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.

Installing the newest version of Pyosmium

It is recommended to install Pyosmium via pip. Make sure to use python3. Run (as the same user who will later run the updates):

pip3 install --user osmium

Nominatim needs a tool called pyosmium-get-changes which comes with Pyosmium. You need to tell Nominatim where to find it. Add the following line to your settings/local.php:

@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 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 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');

To set up the update process now run the following command:

./utils/update.php --init-updates

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.

Updating Nominatim

The following command will keep your database constantly up to date:

./utils/update.php --import-osmosis-all

(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.)

If you have imported multiple country extracts and want to keep them up-to-date, Advanced installations section contains instructions to set up and update multiple country extracts.