[GNC] GnuCash very slow to start up and quit

[Tim Hume]

On Sunday, June 13th, 2021 at 18:28, Saša Janiška <gour at atmarama.com> wrote:

> Just wonder how does SQLite back-end compare with XML and whether you
> recommend one over the other? (my XML is 20MB uncompressed and under
> VCS).

I just ran a test. My data file is 37 MByte in SQLite format, and 52 MByte when in XML and uncompressed. However, the compressed XML is under 4 MByte.

It took 1m 17s to open GnuCash with the compressed XML file, and 55s with the SQLite file. I'd recommend the SQLite format based on these tests.

My CPU is currently an i5 6300U. I was looking at a small PC with a Ryzen 7 4700U CPU. Given GnuCash runs on a single thread, I suspect speedup in loading the data will be about 1.5 times given it seems to be CPU bound. I'm not sure if I'm going to upgrade. The advantage of my current setup is that it's on a laptop, so if the power goes out (which it does frequently enough) I don't lose everything. Mind you, I wouldn't mind the extra speed. Once GnuCash is loaded, it's fast enough to do the tasks I want it to do, so I normally just keep it open.

Cheers,

Tim