[OSM-dev] Bulk downloading of Mapnik tiles

[Udo Giacomozzi]

I'd like to download a portion of the OSM map tiles (from
tile.openstreetmap.org) for offline usage /and/ to offload the OSM
server for the projects where I'm using OSM maps (which are used by
several users). 

Currently the area of interest contains 587001 tiles at zoom level 18.
Is it okay if I download all tiles using a custom script? To keep the
load for the OSM servers at a minimum I would only use a single thread
PHP script and keep the HTTP connection between requests alive so that
unnecessary TCP overhead is avoided.

Once downloaded all tiles, I would then keep them up to date by using
the "changes" request of the OSM API.


Later I will probably extend the area to central Europe but then it's
probably better to install my own Mapnik renderer. However, for the
moment this seems a bit too complicated to me and I need the finished
tiles for offline usage anyway.


So, is bulk downloading as described above allowed?

Udo