[OSM-dev] Timestamp in PBF files

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 20.11.2012 20:12, Jochen Topf wrote:
> I guess the timestamp is somehow supposed to say which state of the OSM
> database this file represents.

Yes. Bascially "whatever was in Osmosis' state.txt file at the time this 
file was created".

> How is it supposed to work in history files?

I think it would make sense to have a a comparable timestamp in history 
files. Currently there's no software that would be able to patch history 
files with freshly downloaded diffs so the discussion is rather academic 
though.

> Do we need two timestamps to define a range for history files?

I'd suggest to wait until someone has an application that needs this. 
I'm a bit wary of throwing this discussion wide open because before too 
long we'll have all sorts of people suggesting helpful optional 
enhancements to the PBF format ("while we're at it, can we maybe do X") 
and then nothing gets done again.

All *I* want is one extra timestamp, and I would start using it 
tomorrow, it's not academic, there's software that would process it, 
there's a clear benefit to users. I'd prefer to use a standard but in 
the absence of an existing standard I'll just make something up and use 
that. (But we've seen how well that works - I did make something up for 
testing and Marqqs expected something else.)

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"