Ledger is a powerful, double-entry accounting system that is accessed from the
UNIX command-line. This may put off some users, since there is no flashy UI,
but for those who want unparalleled reporting access to their data there are
few alternatives.
I know, you just want to build and play. If you have all the dependencies
installed (see below), then simply do this:
git clone git://github.com/jwiegley/ledger.git cd ledger && ./acprep update # Update to the latest, configure, make
Now try your first ledger command:
./ledger -f doc/sample.dat reg
If you’re reading this file, you have in your hands the Bleeding Edge. This
may very well not be what you want, since it’s not guaranteed to be in a
functionally complete state. It’s under active development, and may change in
any way at any time.
What you may prefer is the current stable release, or the current beta branch.
The BETA is what I prefer people use, since I still have a chance to fix
major bugs that you find. Just e-mail me, or post to the mailing list,
they’ll become a part of my work list.
| RELEASE | git checkout v2.6.3 |
| CURRENT | git checkout maint |
| BETA | git checkout -b master origin/master |
| ALPHA | git checkout -b next origin/next |
There are also several topic branches which contain experimental features,
though none of these are guaranteed to compile. Best to chat with me on
IRC or via the
mailing list before going too
much further with those.
If you wish to proceed in this venture, you’ll need a few dependencies. The
easiest way to get them for your platform is to run:
./acprep dependencies
If that doesn’t completely work, read on.
| Library | Min.Ver. | When needed |
|---|---|---|
| Boost | 1.35 | |
| GMP | 4.2.2 | |
| MPFR | 2.4.0 | |
| gettext | 0.17 | optional |
| libedit | 20090111-3.0 | optional |
| Python | 2.4 | optional |
| doxygen | 1.5.7.1 | optional, for make docs |
| graphviz | 2.20.3 | optional, for make docs |
| texinfo | 4.13 | optional, for make docs |
| lcov | 1.6 | optional, for make report, used with ./acprep gcov |
| sloccount | 2.26 | optional, for make sloc |
| Library | Min.Ver. | When needed |
|---|---|---|
| GMP | 4.2.2 | |
| pcre | 7.7 | |
| libofx | 0.8.3 | optional |
| expat | 2.0.1 | optional |
| libxml2 | 2.7.2 | optional |
If you build stuff using MacPorts on OS X, as I do, here is what you would
run:
sudo port install -f automake autoconf libtool python26
libiconv +universal zlib +universal gmp +universal
mpfr +universal ncurses +universal ncursesw +universal
gettext +universal libedit +universal boost-jam
boost +st+python26+icu texlive doxygen graphviz
texinfo lcov sloccount
You can even just install the current Ledger RELEASE directly:
sudo port install ledger
If you’re going to build on Ubuntu, sudo apt-get install ... the
following packages (current as of Ubuntu Hardy):
sudo apt-get install build-essential libtool autoconf automake \
zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev python-dev bjam cvs gettext libgmp3-dev \
libmpfr-dev libboost1.35-dev libboost-regex1.35-dev \
libboost-date-time1.35-dev libboost-filesystem1.35-dev \
libboost-python1.35-dev texinfo lcov sloccount
Or, for Ubuntu Karmic:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libtool autoconf automake \
texinfo python-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev libgmp3-dev \
bjam gettext cvs libboost1.40-dev libboost-regex1.40-dev \
libboost-date-time1.40-dev libboost-filesystem1.40-dev \
libmpfr-dev
Debian squeeze (6.0): the version of boost in squeeze is too old
for ledger and unfortunately no backport is available at the moment.
Debian wheezy (7.0) contains all components needed to build ledger.
You can install all required build dependencies using the following
command:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libtool autoconf automake \
autopoint texinfo python-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev \
libgmp3-dev gettext libmpfr-dev libboost-date-time1.49-dev \
libboost-filesystem1.49-dev libboost-graph1.49-dev \
libboost-iostreams1.49-dev libboost-python1.49-dev \
libboost-regex1.49-dev libboost-test1.49-dev
The next step is preparing your environment for building. While you can use
autogen.sh, ./configure and make, I’ve prepared a script that does a lot more
of the footwork for you:
./acprep update # or, if you want to use the Boost libraries with suffix -mt, install in # $HOME/local and build with 2 processes in parallel ./acprep update --boost=-mt -- --prefix=$HOME/local -j2
Please read the contents of config.log if the configure step fails. Also,
see the help command to acprep, which explains some of its many options.
It’s pretty much the only command I run for configuring, building and testing
Ledger.
You can run make check to confirm the result, and make install to install.
If you have extra CPU cycles to burn, try ./acprep proof, which provides the
most thorough shakedown of a healthy source tree.
Now that you’re up and running, here are a few resources to keep in mind:
| Home page | http://ledger-cli.org |
| IRC channel | #ledger on irc.freenode.net |
| Mailing List / Forum | http://groups.google.com/group/ledger-cli |
| GitHub project page | http://github.com/jwiegley/ledger |
| Buildbot status | http://www.newartisans.com:9090 |
| Ohloh code analysis | http://www.ohloh.net/projects/ledger |
If you have ideas you’d like to share, the best way is either to e-mail me a
patch (I prefer attachments over pasted text), or to get an account on GitHub.
Once you do, fork the Ledger project, hack
as much as you like, then send me a pull request via GitHub.