[OSM-newbies] OSM Planet

[Richard Weait]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:17 PM, Tony Morris <tonymorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am trying to work out what is required to have my own local planet
> file then take diff updates.
>
> Am I right in understanding that the planet is in a raw form as .osm
> data (a single XML file?) and that the diffs are patches that I can
> apply to this file? I see that it is possible to put the OSM data into
> PostgreSQL, but this seems to be for rendering e.g. Mapnik. Are there
> any other applications for this? i.e. fast querying of the data perhaps?
>
> I'm just looking for where to get started. I understand I'll need to
> get the initial Planet file from somewhere and it is too big to
> download (or is it? anyone in the SE Queensland area have it on a HDD
> that I could copy from?).
>
> Thanks for any pointers.

Hi Tony,

The current planet file is about 7.6GB and you can get it from
http://planet.openstreetmap.org/
Planet files are date-coded, and produced weekly, like this one
http://planet.openstreetmap.org/planet-091209.osm.bz2

Planet is an xml file and is substantially larger when decompressed.
All those "<" and ">" you see.  A little large to manage.

Diff files are also xml files and are produced for daily, hourly and
minutely periods, thought there are "catches" to working with diffs.
You'll want to have a look at
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Minutely_Mapnik and understand the
issues around "slow" and "replicate" diffs.

You'll probably use osmosis and osm2pgsql to help you manage your .osm files.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Osmosis
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Osm2pgsql

And depending on your area of interest, you might decide to work with
an extract rather than a complete planet file.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Planet.osm#Extracts

Best regards,
Richard