Skip to main content

An importer and exporter for MBTiles

Project description

# MBUtil

MBUtil is a utility for importing and exporting the [MBTiles](http://mbtiles.org/) format,
typically created with [MapBox](http://mapbox.com/) [TileMill](http://mapbox.com/tilemill/).

Before exporting tiles to disk, see if there's a [MapBox Hosting plan](http://mapbox.com/plans/)
or an open source [MBTiles server implementation](https://github.com/mapbox/mbtiles-spec/wiki/Implementations)
that works for you - tiles on disk are notoriously difficult to manage.

## Installation

Git checkout (requires git)

git clone git://github.com/Alpstein/mbutil.git
cd mbutil
./mb-util -h

# then to install the mb-util command globally:
sudo python setup.py install
# then you can run:
mb-util

Python installation (requires easy_install)

easy_install mbutil
mb-util -h

## Usage

mb-util [command] [options] file|directory [file|directory ...]

Examples:

Export an mbtiles database to a directory of files:
mbutilexportworld.mbtilestilesImportadirectoryoftilesintoanmbtilesdatabase: mb-util --import tiles world.mbtiles

Create an empty mbtiles file:
mbutilcreateempty.mbtilesExecutecommandsonalltilesinthembtilesfile: mb-util --process --execute "COMMAND ARGUMENTS" [--execute "SECOND COMMAND"] world.mbtiles

Merge two or more mbtiles files (receiver will be the first file):
mbutilmergereceiver.mbtilesfile1.mbtiles[file2.mbtiles...]Fillambtilesdatabasewithagiventileimage mb-util --fill --min-zoom=7 --max-zoom=12 world.mbtiles transparent.png

Check if a mbtiles file contains all tiles at a specific zoom level:
mbutilcheckzoom=7world.mbtilesTesttileswithacommand,printtilecoordinatesfornonzeroreturnvalues mb-util --test --execute "COMMAND ARGUMENTS" world.mbtiles

Compact a mbtiles file by eliminating duplicate images:
mbutilcompactworld.mbtilesConverttilecoordinatesandboundingboxes: mb-util --convert="13/4328/2861"
$ mb-util --convert="10.195312,47.546872,10.239258,47.576526" --min-zoom=12 --max-zoom=13


Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit

Commands:
These are the commands to use on mbtiles databases

-e, --export Export an mbtiles database to a directory of files. If
the directory exists, any already existing tiles will
be overwritten.
-i, --import Import a directory of tiles into an mbtiles database.
If the mbtiles database already exists, existing tiles
will be overwritten with the imported tiles.
-m, --merge Merge two or more databases. The receiver will be
created if it doesn't yet exist.
-p, --process Processes a mbtiles databases. Only usefull together
with one or more --execute.
--check Check the database for missing tiles.
--test Test every tile with the given command, print the tile
coordinate if the command returns anything non-zero.
--fill Fill a mbtiles database with tiles where
it doesn't already contain a tile. Only usefull with
--min-zoom/--max-zoom and --tile-bbox/--bbox.
--compact Eliminate duplicate images to reduce mbtiles filesize.
--create Create an empty mbtiles database.
--convert=CONVERT Convert tile coordinates 'y/x/z' to bounding box
'left,bottom,right,top' or vice versa.

Options:
--execute=COMMAND Commands to execute for each tile image. %s will be
replaced with the file name. This argument may be
repeated several times and can be used together with
--import/--export/--merge/--compact/--process.
--flip-y Flip the y tile coordinate during
--export/--import/--merge/--convert.
--min-zoom=MIN_ZOOM
Minimum zoom level for
--export/--import/--merge/--process/--check/--convert.
--max-zoom=MAX_ZOOM
Maximum zoom level for
--export/--import/--merge/--process/--check/--convert.
--zoom=ZOOM Zoom level for
--export/--import/--process/--check/--convert.
(Overrides --min-zoom and --max-zoom)
--min-timestamp=MIN_TIMESTAMP
Minimum numerical timestamp for --export/--merge.
--max-timestamp=MAX_TIMESTAMP
Maximum numerical timestamp for --export/--merge.
--bbox=BBOX Bounding box in coordinates 'left,bottom,right,top'
(10.195312,47.546872,10.239258,47.576526)
--tile-bbox=TILE_BBOX
Bounding box in tile coordinates
'left,bottom,right,top' (10,10,20,20). Can only be
used with --zoom.
--no-overwrite don't overwrite existing tiles during
--merge/--import/--export.
--revert-test For --test, print the tile coordinates if the command
returns zero.
--auto-commit Enable auto commit for --merge/--import/--process.
--synchronous-off DANGEROUS!!! Set synchronous=OFF for the database
connections.
--use-wal-journal Use journal_mode=WAL for the databases (default is
DELETE).
--check-before-merge
Runs some basic checks (like --check) on mbtiles
before merging them.
--delete-after-export
DANGEROUS!!! After a --merge or --export, this option
will delete all the merged/exported tiles from the
(sending) database. Only really usefull with --min-
zoom/--max-zoom or --zoom since it would remove all
tiles from the database otherwise.
--delete-vanished-tiles
DANGEROUS!!! If a tile vanishes during --execute then
delete it also from the database or ignore it during
--merge/--process.
--poolsize=POOLSIZE
Pool size for processing tiles with --process/--merge.
Default is to use a pool size equal to the number of
cpus/cores.
--tmp-dir=TMP_DIR Temporary directory to use for --execute.
--vacuum VACUUM the mbtiles database after
--import/--merge/--process/--compact.
--analyze ANALYZE the mbtiles database after
--import/--merge/--process/--compact.
--progress Print progress updates and keep them on one line
during --import/--merge/--export/--compact/--process.
-q, --quiet don't print any status messages to stdout except
errors.
-d, --debug print debug messages to stdout (exclusive to --quiet).


## Special considerations

* All mbtiles databases must be on the same host as the mb-util binary if you want to use the WAL locking mode.
* Using --synchronous-off is dangerous since your database might get corrupted.
* Use --tmp-dir=/dev/shm on Ubuntu to place temporary files on a ram disk.
* Use --use-wal-journal if you want to udpate a database which is at the same time used for reading.
* --auto-commit will disable transactions and therefore most probably slow down any insert operations to the database.

## Requirements

* Python `>= 2.6`
* SQLite `>= 3.7.0`

## Metadata

mb-util imports and exports metadata as JSON, in the root of the tile directory, as a file named `metadata.json`.

```javascript
{
"name": "World Light",
"description": "A Test Metadata",
"version": "3"
}
```

## Testing

This project uses [nosetests](http://readthedocs.org/docs/nose/en/latest/) for testing. Install nosetests
and run

nosetests

## License

BSD - see LICENSE.md

## Authors

- Tom MacWright (tmcw)
- Dane Springmeyer (springmeyer)
- Mathieu Leplatre (leplatrem)
- Thomas Rasch (trasch)

Supported by

AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Pingdom Monitoring Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page