# Updating the Database
There are many different ways to update your Nominatim database.
-The following section describes how to keep it up-to-date with Pyosmium.
-For a list of other methods see the output of `./utils/update.php --help`.
+The following section describes how to keep it up-to-date using
+an [online replication service for OpenStreetMap data](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Planet.osm/diffs)
+For a list of other methods to add or update data see the output of
+`nominatim add-data --help`.
-!!! warning
+!!! important
If you have configured a flatnode file for the import, then you
- need to keep this flatnode file around for updates as well.
+ need to keep this flatnode file around for updates.
-#### Installing the newest version of Pyosmium
+### Installing the newest version of Pyosmium
-It is recommended to install Pyosmium via pip. Make sure to use python3.
+The replication process uses
+[Pyosmium](https://docs.osmcode.org/pyosmium/latest/updating_osm_data.html)
+to download update data from the server.
+It is recommended to install Pyosmium via pip.
Run (as the same user who will later run the updates):
```sh
pip3 install --user osmium
```
-Nominatim needs a tool called `pyosmium-get-updates` which comes with
-Pyosmium. You need to tell Nominatim where to find it. Add the
-following line to your `settings/local.php`:
+### Setting up the update process
- @define('CONST_Pyosmium_Binary', '/home/user/.local/bin/pyosmium-get-changes');
-
-The path above is fine if you used the `--user` parameter with pip.
-Replace `user` with your user name.
-
-#### Setting up the update process
-
-Next the update needs to be initialised. By default Nominatim is configured
+Next the update process needs to be initialised. By default Nominatim is configured
to update using the global minutely diffs.
If you want a different update source you will need to add some settings
-to `settings/local.php`. For example, to use the daily country extracts
+to `.env`. For example, to use the daily country extracts
diffs for Ireland from Geofabrik add the following:
- // base URL of the replication service
- @define('CONST_Replication_Url', 'https://download.geofabrik.de/europe/ireland-and-northern-ireland-updates');
- // How often upstream publishes diffs
- @define('CONST_Replication_Update_Interval', '86400');
- // How long to sleep if no update found yet
- @define('CONST_Replication_Recheck_Interval', '900');
+ # base URL of the replication service
+ NOMINATIM_REPLICATION_URL="https://download.geofabrik.de/europe/ireland-and-northern-ireland-updates"
+ # How often upstream publishes diffs (in seconds)
+ NOMINATIM_REPLICATION_UPDATE_INTERVAL=86400
+ # How long to sleep if no update found yet (in seconds)
+ NOMINATIM_REPLICATION_RECHECK_INTERVAL=900
To set up the update process now run the following command:
- ./utils/update.php --init-updates
+ nominatim replication --init
It outputs the date where updates will start. Recheck that this date is
what you expect.
-The `--init-updates` command needs to be rerun whenever the replication service
-is changed.
+The `replication --init` command needs to be rerun whenever the replication
+service is changed.
+
+### Updating Nominatim
+
+Nominatim supports different modes how to retrieve the update data from the
+server. Which one you want to use depends on your exact setup and how often you
+want to retrieve updates.
+
+These instructions are for using a single source of updates. If you have
+imported multiple country extracts and want to keep them
+up-to-date, [Advanced installations section](Advanced-Installations.md)
+contains instructions to set up and update multiple country extracts.
+
+#### Continuous updates
+
+This is the easiest mode. Simply run the replication command without any
+parameters:
-#### Updating Nominatim
+ nominatim replication
-The following command will keep your database constantly up to date:
+The update application keeps running forever and retrieves and applies
+new updates from the server as they are published.
- ./utils/update.php --import-osmosis-all
+You can run this command as a simple systemd service. Create a service
+description like that in `/etc/systemd/system/nominatim-updates.service`:
-(Note that even though the old name "import-osmosis-all" has been kept for
-compatibility reasons, Osmosis is not required to run this - it uses pyosmium
-behind the scenes.)
+```
+[Unit]
+Description=Continuous updates of Nominatim
+
+[Service]
+WorkingDirectory=/srv/nominatim
+ExecStart=nominatim replication
+StandardOutput=append:/var/log/nominatim-updates.log
+StandardError=append:/var/log/nominatim-updates.error.log
+User=nominatim
+Group=nominatim
+Type=simple
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+```
+
+Replace the `WorkingDirectory` with your project directory. Also adapt user
+and group names as required.
+
+Now activate the service and start the updates:
+
+```
+sudo systemctl daemon-reload
+sudo systemctl enable nominatim-updates
+sudo systemctl start nominatim-updates
+```
+
+#### One-time mode
+
+When the `--once` parameter is given, then Nominatim will download exactly one
+batch of updates and then exit. This one-time mode still respects the
+`NOMINATIM_REPLICATION_UPDATE_INTERVAL` that you have set. If according to
+the update interval no new data has been published yet, it will go to sleep
+until the next expected update and only then attempt to download the next batch.
+
+The one-time mode is particularly useful if you want to run updates continuously
+but need to schedule other work in between updates. For example, the main
+service at osm.org uses it, to regularly recompute postcodes -- a process that
+must not be run while updates are in progress. Its update script
+looks like this:
+
+```sh
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Switch to your project directory.
+cd /srv/nominatim
+
+while true; do
+ nominatim replication --once
+ if [ -f "/srv/nominatim/schedule-maintenance" ]; then
+ rm /srv/nominatim/schedule-maintenance
+ nominatim refresh --postcodes
+ fi
+done
+```
+
+A cron job then creates the file `/srv/nominatim/schedule-maintenance` once per night.
+
+
+#### Catch-up mode
+
+With the `--catch-up` parameter, Nominatim will immediately try to download
+all changes from the server until the database is up-to-date. The catch-up mode
+still respects the parameter `NOMINATIM_REPLICATION_MAX_DIFF`. It downloads and
+applies the changes in appropriate batches until all is done.
+
+The catch-up mode is foremost useful to bring the database up to speed after the
+initial import. Give that the service usually is not in production at this
+point, you can temporarily be a bit more generous with the batch size and
+number of threads you use for the updates by running catch-up like this:
+
+```
+cd /srv/nominatim
+NOMINATIM_REPLICATION_MAX_DIFF=5000 nominatim replication --catch-up --threads 15
+```
-If you have imported multiple country extracts and want to keep them
-up-to-date, [Advanced installations section](Advanced-Installations.md) contains instructions
-to set up and update multiple country extracts.
+The catch-up mode is also useful when you want to apply updates at a lower
+frequency than what the source publishes. You can set up a cron job to run
+replication catch-up at whatever interval you desire.
+
+!!! hint
+ When running scheduled updates with catch-up, it is a good idea to choose
+ a replication source with an update frequency that is an order of magnitude
+ lower. For example, if you want to update once a day, use an hourly updated
+ source. This makes sure that you don't miss an entire day of updates when
+ the source is unexpectely late to publish its update.
+
+ If you want to use the source with the same update frequency (e.g. a daily
+ updated source with daily updates), use the
+ continuous update mode. It ensures to re-request the newest update until it
+ is published.
projects / nominatim.git / blobdiff