222 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
222 lines
9.2 KiB
Markdown
* toc
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# Frequently asked questions
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## hledger and ledger
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### How does hledger relate to ledger ?
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hledger was inspired by and is partly a clone of John Wiegley's [ledger](http://ledger-cli.org),
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specifically Ledger 3.
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I was a happy ledger user and contributor for some time; I still use it
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occasionally. I wrote hledger because I wanted to develop financial tools
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in the Haskell programming language and ecosystem, whose advantages I
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believe are compelling. I have also tried to make hledger a little more
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simple, usable, installable, documented, appealing to collaborators, and
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to provide alternate user interfaces to make it more widely useful.
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ledger has more advanced power-user features on the command-line
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(periodic and modifier transactions, budgets, capital gains tracking,
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value expressions, custom output formats, etc.) and it remains faster
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and more memory efficient (for now!)...
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hledger builds faster and has an up-to-date manual and an optional web
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interface (which often works on ledger files too)...
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The two projects collaborate freely. We share the
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[#ledger](irc://irc.freenode.net/#ledger) IRC channel but have
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separate mail lists
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([hledger list](http://groups.google.com/group/hledger/),
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[ledger-cli list](http://groups.google.com/group/ledger-cli/)). I try
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to give back by providing infrastructure
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([ledger-cli.org](http://ledger-cli.org)) and IRC support.
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hledger stays compatible with ledger wherever possible, so that you
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can often use both tools on the same data file.
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Summary: hledger is a friendly, co-evolving, compatible rewrite of Ledger
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in Haskell, lacking some of ledger's power features and raw performance,
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and focussing on robustness, usability, ease of development, and
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experimental add-ons such as the [web interface](manual.html#web).
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### And ledger 4 ?
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There is also a [ledger4](https://github.com/ledger/ledger4) on github; this is
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John's own rewrite of the core of
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ledger 3 in haskell. It's an early library prototype, not a usable tool.
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Perhaps some day hledger or something like it would use this as its foundation.
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### File format differences ?
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hledger's file format is mostly identical with ledger's, by design.
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Generally, it's easy to keep a journal file that works with both hledger
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and ledger if you avoid ledger's and hledger's more specialised syntax
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(or keep it in separate files which you include only when appropriate).
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Some ledger syntax is parsed but ignored (such as
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[automated transactions](http://ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Automated-Transactions), [periodic transactions](http://ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Periodic-Transactions), and
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[historical prices](manual.html#historical-prices)).
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Some features are not currently parsed and will cause an error, eg
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ledger's more recent top-level directives. There can also be subtle
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differences in parser behaviour, such as with
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[hledger comments](manual.html#comments) vs [ledger comments](http://ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Commenting-on-your-Journal),
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or [balance assertions](manual.html#assertions-and-ordering).
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### Feature differences ?
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hledger mimics a subset of [ledger 3.x](http://ledger-cli.org), and adds some features of its own.
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We currently support:
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- ledger's journal format, mostly
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- csv format
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- timelog format
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- regular journal transactions
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- multiple commodities
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- fixed prices
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- virtual postings
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- print, register & balance commands
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- filtering by many criteria, with different query syntax
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- display expressions containing just a simple date predicate
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- some basic output formatting
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We do not support:
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- automated transactions
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- value expressions
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- fluctuating prices and historical price records
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- display formats other than `d>[DATE]` or similar
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- budget reports
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And we add these commands:
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- add
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- balancesheet
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- cashflow
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- chart
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- incomestatement
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- irr
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- interest
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- vty
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- web
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### Option/command differences ?
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ledger options and commands not supported include:
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```
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Basic options:
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-o, --output FILE write output to FILE
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-i, --init-file FILE initialize ledger using FILE (default: ~/.ledgerrc)
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-a, --account NAME use NAME for the default account (useful with QIF)
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Report filtering:
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-c, --current show only current and past entries (not future)
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--period-sort EXPR sort each report period's entries by EXPR
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-L, --actual consider only actual (non-automated) transactions
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--budget generate budget entries based on periodic entries
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--add-budget show all transactions plus the budget
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--unbudgeted show only unbudgeted transactions
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--forecast EXPR generate forecast entries while EXPR is true
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-l, --limit EXPR calculate only transactions matching EXPR
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-t, --amount EXPR use EXPR to calculate the displayed amount
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-T, --total EXPR use EXPR to calculate the displayed total
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Output customization:
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-n, --collapse Only show totals in the top-most accounts.
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-P, --by-payee show summarized totals by payee
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-x, --comm-as-payee set commodity name as the payee, for reporting
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--dow show a days-of-the-week report
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-S, --sort EXPR sort report according to the value expression EXPR
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--head COUNT show only the first COUNT entries (negative inverts)
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--tail COUNT show only the last COUNT entries (negative inverts)
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--pager PAGER send all output through the given PAGER program
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-A, --average report average transaction amount
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-D, --deviation report deviation from the average
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-%, --percentage report balance totals as a percentile of the parent
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--totals in the "xml" report, include running total
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-j, --amount-data print only raw amount data (useful for scripting)
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-J, --total-data print only raw total data
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-y, --date-format STR use STR as the date format (default: %Y/%m/%d)
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--balance-format --register-format --print-format
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--plot-amount-format --plot-total-format --equity-format
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--prices-format --wide-register-format
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Commodity reporting:
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--price-db FILE sets the price database to FILE (def: ~/.pricedb)
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-L, --price-exp MINS download quotes only if newer than MINS (def: 1440)
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-Q, --download download price information when needed
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-O, --quantity report commodity totals (this is the default)
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-V, --market report last known market value
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-g, --performance report gain/loss for each displayed transaction
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-G, --gain report net gain/loss
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Commands:
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xml [REGEXP]... print matching entries in XML format
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equity [REGEXP]... output equity entries for matching accounts
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prices [REGEXP]... display price history for matching commodities
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entry DATE PAYEE AMT output a derived entry, based on the arguments
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```
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### Other functionality differences ?
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- hledger recognises description and negative patterns by "desc:"
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and "not:" prefixes, unlike ledger 3's free-form parser
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- hledger does not require a space between command-line flags and their values,
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eg `-fFILE` works as well as `-f FILE`
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- hledger's weekly reporting intervals always start on mondays
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- hledger shows start and end dates of the intervals requested,
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not just the span containing data
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- hledger always shows timelog balances in hours
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- hledger splits multi-day timelog sessions at midnight by default (Ledger does this with an option)
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- hledger doesn't track the value of commodities with varying
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price; prices are fixed as of the transaction date
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- hledger's output follows the decimal point character, digit grouping,
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and digit group separator character used in the journal.
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- hledger print shows amounts for all postings, and shows unit prices for
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amounts which have them. (This means that it does not currently print
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multi-commodity transactions in valid journal format.)
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- hledger print ignores the --date2 flag, always showing both dates.
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ledger print shows only the secondary date with --aux-date, but not
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vice versa.
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- hledger's default commodity directive (D) sets the commodity to be
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used for subsequent commodityless amounts, and also sets that
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commodity's display settings if such an amount is the first
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seen. ledger uses D only for commodity display settings and for the
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entry command.
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- hledger generates a description for timelog sessions, instead of
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taking it from the clock-out entry
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- hledger's [include directive](manual.html#including-other-files) does not support
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shell glob patterns (eg `include *.journal` ), which ledger does.
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- when checking [balance assertions](manual.html#balance-assertions)
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hledger sorts the account's postings first by date and then (for
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postings with the same date) by parse order. ledger goes strictly by
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parse order.
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- ledger allows amounts to have a
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[fixed lot price](manual.html#fixed-lot-prices) and a regular price in any
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order (and uses whichever appears first). hledger requires the fixed
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lot price to come last (and ignores it).
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### Implementation differences ?
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ledger is written in C++, whereas hledger is written in [Haskell](http://haskell.org).
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Haskell is a highly regarded up-and-coming programming language that enables
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a coding style known as pure functional programming, offering the
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promise of more bug-free and maintainable software built in fewer
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lines of code. Haskell also provides a more abstracted, portable
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platform which can make deployment and installation easier in some
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cases.
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