and Intel, Versions 10.5 and later -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://www.gnucash.org/pub/gnucash (high-bandwidth) -or http://linas.org/linux/gnucash (slow-www ) -for precompiled (but *very old*) binaries for these platforms - -GnuCash can probably be made to work with most POSIX-ish platforms, -provided the libraries and toolchain are available. +GnuCash can probably be made to work on any platform for which Gtk+ can, +given sufficient effort. If you try and encounter difficulty, please join +the developer's mailing list, gnucash-devel@gnucash.org. ######################### -Additional Download Sites +Downloads ------------------------- -You can also download GnuCash from http://download.sourceforge.net/gnucash - -You can get GnuCash Mandrake packages on Mandriva Cooker sites. - -Precompiled binaries & pre-requisite packages can be found at the -following sites. The GnuCash versions here are all *extremely* -old, and were indeed from GnuCash's ancestor "x-accountant". - -IBM AIX 4.1.5 - -- SMIT-installable images - -- warning, this is from the 1.0 series of xacc - 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 - -- this is from the 1.0 series of xacc - -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 - +GnuCash sources and Mac and Windows binaries are hosted at +SourceForge. Links for the current version are provided at +http://www.gnucash.org. We depend upon distribution packagers for +GNU/Linux and *BSD binaries, so if you want a more recent version than +your distribution provides you'll have to build from source. ############################## -Getting Source with Subversion +Getting Source with Git ------------------------------ -A read-only version of the svn tree is available on the net at: - - http://svn.gnucash.org/trac/browser/ - -To get what used to be CVS HEAD (and now includes what used to be -gnucash-gnome2-dev), you will need to get the svn TRUNK: - - svn checkout http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/trunk gnucash - -The argument "gnucash" above can be whatever you want your local -directory to be called, and is optional. If you leave it out, -you'll have a directory called "trunk" created containing all the -source code. - -If you want the latest 2.6.x code, you'd need to pull from the -2.6 branch, as follows: - - svn checkout http://svn.gnucash.org/repo/gnucash/branches/2.6 gnucash-2.6 +We maintain a mirror of our master repository on Github. You can +browse the code at https://github.com/Gnucash/gnucash. Clone URIs are +on that page, or if you have a Github account you can fork it +there. Note, however, that we do *not* accept Github pull requests: +All patches should be submitted via Bugzilla, see below. ################## Developing GnuCash @@ -381,8 +333,8 @@ Before you start developing GnuCash, you should do the following: 1. Read http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Development -2. Several of the directories under src contain files called design.txt - which explain many aspects of GnuCash's design. Read those. +2. Look over the doxygen-generated documentation at + http://code.gnucash.org/docs/HEAD/ 3. Go to the GnuCash website and skim the archives of the GnuCash development mailing list. @@ -393,21 +345,15 @@ Before you start developing GnuCash, you should do the following: Submitting a Patch: - Once you have done some work that you would like to submit, you need - to send a patch. There are two ways to submit a patch. First, if - you're using SVN and only made changes to existing SVN files you - can generate the patch using: - - svn diff > /tmp/mypatch - - and attach it to the appropriate bug or enhancement request in - Bugzilla (https://bugzilla.gnome.org). Create a new bug if you don't - find one that's applicable. Please don't submit patches to either of - the mailing lists, as they tend to be forgotten. + Patches should be created from a git clone using the appropriate + branch HEAD. For those unfamiliar with git, instructions on making a + patch may be found at http://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Git#Patches - If your patch adds new files, use the `-N' flag to diff between a - clean directory and your development directory. E.g. + Please attach patches to the appropriate bug or enhancement request + in Bugzilla (https://bugzilla.gnome.org, Project GnuCash). Create a + new bug if you don't find one that's applicable. Please don't submit + patches to either of the mailing lists, as they tend to be + forgotten. - $ diff -urN {gnucash-pristine} {gnucash-mydevel} > /tmp/mypatch Thank you.