Ledger NEWS * 2.0 - The code base was rewritten for clarity and consistency. It is now simpler, more robust, and faster. - The most significant feature addition in this version is the use of "value expressions". These are now used in many places to indicate what to display, the sorting order, and even the output format. A value expression is a simple string that uses one letter codes to indicate transaction, entry and account details. Logic and math operators are supported, as well as a few useful functions. See the README. - If the environment variable LEDGER is used, a binary cache of that current ledger will be kept, to speed up later queries of the same data. The default location is in ~/.ledger, but this can be changed with the environment variable LEDGER_CACHE. This only happens if no "-f" flag was seen (i.e., if the LEDGER environment variable is used). - New "-o FILE" option will output data to the given FILE. If FILE is "-", the output is the same as the default (stdout). - New -j and -J options replace the old -G (gnuplot) option. -j reports the values column in a way gnuplot can consume, and -J reports the totals column. An example can be found in scripts/report. - New "-y DATEFMT" options will change the date format used throughout ledger. The default is "%Y/%m/%d". - New -Y and -W options prints yearly and weekly subtotals, just as the -M option printed monthly subtotals in the previous version. - New -w report will show cumulative totals for each of the days of the week. - New "-z INTERVAL" allows for more flexible interval reporting. The sublanguage used will probably mature over time, but for now it supports expression like: monthly every week every 3 quarters weekly from 12/20 Note that when using the "from" date, this does not constrain the report. It is only used for aligning report dates, for example if you wish weekly reporting to start on Sundays. - Regexps specified after the command name now apply to account names only. To search on a payee, use "--" to separate the two kinds of regexps. For example, to find a payee named "John" within all Expenses accounts, use: ledger register expenses -- john FYI: The above command is identical (and internally converted) to: ledger -l "/expenses/|//john/" register - To include entries from a file into a specific account, use: @ ACCOUNT !include FILE @@ All entries specified within the "@ ACCOUNT/@@" range will be added under that account. - Register reports now show the account being changed. Use the -r option to see "other accounts" -- or the account the credit/debit came from. (This was the old behavior in 1.x, but can lead to confusing reports when viewing accounts with subaccounts.) The -r option also works for balance reports, where it will show all the account totals related to your query. - There are several new default reporting styles, which work both in the balance and register reports: -O Show base values (this is the default, and old behavior) -B Show the basis cost of commodities -V Show the last known market value of commodities -G Report net gain/loss (shows commodity changes only) -A Report average value (arithmetic mean) -D Report deviation from the average value -Z Report the trend (average rate of change) -W Report the trend, with older values affecting the trend less -X Report expected amount for the next transaction - Automated transactions now use a single value expression as a predicate. This means the new syntax is: = VALUE-EXPR TRANSACTIONS... Only one VALUE-EXPR is supported, compared to the multiple account regexps supported before. By using a VALUE-EXPR as a predicate, matching may now be much more comprehensive and selective. - The use of "+" and "-" in ledger files (to specify permanent regexps) has been removed. - The -G switch no longer generates gnuplot-safe data. It now reports totals in terms of net gain/loss. - The -l flag now takes an expression string as a "predicate". Therefore, to equal the old behavior of "-l $100", you would use: -l AT<{$100} - The -S flag now takes an expression string, which yields the value that will be sorted on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - Value expressions are now supported, where the totals reported can be changed using -t and -T and an expression string composed of: a amount B current balance T amount total (B + a) c cost C cost total v market value(amount, date) V total market value(amount total, date) g net gain (v - c) G total net gain (V - C) d date (in seconds past the epoch) i index (within the report) o item age = date - report begin date w item newness = report end date - date b report begin date e report end date P(x,y) market price of x at time y (i.e., V = p(A,d)) Mx total arthmetic of x (x/n) Bx deviation = a - x Ax absolute (positive) value of x {x} parse x as a ledger amount /s/ 1 if full account name matches s in precedence order: -?[0-9]*.[0-9]+ numerical constants binary operators: * / binary operators: + - comparison operators: = < <= > >= logical operators: ! & | (x) parenthetical grouping The standard reports are therefore implemented as: -O == -t a -T A -B == -t c -T C -V == -t c -T V -G == -t g -T G -A == -t a -T MA -D == -t a -T DMA -T == -t a -T MDMA -W == -t a -T MD(MA*(d-b/e-b)) -X == -t a -T a+MD(MA*(d-b/e-b)) - User-specified format strings are supported with a -F option. The strings are very much like printf format strings, with the following syntax for each substitution: %?-m.MX Each part of the above except for X is optional, and means: ? field is blank if reporting on a "subsequent line" (within the register report, when viewing splits) - left justify field (default is right) m minimum width of the field . indicates that a maximum width is being specified M maximum width of the field; values are truncated to fit And where X may be any one of: % self-insert d same as %[%Y/%m/%d] [datefmt] pass 'datefmt' to strftime for the entry p the payee a the custom account name (report dependent) n the real account name (balance report only) N full account name (balance report only) t whatever the specified value expression is T whatever the specified total expression is (expr) insert an arbitrary style expression The default format for the register and balance reports are: %?10d %?-.20p %-.22a %12.66t %12.80T %20T %-a * 1.7 - Pricing histories are now supported, so that ledger remembers historical pricing of all commodities, and can give register reports based on past and present market values, as well as the original cost basis. See README for more details on the new option switches. * 1.6 - Can now parse timeclock files. These are simple timelogs that track in/out events, which can be maintained using my timeclock tool. By allowing ledger to parse these, it means that reporting can be done on them in the same way as a ledger file (the commodities is "h", for hours); and it means that doing things like tracking billable hours for clients, and invoicing those clients to transfer those hours into a dollar value via a receivable account, is now trivial. See the docs for more on how to do this. - Began keeping NEWS file. :)