CL-Ledger is a Common Lisp port of the Ledger double-entry accounting system.
The easiest way to install CL-Ledger is using Quicklisp:
(quicklisp:quickload "cl-ledger")If you want to work with the latest source code and need to install it manually, you will need the following libraries:
- alexandria
- cl-containers
- cl-ppcre
- local-time
- series
They can be installed easily using Quicklisp:
(quicklisp:quickload '("alexandria" "cl-containers" "cl-ppcre" "local-time" "series"))Now you need to get the source code and pull all of the projects relating to CL-Ledger:
git clone https://github.com/ledger/cl-ledger.git
cd cl-ledger
git submodule init
git submodule updateThe next step is to indicate your Common Lisp system where to load CL-Ledger from.
If you are using Quicklisp, you can add links to the local-projects directory:
cd /path/to/quicklisp/
cd local-projects
ln -s /path/to/cl-ledger .
ln -s /path/to/cl-ledger/cambl .
ln -s /path/to/cl-ledger/periods .If you don’t use Quicklisp, you can add the following contents to the initialization file of your Common Lisp implementation (e.g. ~/.sbclrc for SBCL):
(push "/path/to/cl-ledger/" asdf:*central-registry*)
(dolist (project '("cambl/" "periods/"))
(push (merge-pathnames project "/path/to/cl-ledger/")
asdf:*central-registry*))Make sure you change /path/to/cl-ledger/ to be the directory where
CL-Ledger lives. Also, be sure this pathname ends with a slash! In
CL, directory names always end with /.
Now you can run CL-Ledger at the REPL like this:
(asdf:load-system "cl-ledger")This compiles and loads the CL-Ledger core, and also the textual parser package, for parsing standard Ledger text files.
Once in the REPL, try out this command:
(ledger:register-report "/path/to/cl-ledger/doc/sample.dat")You should see a register printed representing the contents of sample.dat. You can constrain this report using keyword modifiers:
(ledger:register-report "/path/to/cl-ledger/doc/sample.dat"
:account "books")CL-Ledger only reads the file on the first run, and if it changes, so feel free to repeat the same command several times even for large journal files.
The following reports are supported:
(ledger:register-report "/path/to/file" [OPTIONS])
(ledger:balance-report "/path/to/file" [OPTIONS])
(ledger:print-report "/path/to/file" [OPTIONS])
(ledger:equity-report "/path/to/file" [OPTIONS])
(ledger:sexp-report "/path/to/file" [OPTIONS])
(ledger:csv-report "/path/to/file" [OPTIONS])
(ledger:derive-entry "/path/to/file" [OPTIONS])As for OPTIONS, any of the following keyword pairs is allowed. There
are some extra options allowed for derive-entry, for which please
see below.
| Keyword | Description |
|---|---|
| :account “REGEXP” | |
| :not-account “REGEXP” | |
| :payee “REGEXP” | |
| :not-payee “REGEXP” | |
| :note “REGEXP” | |
| :not-note “REGEXP” | |
| :begin “YYYY/MM/DD” | |
| :end “YYYY/MM/DD” | |
| :range “RANGE EXPRESSION” | a range expression, like “this month” |
| :period “PERIOD EXPRESSION” | like “every month this year” |
| :expr “VALUE-EXPR” | most Ledger 2.x value exprs allowed |
| :limit “VALUE-EXPR” | the same as 2.x’s –limit or -l |
| this is a convenience alias for :expr | |
| :only “VALUE-EXPR” | the same as 2.x’s –only |
| :display “VALUE-EXPR” | the same as 2.x’s -d or –display |
| :status KEYWORD | only report transactions whose status |
| is :CLEARED, :PENDING or :UNCLEARED | |
| :sort “VALUE-EXPR” | sort based on VALUE-EXPR calculation |
| :no-total BOOL | don’t show totals |
| :collapse BOOL | collapse multiline entries |
| :subtotal BOOL | group all transactions by account |
| :invert BOOL | negate all transaction values |
| (same as saying :amount “-a”) | |
| :related BOOL | show “other” transactions of each entry |
| :lots BOOL | show all commodity lot information |
| :lot-prices BOOL | show commodity lot prices |
| :lot-dates BOOL | show commodity lot dates |
| :lot-tags BOOL | show commodity lot tags |
| :amount “VALUE-EXPR” | use EXPR to display transaction amounts |
| :total “VALUE-EXPR” | use EXPR to display the running total |
| :set-amount “VALUE-EXPR” | instead of :amount, actually represent |
| the amount using EXPR (this is rarely | |
| something you want to do) | |
| :set-total “VALUE-EXPR” | same for the running total |
| :bridge-totals BOOL | if the running totals are not contiguous |
| create revaluation entries to fill gaps | |
| :show OUTPUT-MODE | show amounts and totals using the given mode |
| :show :market | .. in terms of their market value |
| :show :basis | .. in terms of their basis cost |
Here’s a quick table for translating Ledger 2.6.1 options into their corresponding CL-Ledger keywords:
| Short option | Long option | CL-Ledger keyword |
|---|---|---|
| -b ARG | –begin ARG | :begin ARG |
| -e ARG | –end ARG | :end ARG |
| -p ARG | –period ARG | :period ARG |
| -l ARG | –limit ARG | :limit ARG |
| –only ARG | :only ARG | |
| -d ARG | –display ARG | :display ARG |
| -n (for balances) | :no-total t | |
| -n | –collapse | :collapse t |
| -r | –related | :related t |
| -s | –subtotal | :subtotal t |
| -S EXPR | –sort ARG | :sort ARG |
| -t EXPR | –sort-entries ARG | :sort-entries ARG |
Here are a few examples, using sample.dat as a reference:
(ledger:balance-report "doc/sample.dat")
=>
$1,980.00
50 AAPL Assets
$1,980.00 Bank:Checking
50 AAPL Brokerage
$-2,500.00 Equity:Opening Balances
$40.00 Expenses:Books
$-1,000.00 Income:Salary
$-20.00 Liabilities:MasterCard
-----------------------------------------------------
$-1,500.00
50 AAPL
(ledger:balance-report "doc/sample.dat" :account "Assets")
=>
$1,980.00
50 AAPL Assets
$1,980.00 Bank:Checking
50 AAPL Brokerage
-----------------------------------------------------
$1,980.00
50 AAPL
(ledger:register-report "doc/sample.dat" :begin "2004/05/10" :end "2004/05/28")
=>
2004/05/14 Pay day Assets:Bank:Checking $1,000.00 $1,000.00
Income:Salary $-1,000.00 $0.00
2004/05/27 Book Store Expenses:Books $20.00 $20.00
Liabilities:MasterCard $-20.00 $0.00
2004/05/27 Credit card company Liabilities:MasterCard $20.00 $20.00
Assets:Bank:Checking $-20.00 $0.00
(ledger:register-report "doc/sample.dat" :limit "commodity=(1 AAPL)" :total "V")
=>
2004/05/01 Investment balance Assets:Brokerage 50 AAPL $1,500.00The reporting command derive-entry takes some special options.
The derive-entry report uses CL-Ledger to intelligently create a new entry for you. The possible keywords arguments are:
:date:payee:account:balance-account:amount:append
Except for :payee, all of these keyword arguments are optional. Here
is what they mean:
| Keyword | Description |
|---|---|
| :payee “REGEXP” | Find the most recent entry whose payee matches |
| REGEXP, and base the new entry derivation on | |
| its details. If no matching entry can be found, | |
| the payee of the newly created entry will | |
| exactly match REGEXP. | |
| :date “DATE-STRING” | The date of the new entry will be DATE-STRING, |
| otherwise it is today. | |
| :account “REGEXP” | Set the first account line in the new entry to |
| be the most recently used account which matches | |
| REGEXP. If no such account can be found, an | |
| account named REGEXP is used. If no account is | |
| specified, the account “Expenses:Unknown” is | |
| used. | |
| :balance-account “REGEXP” | Like :ACCOUNT, except this refers to the |
| account used for the second transaction in the | |
| newly derived entry. If not specified, a | |
| calculated “balance account” is looked for in | |
| the matching entry; if this does not apply, the | |
| journal’s default account is used; if this does | |
| not apply, the account “Assets:Unknown” is used. | |
| :amount “VALUE-STRING” | The amount of the first transaction. If it has |
| no commodity, the correlated commodity from the | |
| discovered entry is used. | |
| :append BOOL | If non-NIL, the new entry is written to the same |
| journal where the matching entry was found (for | |
| a binder that references many journals, this is | |
| whichever file the discovered entry was in). |
Here are a few examples, using sample.dat as a reference:
(ledger:derive-entry "doc/sample.dat" :payee "book")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Expenses:Books $20.00
Liabilities:MasterCard
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "book" :amount "$125")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Expenses:Books $125.00
Liabilities:MasterCard
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "Hello World")
=>
2007/12/04 Hello World
Expenses:Unknown
Assets:Unknown
(ledger:derive-entry :date "2004/01/01" :payee "Hello World")
=>
2004/01/01 Hello World
Expenses:Unknown
Assets:Unknown
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "book" :account "equ")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Equity:Opening Balances $20.00
Liabilities:MasterCard
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "book" :account "Who Knows")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Who Knows $20.00
Liabilities:MasterCard
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "book" :balance-account "bank")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Expenses:Books $20.00
Assets:Bank:Checking
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "book" :account "liab"
:balance-account "bank")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Liabilities:MasterCard $-20.00
Assets:Bank:Checking
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "book" :account "bank" :amount "50")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Assets:Bank:Checking $50.00
Liabilities:MasterCard
(ledger:derive-entry :payee "book" :account "bank" :amount "$125")
=>
2007/12/04 Book Store
Assets:Bank:Checking $125.00
Liabilities:MasterCardThe date format used in your journal file can be specified either
using the *input-time-format* variable (by default: “%Y/%m/%d%| %H:%M:%S”),
or by writing a F command directive at the beginning of the journal:
F %Y-%m-%d 2017-09-01 * Some payee Some account 45,18 EUR Some other account
The date format used in reports can be specified using the
*output-time-format* variable (by default: “%Y/%m/%d”).
After the call to binder, the variable *last-binder* contains
the contents of what was read. From that point forward, if no binder
or string is passed to the reporting function, they will assume you
wish to report on the contents of *last-binder*.
Here is how CL-Ledger stands up against current Lisp implementations:
| Implementation | Version | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SBCL | 1.3.21 | WORKS |
| LispWorks | 5.02 Personal | WORKS |
| Allegro CL | 10.0 Express | WORKS |
| Clozure CL | 1.11 | WORKS |
| OpenMCL | 2007-07-22 | Fails to compile LOCAL-TIME |
| ECL | 2007-12-07 | WORKS |
| ABCL | 1.5.0 | Fails to compile CL-LEDGER |
| CLISP | 2.49 | Fails to compile CL-CONTAINERS |
| CMUCL | 19d (2007-11) | Fails to compile PERIODS |
| GCL | 2.6.7 | <unable to build so far> |
For fans of the Series library, you can apply scan-transactions or
scan-entries to a binder/account/journal/entry in order to produce
a series of the corresponding type. Example:
(collect (ledger:scan-transactions
(ledger:read-journal "doc/sample.dat")))
=> [a list of all transactions, in sequence, within sample.dat]You can build a standalone cl-ledger binary using the Makefile:
make LISP=sbcl
cl-ledger -f doc/sample.dat balanceYou can also use the Roswell script cl-ledger.ros in the roswell directory to use CL-Ledger from the command line:
cl-ledger.ros -f doc/sample.dat balance