Help talk:Database download/Archive 1

Several questions:

1. How often is wikicities backed-up? Is it to separate hardware or to another file on the same hardware? (Yes, I learned about this the hard way.)
 * the backups are saved to a file on the same hardware and copied (automatically) to a second server. So, the backups exist on two different machines.  Both machines are in the same colocation facility, so it's not quite "off-site"
 * How often are the backups performed? Thanks!  WhiteBoy 03:43, 20 Mar 2005 (EST)
 * Once a week at the moment. I'll start doing it once a day very soon. Jasonr 19:20, 20 Mar 2005 (EST)

2. If I download backups myself, what is required to read or use the backup?
 * It's .sql files, they are dumps of SQL tables and thus can be integrated into another sql table (preferabily one which mediawiki has already been installed in). --Me at work 10:49, 23 Jan 2005 (PST)

3. (unrelated, but not sure where to put this question) How many people (roughly) are in the wikicities main team? If something happens to one of them, will things continue smoothly? Sandy
 * I'd say 3 at least, Angela, Jasonr, Jimbo Wales.  --Me at work 10:49, 23 Jan 2005 (PST)
 * And also Terry Foote. See Contact us for more info. Angela 02:43, 27 Jan 2005 (PST)

How do I import these into Mediawiki 1.5? Do you plan to offer XML dumps any time soon? --160.5.109.208 18:07, 26 Nov 2005 (UTC) (sorry no account yet and in a hurry right now)
 * XML files are available for download as described at Database download page. Is it possible to include generation of fresh page, categorylinks and image tables in the daily dump process (in mediawiki-1.5 format)?

Dumps are broken
There have been no dumps created for any wiki for over a month. All the files are zero-length. radius 02:53, 30 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Dumps are running again, but there's no images.tar to find.--Orco al Moccero 13:28, 18 June 2006 (UTC)


 * That at least seems to be working fine. Which wikia are you trying to download images for? These (random tests) work for me: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/images/images.tar http://furry.wikia.com/images/images.tar http://www.wikia.com/images/images.tar http://pipeorgans.wikia.com/images/images.tar etc. --Splarka (talk) 21:30, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

Dumps broken again
It seems the dump are not there, for the last few days? ERROR 404: Not Found. ZyMOS 03:24, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
 * This seems to still be broken, for both current and full, for every wiki I've tried. --23:42, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Where is SQL dump?
Where to download the sql dump for various tables as in wikipedia? --Ans 08:45, 5 June 2006 (UTC)


 * perhaps
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/cur_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/old_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/brokenlinks_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/categorylinks_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/imagelinks_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/image_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/links_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/oldimage_table.sql.bz2
 * http://en.howto.wikia.com/dbdumps/site_stats_table.sql.bz2
 * for you respective site
 * ZyMOS 03:24, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Restoring from Backups
Is there a way to import and SQL dump from another MediaWiki site into Wikia (provided the licensing is OK?)


 * Wikia only offers XML dumps, which is the preferred method apparently. Pages can be imported with Special:Import (requires permission). --Splarka (talk) 20:26, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Uncyc pages_full.xml is broken
Any attempt to download http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/dbdumps/pages_full.xml gives a zero-byte file and immediately closes the connection, even though the server claims there's gigabytes of scholarly wisdom tucked away in that file. This hasn't worked in months. Que pasa? --205.150.76.4 00:19, 5 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Still broken. 17:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Where are the dumps?
It seems none of the dumps at http://www.wikia.com/dbdumps/dbdumps.html is actually working! Guaka 02:06, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

XML dumps doesnt work == ==


 * XML dumps seems to still be broken, for both current and full, for every wiki I've tried. -- 29 October 2006

Status as of 30 December 2006
Page dumps: The dbdumps.html file seems to be out of sync with the actual dumps. Both pages_current.xml and pages_full.xml for the Search Wikia have internal timestamps of Sat, "30 Dec 2006 18:xx:xx GMT"; however, dbdumps.html shows "Sun Dec 24 21:47:25 2006 (all timestamps in UTC)".

Images: This file seems to have a corrupt header (I downloaded it twice just in case there was a download error), and this file is very out of date; it's the same file I downloaded back in April 2006.

Thank you. Charm 18:24, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Still broken
No new dumps have been generated for anything since July 2. --08:17, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Now that backup file have totaly disapeared. The links and  which used to work in the past are now "404 Not Found". When will this be fixed? Ori229 07:10, 21 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Right. Wikia, please fix :) --dealerofsalvation 05:18, 24 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I guess someone fixed it, Thanks. pages_current.xml is update to the day before yesterday. Ori229 05:54, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

questions from newbie
Hi - I posted this to the mailing list a few days ago, but didn't get a reply, and the list instructions said to expect at least one email from the list a day (when set to digest mode), so I don't know if I did something wrong in subscribing, or whether nobody who read the post knows the answer. Anyway...

I can't find the recently created wiki Chains of Reason in the list of db dumps: http://www.wikia.com/dbdumps/dbdumps.html

Perhaps this is just because it is a new wiki, although I notice that the dumps were created a few days after the wiki was.

Also, should I periodically download dumps as a backup, or is this not necessary? I read this recommendation to do so: http://howto.wikia.com/wiki/Howto_get_a_backup_copy_of_Wikihowto

What is the current situation with regards to the frequency and location of backups?

Thanks in advance for any help with this! Derrick Farnell ( talk ) 12:40, 29 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Update: I can now see Chains of Reason in the list of dumps - I was stopping the browser once the list of dumps had gone past those beginning with 'c', unaware that if I waited for the whole page to load, more dumps beginning with 'c' would be added later. :)


 * I'd still like to know the answer to the other questions. Derrick Farnell ( talk ) 13:06, 29 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I'd say it doesn't hurt to keep your own backups once a month or so. Wikia has not had a problem for as long as I remember, but the lack of problems in one area might encourage more attention of Wikia's limited resources being paid to other areas...  So, since it doesn't hurt, why not do it? -PanSola 17:26, 21 October 2007 (UTC)