MD Launch from command line and launch parameters
A reminder that you can launch Moneydance from the command line... The below are Mac terminal commands, but can be adjusted for Windows / linux:.
Basic launch command:
/Applications/Moneydance.app/Contents/MacOS/Moneydance
Parameters - all optional
-d turns on MD DEBUG mode
-v prints the current version
-nobackup disables backups for this MD session (from MD2023.2 ALPHA build 5047 onwards)
datasetname will open specified dataset - specify the full path wrapped in "quotes". NOTE: quotes must be plain text format
pythonscriptname.py adds script to a list of scripts to execute (but this seems to then be ignored)
importfilename executes file import (mutually exclusive to datasetname option)
-invoke_and_quit=x will pass along a string that you can use to invoke an 'fmodule' (extension) and quit (not showing UI)
executes Main.showURL(invokeAndQuitURI)
e.g. 'moneydance:fmodule:test:test:customevent:magic'
(e.g. my own extension with an id of test defines it's own command called 'test:customevent:magic'
(there are other variations of this parameter and with ? instead of ':' for parameters.....
-invoke=x Same as -invoke_and_quit but does launch the UI first and doesn't quit...!
NOTE: extensions need to be designed to understand the -invoke parameters... Some use -invoke and perform their own quit after execution (i.e. not the -invoke_and_quit option.
MD2021.2(3088) adds the capability to set the encryption passphrase into an environment variable to bypass the popup password question. Use either:
md_passphrase=
or
md_passphrase_[filename in lowercase format]=
The shell command to set is as follows (where x=password):
export md_passphrase=x
Extensions:
Two extensions have been updated to leverage the =invoke command. These are: Quote Loader & Extract Data. The commands to use these are:
-invoke=moneydance:fmodule:securityquoteload:runstandalone:quit
-invoke=moneydance:fmodule:extract_data:autoextract:quit
You can only use one of these at a time. Replace 'quit' with 'noquit' to leave the MD session running after execution.
An example using all these parameters is as follows:
/Applications/Moneydance.app/Contents/MacOS/Moneydance -d -nobackup "/Users/xxx/Library/Containers/com.infinitekind.MoneydanceOSX/Data/Documents/moneydance_dataset_example.moneydance" -invoke=moneydance:fmodule:extract_data:autoextract:quit
Perhaps everyone using these launch parameters can post their experience(s), tips, etc here....
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You can use Command ⌘
instead of Control ^
on Mac
1 Posted by Pete Chalmers on 10 Dec, 2023 12:49 AM
I have been trying to get MD to output the version number on the command line (so I can capture it for use in a script) without success, so I was pleased to find this article However, I'm on Windows11 and I've tried both -v and /v (both upper and lower case, even though I'm sure it shouldn't matter) and haven't got the result I'm looking for.
-v seems to do nothing, while /v opens the "Welcome to Moneydance" window, which *does* have the version on it but not in a 'scriptable' way!
Am I missing something, or am I out of luck?
In passing, some other applications have the version number available through the VersionInfo properties of the executable file itself - that's not the case for MoneyDance at present, but could it be considered for the future?
Thanks.
2 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 10 Dec, 2023 01:34 AM
That is super odd.. Me too on Windows. I suspect that it is working and outputting to stderr (which you can't see). But I can't be sure... Too late to play with it now tho'
Unless you know how to capture stderr?
You could try executing the moneydance.jar file via java and the -v command..?
@Derek @dwg any ideas? Thx
3 Posted by dwg on 10 Dec, 2023 03:09 AM
I have doubts that Moneydance is writing anything externally I have not been able to get anything from StdErr or StdOut, it is not writing anything to the Moneydance Error log.
"command" 2> "filename" writes error message to filename
4 Posted by Pete Chalmers on 10 Dec, 2023 01:48 PM
Just tried the stderr redirect and the output file is empty.
I can't work out how to run the .jar file - I don't have Java installed independently and don't really want to do that just for this :-)
Thanks for the replies though.
5 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 10 Dec, 2023 04:46 PM
Try this:
java -jar /Applications/Moneydance.app/Contents/Java/moneydance.jar -v
(see if you have any java installed at all)
There should also be (probably) a java.exe file in your Moneydance App folder? Yes/No?
6 Posted by Pete Chalmers on 10 Dec, 2023 05:28 PM
Ah-ha!! After a couple of false starts I got there.
On windows I have:
C:\Program Files\Moneydance\jre\bin\java.exe and
C:\Program Files\Moneydance\lib\moneydance.jar
So with full paths omitted for clarity, and running in a powershell terminal:
PS C:\> & "jave.exe" -jar "moneydance.jar" -v
Moneydance 2023.3 (5064)
(false starts were before I tried the '&' to invoke the command within powershell)
Brilliant, thanks very much. Not the most obvious of ways to get a version number :-), but it does what I want!
7 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 10 Dec, 2023 06:17 PM
I’m wondering if install4J is swallowing the -v. Can you try again with
--version
?
8 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 10 Dec, 2023 09:05 PM
OK, this actually does work too:
Moneydance -v > outputfile.txt 2>&1
so the -v is working, and going to stderr. The above redirects stderr to stdout and then you redirect stdout to a file...
9 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 10 Dec, 2023 09:19 PM
FYI - I have now built my own knowledge of all these launch settings into toolbox.. Could you try and give me your opinion?
PREVIEW
https://yogi1967.github.io/MoneydancePythonScripts/
Advanced Menu > 'Show Advanced MD Launch options/parameters'
Thanks
System closed this discussion on 10 Mar, 2024 09:20 PM.
Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox) re-opened this discussion on 30 Apr, 2024 08:19 PM
10 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 30 Apr, 2024 08:19 PM
On a Mac you can add:
to redirect the MD launch output to a file too
System closed this discussion on 30 Jul, 2024 08:20 PM.