Quicken file on network

You're playing with fire. Read my other post.

Make a simple startup .cmd file that goes to your network drive and "awakens" it.

Makes for smaller backups. Opening the database will be quicker. Validations of data will be quicker. Most data > 2 years ago is not needed and investment data, which may be needed, is always maintained.

CM = Configuration Management. The term is often applied to software and software development (managing the configuration of your software and build system so as to be able to build your application). It's my bread and butter day gig. One of the most basic principals is the ability to "check out" and subsequently "check in" a file or artifact that the CM system is revision controlling. When you check out something you are telling the CM system that you are reserving this revision of this file because you intend to make changes to it. "If anybody else wishes to make changes too then stop them because I'm making changes". Think of it like checking out a book from the library. You take the book and the library makes a record that you have that book "checked out" of the library. Similarly checking something in, returning the book to the library, is the reverse process.

WRT Quicken here a "check out" would be the process of saying "Hey I want to use this Quicken database. Is anybody else using it?" and if not then you make some sort of record that you have this Quicken database checked out, reserved to you. If somebody else wishes to check out this Quicken database they will be blocked.

And again the process of checking in is the reverse.

In simple pseudo code, based on bash (I'll give you pointers but you have to do your own work) it might look simply like:

#!/bin/bash # Quicken Checkout/Checkin script...

# sentenal is the file that will exist if Quicken is in use sentenal=inuse

if [ $? -ne 1 ]; then echo "Usage: $0 " exit 1 fi

db=$1

# Check for sentenal file if [ -f $sentenal ]; then # The following gets the owner of the $sentenal file, i.e. who's using Quicken bywho=$(ls -l $sentenal | cut -f3 -d' ') echo "Quicken is in use by $bywho" exit 1 fi

# Create $sentenal file touch $sentenal

# Start Quicken on DB qw.exe $DB

# Remove $sentenal file rm $sentenal

Now just make sure everybody who wants to use the Quicken goes through that script...

You and I are thinking exactly alike. Did you just write that script for this thread?

Thanks for explaining CM. I've been working in system and software development for such a long time it is like a common word to me. I should have realized not everyone would know what CM means. Duh.

Cheers, Scott

Andrew DeFaria wrote in news:47f91061$0$48222$ snipped-for-privacy@news.qwest.net:

Thanks Andrew, I get it. My Reference Manager database system probably does something like that, because if I have a DB open, I can't even copy its files to another drive. The program also writes a *.loc file to disk, and deletes it when the program or DB is closed. Or is "locking" a file something different?

Pretty much. Wrote it in the compose window of Thunderbird. Untested...

Seems to me that people here sometimes struggle with the concept of Personal Finance! ;-)

So do I, at times...

The "inuse" file I used is what I called it - a sentenal (misspelled! Should have been sentinel - my bad). It stands guard.

It depends. Locking a file is somewhat different IFF your OS supports file locks. Indeed, anything that prevents access can be thought of as a lock. A script such as the one I posted "locks" your Quicken database. About the only thing different is that this "lock" is applied by a user and has the semantic of meaning "Hey I'm working on this". Effectively it's saying "I want exclusive access to " where in this case is a Quicken database. So it's like a reservation or like checking a book out of a library.

This is also what's called a cooperative lock in that all people passing through this script will be prevented from using if somebody else is using it. Anybody ignoring this script and simply opening the Quicken database obviously will not be impeded.

If your OS supports locks - or more specifically if the file system supports locking - then the locking is enforced by the file system itself when you attempt to fopen or fwrite the file. Effectively this non-cooperative file locking is really no different except to say that there is really no other way to write the file thus your "cooperation" is not required! ;-)

IOW You ain't getting to write this file bud because the file system is not gonna let you.

Quicken doesn't have non-cooperative locking - this script is a hack to provide it via cooperative locking.

Andrew,

I was refering to a Microsoft product, not products that can run on Windows. I'm sure Microsoft's dev kits provide ample CM, but again, this goes way beyond the intent of this. I think your file locking discussion was more on the money for this purpose. Although CM would bring nice version control.

As for MS trustworthiness, just do a Google search and you'll find ample evidence for massive problems. :-)

Cheers, Scott

Andrew,

I was actually thinking more along the lines of direct file system support. There are some new things that slowly make their way into NTFS that Windows doesn't capitalize on.

Scott

Andrew DeFaria wrote in news:47f92f5b$0$89391$ snipped-for-privacy@news.qwest.net:

OK. Apparently, Reference Manager uses more sophisticated database protection. It has some way to enforce 1 of 3 different sets of "access rights": Read-Only Share, Read-Write Share, and Read-Write Exclusive. Mine is a stand-alone version of software to manage a "library" of scientific research articles, and ways to automatically output bibliographies of quoted articles in a wordprocessor.

Everyone has for years been complaining that this version opens files by default in Read-Write Share mode, which prevents you from editing some useful stuff, such as journal titles (JBC is the same as J. Biol. Chem. is the same as Journal of Biological Chemistry, and depending on circumstances you might one or the other). At present you have to expressly open the database in Read-Write Exclusive mode to do those things. This is a pain in the 4$$. There is also a more expensive network version, which would support simultaneous use of a database from different computers. Made by Thomson ResearchSoft.

Last I checked Windows was a Microsoft product! ;-)

Maybe they do. Clearcase, of which my business is based, is decidedly provided by IBM/Rational and not Microsoft. Neither is CVS, pCVS, Preforce, subversion, git or a host of others. Microsoft's CM "product" is Visual Source Safe. That said I know that the Microsoft's OS lab in Redmond has Clearcase running on HP-UX and I have imported all of Windows 2000's source code into a Clearcase VOB. Suffice to say, I know this shit.

Indeed, but I like talking about it nonetheless.

Exactly.

Problem is that if I do a Google search for Linux, Unix, Solaris, Mac or any of another dozen or so OS vendors I actually see the same. MS is not really any much more worse than anybody else. Trust me! I'm a professional and have been doing MS and others for some 28 years now. MS is bad in some areas, others are bad in other areas. All of these are just tools - use accordingly...

Indeed, suffice to say we've only barely scratched the surface of this highly complex issue. And I'd venture to guess we've already shot way over the heads of many in this group.

How about running Q using a Batch on any PC and if your "real" Qdata file set was called RealData and the Batch sequence on all PCs was:

1. CD to the directory holding RealData.* which may be on any drive
2. If not exist RealData.IDX goto Notify
3. rename RealData.* to RunData.*
4. Start "" /WAIT "C:\Program Files\QUICKENW\qw.exe" RunData Note that you can have Q back up data to another drive or directory
5. Rename RunData.* RealData.*

:Notify Echo Quicken is in use on another PC pause

Then if someone on another PC ran the same batch a warning is issued about another PC using Q.

Eric

How about running Q using a Batch on any PC and if your "real" Qdata file set was called RealData and the Batch sequence on all PCs was:

1. CD to the directory holding RealData.* which may be on any drive
2. If not exist RealData.IDX goto Notify
3. rename RealData.* to RunData.*
4. Start "" /WAIT "C:\Program Files\QUICKENW\qw.exe" RunData Note that you can have Q back up data to another drive or directory
5. Rename RunData.* RealData.*

:Notify Echo Quicken is in use on another PC pause

Then if someone on another PC ran the same batch a warning is issued about another PC using Q.

Eric

Windows does Configuration Management out of the box? Which version, some form of Server edition? I wouldn't assume most people using Quicken have a Server product installed.

Why should I "trust" you? I've been a computer geek for decades. I am free thinking and intelligent enough to see through the crap just like everyone else. If you can't take a well know M$ joke, turn your computer off.

Scott

Who soever said that?

You're conclusions don't follow because your premise is suspect...

Again, who said that?

I'm sure it's served you well...

Huh? I got an idea... *Start* making sense...