Provided by: libmediawiki-dumpfile-perl_0.2.2-1.1_all 
NAME
MediaWiki::DumpFile - Process various dump files from a MediaWiki instance
SYNOPSIS
use MediaWiki::DumpFile;
$mw = MediaWiki::DumpFile->new;
$sql = $mw->sql($filename);
$sql = $mw->sql(\*FH);
$pages = $mw->pages($filename);
$pages = $mw->pages(\*FH);
$fastpages = $mw->fastpages($filename);
$fastpages = $mw->fastpages(\*FH);
use MediaWiki::DumpFile::Compat;
$pmwd = Parse::MediaWikiDump->new;
ABOUT
This module is used to parse various dump files from a MediaWiki instance. The most likely
case is that you will want to be parsing content at
http://download.wikimedia.org/backup-index.html provided by WikiMedia which includes the
English and all other language Wikipedias.
This module is the successor to Parse::MediaWikiDump acting as a near full replacement in
feature set and providing an independent 100% backwards compatible API that is faster than
Parse::MediaWikiDump is (see the MediaWiki::DumpFile::Compat and
MediaWiki::DumpFile::Benchmarks documentation for details).
STATUS
This software is maturing into a stable and tested state with known users; the API is
stable and will not be changed. The software is actively being maintained and improved;
please submit bug reports, feature requests, and other feedback to the author using the
bug reporting features described below.
FUNCTIONS
sql
Return an instance of MediaWiki::DumpFile::SQL. This object can be used to parse any
arbitrary SQL dump file used to recreate a single table in the MediaWiki instance.
pages
Return an instance of MediaWiki::DumpFile::Pages. This object parses the contents of the
page dump file and supports both single and multiple revisions per article as well as
associated metadata. The page can be parsed in either normal or fast mode where fast mode
is only capable of parsing the article titles and text contents, with restrictions.
fastpages
Return an instance of MediaWiki::DumpFile::FastPages. This class is a subclass of
MediaWiki::DumpFile::Pages that configures it to fast mode by default and uses a tuned
iterator interface with slightly less overhead.
SPEED
MediaWiki::DumpFile now runs in a slower configuration when installed with out the
recommended Perl modules; this was done so that the package can be installed with out a C
compiler and still have some utility. As well there is a fast mode available when parsing
the XML document that can give significant speed boosts while giving up support for
anything except for the article titles and text contents. If you want to decrease the
processing overhead of this system follow this guide:
Install XML::CompactTree::XS
Having this module on your system will cause XML::TreePuller to use it automatically -
this will net you a dramatic speed boost if it is not already installed. This can give
you a 3-4 times speed increase when not using fast mode.
Use fast mode if possible
Details of fast mode and the restrictions it imposes are in the
MediaWiki::DumpFile::Pages documentation. Fast mode is also available in the
compatibility library as a new available option. Fast mode can give you a further 3-4
times speed increase over parsing with XML::CompatTree::XS installed but it does not
require that module to function; fast mode is nearly the same speed with or with out
XML::CompactTree::XS installed.
Stop using compatibility mode
If you are using the compatibility API you lose performance; the compatibility API is
a set of wrappers around the MediaWiki::DumpFile API and while it is faster than the
original Parse::MediaWikiDump::Pages it is still slower than
MediaWiki::DumpFile::Pages by a few percent.
Use MediaWiki::DumpFile::FastPages
This is a subclass of MediaWiki::DumpFile::Pages that configures it by default to run
in fast mode and uses a tuned iterator that decreases overhead another few percent.
This is generally the absolute fastest fully supported and tested way to parse the XML
dump files.
Start hacking
I've put some considerable effort into finding the fastest ways to parse the XML dump
files. Probably the most important part of this research has been an XML benchmarking
suite I created for specifically measuring the performance of parsing the Mediawiki
page dump files. The benchmark suite is present in the module tarball in the
speed_test/ directory. It contains a comprehensive set of test cases to measure the
performance of a good number of XML parsers and parsing schemes from CPAN. You can use
this suite as a starting point to see how various parsers work and how fast they go;
as well you can use it to reliably verify the performance impacts of experiments in
parsing performance.
The result of my research into XML parsers was to create XML::TreePuller which is the
heart XML processing system of MediaWiki::DumpFile::Pages - it's fast but I'm positive
there is room for improvement. Increaseing the speed of that module will increase the
speed of MediaWiki::DumpFile::Pages as well.
Please consider sharing the results of your hacking with me by opening a ticket in the
bug reporting system as documented below.
The following test cases are notable and could be used by anyone who just needs to
extract article titles and text:
XML-Bare
Wow is it fast! And wrong! Just so very wrong... but it does pass the tests
*shrug*
Benchmarks
See MediWiki::DumpFile::Benchmarks for a comprehensive report on dump file processing
speeds.
AUTHOR
Tyler Riddle, "<triddle at gmail.com>"
LIMITATIONS
English Wikipedia comprehensive dump files not supported
There are two types of Mediawiki dump files sharing one schema: ones with one revision
of page per entry and one with multiple revisions of a page per entry. This software
is designed to parse either case and provide a consistent API however it comes with
the restriction that an entire entry must fit in memory. The normal English Wikipedia
dump file is around 20 gigabytes and each entry easily fits into RAM on most machines.
In the case of the comprehensive English Wikipedia dump files the file itself is
measured in the terabytes and a single entry can be 20 gigabytes or more. It is
technically possible for the original Parse::MediaWikiDump::Revisions (not the
compatibility version provided in this module) to parse that dump file however
Parse::MediaWikiDump runs at a few megabytes per second under the best of conditions.
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-mediawiki-dumpfile at rt.cpan.org", or
through the web interface at
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=MediaWiki-DumpFile>. I will be notified,
and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
56843 ::Pages->current_byte() wraps at 2 gigs+
If you have a large XML file, where the file size is greater than a signed 32bit
integer, the returned value from this method can go negative.
SUPPORT
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc MediaWiki::DumpFile
You can also look for information at:
• RT: CPAN's request tracker
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=MediaWiki-DumpFile>
• AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
<http://annocpan.org/dist/MediaWiki-DumpFile>
• CPAN Ratings
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/MediaWiki-DumpFile>
• Search CPAN
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/MediaWiki-DumpFile/>
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All of the people who reported bugs or feature requests for Parse::MediaWikiDump.
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2009 "Tyler Riddle".
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or
the Artistic License.
See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.