Added note to docs about "primary" commodities

Whenever a commodity is exchanged for another in a posting, one of the
two is considered "primary", and the other secondary.  Primariness of a
commodity is remembered, since the --market option only renders balances
into secondary commodities, never primaries.  To render primaries, use
the --exchange=COMMODITY option.

In all of the following examples, the P commodity is considered primary
and the S is secondary (the P at the beginning of the line indicates a
price-setting directive):

    2009/01/01 Sample 1a
        Assets:Brokerage:Stocks                100 S
        Assets:Brokerage:Cash                 -100 P

    P 2009/01/15 00:00:00 S 2 P

    2009/02/01 Sample 2a
        Assets:Brokerage:Stocks                100 S @ 1 P
        Assets:Brokerage:Cash

    P 2009/02/01 00:00:00 S 4 P

    2009/03/01 Sample 3a
        Assets:Brokerage:Stocks                100 S @@ 100 P
        Assets:Brokerage:Cash

    P 2009/03/01 00:00:00 S 8 P

    2009/04/01 Sample 4a
        Assets:Brokerage:Cash                  100 P
        Assets:Brokerage:Stocks               -100 S {1 P}

    P 2009/04/01 00:00:00 S 16 P
This commit is contained in:
John Wiegley 2009-02-24 03:56:27 -04:00
parent ecf03b96a7
commit d84638045a

View file

@ -3942,6 +3942,45 @@ That is the extent of the XML data format used by Ledger. It will
output such data if the @command{xml} command is used, and can read
the same data.
@chapter Random things
Whenever a commodity is exchanged for another in a posting, one of the
two is considered @emph{primary}, and the other secondary.
Primariness of a commodity is remembered, since the @option{--market}
option only renders balances into secondary commodities, never
primaries. To render primaries, use the @option{--exchange=COMMODITY}
option.
In all of the following examples, the P commodity is considered primary
and the S is secondary (the P at the beginning of the line indicates a
price-setting directive):
@smallexample
2009/01/01 Sample 1a
Assets:Brokerage:Stocks 100 S
Assets:Brokerage:Cash -100 P
P 2009/01/15 00:00:00 S 2 P
2009/02/01 Sample 2a
Assets:Brokerage:Stocks 100 S @ 1 P
Assets:Brokerage:Cash
P 2009/02/01 00:00:00 S 4 P
2009/03/01 Sample 3a
Assets:Brokerage:Stocks 100 S @@ 100 P
Assets:Brokerage:Cash
P 2009/03/01 00:00:00 S 8 P
2009/04/01 Sample 4a
Assets:Brokerage:Cash 100 P
Assets:Brokerage:Stocks -100 S @{1 P@}
P 2009/04/01 00:00:00 S 16 P
@end smallexample
@chapter Anatomy of a journal file
Everything begins with a journal file---the anatomy of which is covered