Ubuntu Manpage: ledger - command-line accounting

NAME

       ledger - command-line accounting

SYNOPSIS

       ledger [options] command [acct-regex]... [-- payee-regex...]

DESCRIPTION

       Ledger  is a command-line accounting tool with the moxie to exist.  It provides no bells or whistles, and
       returns the user to the days before user interfaces were even a twinkling in their father's CRT.

NOTE

       This man page is a summary of the command-line usage of ledger along with a short  example  of  a  Ledger
       data file.  For more complete documentation see the Ledger Reference Manual, (via the info ledger command
       or otherwise).

COMMANDS

All commands require a Ledger data file which can be specified with -f filename or via the LEDGER_FILE
environment variable.

The balance and register commands provide the primary functionality of Ledger and are used most
frequently:

bal, balance [REGEXP]...
Reports the current balance of all matching accounts. If an account contains multiple types of
commodities, each commodity's total is reported separately.

reg, register [REGEXP]...
Displays all the transactions occurring in the matching accounts, line by line. The output from
register is very close to what a typical checkbook, or single-account ledger, would look like.
It also shows a running balance. The final running balance of any register should always be the
same as the current balance of that account.

Several commands are effectively variants of register. These commands accept the same options and
display the same transactions as register and differ only in the format of the output:

print [REGEXP]...
Displays transactions in a format that can be parsed by Ledger. They will be properly formatted
and output in the most economic form possible. The print command can be a handy way to clean up
a Ledger file whose formatting has gotten out of hand.

xml [REGEXP]...
Displays transactions in an XML format that can then be read and processed by external tools.
Use the --totals option to include the running total with each transaction.

emacs [REGEXP]...
Displays transactions in a format that can be read directly by Emacs Lisp.

The remaining commands are each useful in particular circumstances:

equity [REGEXP]...
Prints out account balances as if they were entries. This makes it easy to establish the
starting balances for accounts, (such as when beginning a new Ledger file to then archive
previous years).

prices [REGEXP]...
Displays the price history for matching commodities. The -A option is useful with this report to
display the average running price, or -D to show each price's deviation from that average.

pricedb [REGEXP]...
Produces the same information as prices but in a format that can be parsed by Ledger.

entry DATE PAYEE AMOUNT
Output a derived entry, based on the arguments and an account matching PAYEE in the transacation
history. If Ledger does not succeed in generating a new entry, an error is printed and the exit
code is set to 1.

OPTIONS

Basic options
-h, --help
Print a summary of the basic options and commands. This help screen is also printed if ledger is
run without a command.

-H, --full-help
Print a help message including all command-line options.

-v, --version
Prints the current version of Ledger and exits. This is useful for sending bug reports, to let
the author know which version of Ledger you are using.

-f, --file FILE
Reads FILE as a Ledger file. Typically, the environment variable LEDGER_FILE is set rather than
using this command-line option.

-o, --output FILE
Redirects output from any command to FILE. By default, all output goes to standard output.

-i, --init-file FILE
Causes FILE to be read by ledger before any other Ledger file. This file may not contain any
transactions, but it may contain option settings. To specify options in the init file, use the
same syntax as the command-line, but put each option on it's own line. Option settings on the
command-line or in the environment always take precedence over settings in the init file. The
default init file is ~/.ledgerrc.

--cache FILE
Identifies FILE as the default binary cache file. That is, whenever a command is finished a
binary copy of the input files will be written to the specified cache, to speed up the loading
time of subsequent queries. This filename can also be given using the environment variable
LEDGER_CACHE or by putting the option into your init file.

--no-cache
Causes Ledger to always ignore the binary cache.

-a, --account NAME
Specifies the default account which QIF file transactions are assumed to relate to.

Report filtering options
These options change which transactions affect the outcome of a report, in ways other than just using
regular expressions:

-c, --current
Displays only entries occurring on or before the current date.

-b, --begin DATE
Constrains the report to entries on or after DATE. Only entries after that date will be
calculated, which means that the running total in the balance report will always start at zero
with the first matching entry. Note: This is different from using --display to constrain what is
displayed.

-e, --end DATE
Constrains the report so that entries on or after DATE are not considered. The ending date is
inclusive.

-p, --period STR
Sets the reporting period to STR. This will subtotal all matching entries within each period
separately, making it easy to see weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc. transaction totals. A period
string can even specify the beginning and end of the report range, using simple terms like last
june or next month. For more using period expressions, see the Period Expressions section of the
Ledger Reference Manual.

--period-sort EXPR
Sorts the transactions within each reporting period using the value expression EXPR. This is most
often useful when reporting monthly expenses. For example, to view the highest expense categories
at the top of each month use:

ledger -M --period-sort -At reg ^Expenses

-C, --cleared
Displays only transactions whose entry has been marked cleared (by placing an asterix to the right
of the date).

-U, --uncleared
Displays only transactions whose entry has not been marked cleared (i.e., if there is no asterix
to the right of the date).

-R, --real
Displays only real transactions, not virtual. A virtual transaction is indicated by surrounding
the account name with parentheses or brackets, (see the Ledger Reference Manual for more on using
virtual transactions).

-L, --actual
Displays only actual transactions, and not those created due to automated transactions.

-r, --related
Displays transactions that are related to whichever transactions would otherwise have matched the
filtering criteria. In the register report, this shows where money went to, or the account it
came from. In the balance report, it shows all the accounts affected by entries having a related
transaction.

--budget
Display budgeted transactions only.

--add-budget
Shows both budgeted and unbudgeted transactions. This option is useful for displaying how close
your actual transactions meet your budget.

--unbudgeted
Show only unbudgeted transactions.

--forecast EXPR
Projects your budget into the future, (while EXPR is true), showing how it will affect future
balances.

-l, --limit EXPR
Calculate only transactions matching EXPR. (See the Value Expressions section of Ledger Reference
Manual for more details on possible values of EXPR for this and other options.)

-t, --amount EXPR
Sets the value expression used to calculate the value column in the register report, the account
totals in the balance report, and the values printed in the equity report.

-T, --total EXPR
Sets the value expression used for the totals column in the register and balance reports. EXPR to
calculate the displayed total.

Output customization options
-n, --collapse
Causes entries in a register report with multiple transactions to be collapsed into a single,
subtotaled entry.

-s, --subtotal
Causes all entries in a register report to be collapsed into a single, subtotaled entry.

-P, --by-payee
Reports subtotals by payee.

-x, --comm-as-payee
Changes the payee of every transaction to be the commodity used in that transaction. This can be
useful when combined with other options, such as -s, --sort.

-E, --empty
Includes even empty accounts in the balance report.

-W, --weekly
reports transaction totals by the week. The week begins on whichever day of the week begins the
month containing that transaction. To set a specific begin date, use a period string, such as
--period weekly from DATE.

-M, --monthly
Reports transaction totals by month.

-Y, --yearly
Reports transaction totals by year.

--dow Reports transactions totals for each day of the week. This is an easy way to see if weekend
spending is more than on weekdays.

-S, --sort EXPR
Sorts a report by comparing the values determined using the value expression EXPR. For example,
using --sort date will sort by date, (useful if included files cover different date ranges), and
--sort -UT in the balance report will sort account balances from greatest to least, using the
absolute value of the total. For more on how to use value expressions, see the Value Expressions
section of the Ledger Reference Manual.

-w, --wide
Causes the default register report to assume 132 columns instead of 80.

--head COUNT
Show only the first COUNT entries. If a negative amount is given, it will invert the meaning of
the flag (instead of the first five entries being printed, for example, it would print all but the
first five).

--tail COUNT
Show only the last COUNT entries. If a negative amount is given, it will invert the meaning of
the flag (instead of the last five entries being printed, for example, it would print all but the
last five).

--pager PAGER
Tells ledger to pass its output to the given pager program---very useful when the output is
especially long. This behavior can be made the default by setting the LEDGER_PAGER environment
variable.

-A, --average
Reports the average transaction value.

-D, --deviation
Reports each transaction's deviation from the average. It is only meaningful in the register and
prices reports.

-%, --percentage
Shows account subtotals in the balance report as percentages of the parent account.

--totals
Include running total information in the xml report.

-j, --amount-data
Changes the register report so that it outputs nothing but the date and the value column, and the
latter without commodities. This is only meaningful if the report uses a single commodity. This
data can then be fed to other programs, which could plot the date, analyze it, etc.

-J, --total-data
Changes the register report so that it outputs nothing but the date and totals column, without
commodities.

-d, --display EXPR
Limits which transactions or accounts or actually displayed in a report. They might still be
calculated, and be part of the running total of a register report, for example, but they will not
be displayed.

-y, --date-format STR
Changes the basic date format used by reports. The default uses a date like 2004/08/01, which
represents the default date format of %Y/%m/%d. To change the way dates are printed in general,
the easiest way is to put --date-format FORMAT in the Ledger initialization file ~/.ledgerrc (or
the file referred to by LEDGER_INIT).

-F, --format STR
Sets the reporting format for whatever report ledger is about to make. See the Format Strings
section of the Ledger Reference Manual for details.

Commodity price options
These options affect how commodity values are displayed:

--price-db FILE
Sets the file that is used for recording downloaded commodity prices. It is always read on
startup, to determine historical prices. The default file is ~/.pricedb.

-L, --price-exp MINS
Sets the expected freshness of price quotes, in minutes. That is, if the last known quote for any
commodity is older than this value---and if --download is being used---then the internet will be
consulted again for a newer price. Otherwise, the old price is still considered to be fresh
enough. (Default value is 1440 minutes.)

-Q, --download
Causes quotes to be automatically downloaded, as needed, by running a script named getquote and
expecting that script to return a value understood by ledger. A sample implementation of a
getquote script, implemented in Perl, is provided in the distribution. Downloaded quote price are
then appended to the price database, usually specified using the environment variable
LEDGER_PRICE_DB.

Commodity reporting options
There are several different ways that ledger can report the totals it displays. The most flexible way to
adjust them is by using value expressions and the -t and -T options. However, there are also several
standard reports, which will satisfy most users' basic reporting needs:

-O, --quantity
Reports commodity totals (this is the default).

-B, --basis
Reports the cost basis for all transactions.

-V, --market
Reports the last known market value for all commodities.

-g, --performance
Reports the net gain/loss for each transaction in a register report.

-G, --gain
Reports the net gain/loss for all commodities in the report that have a price history.

ENVIRONMENT

       Every option to ledger may be set using an environment variable.  If an option has a long  name  such  as
       --this-option  then  setting  the  environment  variable  LEDGER_THIS_OPTION will have the same effect as
       specifying that option on the command-line.  Options on the  command-line  always  take  precedence  over
       environment  variable  settings,  however.   Note  that you may also permanently specify option values by
       placing  option  settings  in  the  file  ~/.ledgerrc  by  default,  (or  the  file  specified   by   the
       LEDGER_INIT_FILE environment variable).

       Of  special  note  is  the  LEDGER_FILE  environment  variable which almost all users of Ledger will find
       convenient:

       LEDGER_FILE
              Set to a file, to be read by the ledger command.  This avoids the requirement to pass  --file FILE
              to every invocation of ledger.

EXAMPLE

       Here  is  sample  data  file (ledger.dat from the distribution) demonstrating most of the features of the
       ledger data-file format.  These include comments (;), automated transactions (=), virtual transactions  (
       (account-name)  ),  periodic  (budget) transactions (~), cleared transactions (*), commodity transactions
       (SYMBOL @), and check numbers ( (NUMBER) ).

           ; Sample file ledger.dat

           ; An automated transaction to a virtual account
           = /^Expenses:Books/
             (Liabilities:Taxes)             -0.10

           ; A periodic (budget) transaction
           ~ Monthly
             Assets:Bank:Checking          $500.00
             Income:Salary

           ; A cleared transaction
           2004/05/01 * Checking balance
             Assets:Bank:Checking        $1,000.00
             Equity:Opening Balances

           ; A transaction involving multiple commodities
           2004/05/01 * Investment balance
             Assets:Brokerage              50 AAPL @ $30.00
             Equity:Opening Balances

           2004/05/14 * Pay day
             Assets:Bank:Checking          $500.00
             Income:Salary

           2004/05/27 Book Store
             Expenses:Books                 $20.00
             Liabilities:MasterCard

           ; A transaction with a check number
           2004/05/27 (100) Credit card company
             Liabilities:MasterCard         $20.00
             Assets:Bank:Checking