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How to Import the MusicBrainz Database

If you just want the data in a database, and you don't want Apache etc., here's another method.

• It is more flexible (you can choose not to bother creating the foreign key constraints, for example)
• It has fewer prerequisites (you do not need Perl, nor any of the Perl modules, nor postgresql-devel)
• However it is a bit more "hands on" - you have to check each step for errors yourself, and the import is about 10 or so commands instead of just one.

Here's the method:

Install the base system. Install PostgreSQL (you need both the server and the client, if your system provides them separately). Install bzip2 and Subversion. Checkout the MusicBrainz Server from Subversion, and download the MusicBrainz Database dumps, please make sure their revision matches. Configure postgresql the way you want it.

• (Here mbrainz is the UNIX user I'm running as; musicbrainz_user is the PostgreSQL user I connect as; importtest is the database I'm setting up).

1. Create the empty database:

   mbrainz$ createdb -U postgres --owner=musicbrainz_user --encoding=UNICODE importtestCREATE DATABASEmbrainz$

2. Create the empty tables:

   mbrainz$ psql -U musicbrainz_user importtestWelcome to psql 7.4.8, the ["PostgreSQL"] interactive terminal.Type:  \copyright for distribution terms       \h for help with SQL commands       \? for help on internal slash commands       \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query       \q to quitimporttest=> \i admin/sql/CreateTables.sqlBEGINpsql:admin/sql/CreateTables.sql:31: NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE will createimplicit sequence "album_id_seq" for "serial" column "album.id"CREATE TABLE...COMMITimporttest=> \qmbrainz$

3. Decompress the mbdump*.tar.bz2 files:

   mbrainz$ tar jxf /path/to/mbdump.tar.bz2

• (repeat for the other files too)

1. Import each file into the database:

   mbrainz$ cd mbdump/mbrainz$ mkdir ../donembrainz$ for t in * ; do echo `date` $t ; echo "\\copy $t from ./$t" |psql -U musicbrainz_user importtest && mv $t ../done/ ; done ; echo `date` DoneSun Jun 5 19:46:22 BST 2005 album....Sun Jun 5 19:51:06 BST 2005 urlSun Jun 5 19:51:09 BST 2005 Donembrainz$ cd ..

2. Add primary keys and indexes, and optimise the database:

   mbrainz$ psql -U musicbrainz_user importtestWelcome to psql 7.4.8, the ["PostgreSQL"] interactive terminal.Type:  \copyright for distribution terms       \h for help with SQL commands       \? for help on internal slash commands       \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query       \q to quitimporttest=> \i admin/sql/CreatePrimaryKeys.sqlNOTICE:  ALTER TABLE / ADD PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index "album_pkey" for table "album"ALTER TABLE...NOTICE:  ALTER TABLE / ADD PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index "wordlist_pkey" for table "wordlist"ALTER TABLEimporttest=> \i admin/sql/CreateIndexes.sqlCREATE INDEXCREATE INDEX...CREATE INDEXCREATE INDEXimporttest=> VACUUM ANALYZE;importtest=> \qmbrainz$

That's it! If you want to, you could also choose to add the views (CreateViews.sql). In fact since we're not running CreateFKConstraints.sql, the import is fairly quick too. If you wanted it even quicker, you might want to do without some of the indexes, and just add the ones you think you need.

If you're planning on writing to the database (instead of just querying from it), you might also want to set the correct sequence values (left as an exercise for the reader) and run CreateFKConstraints.sql, CreateFunctions.sql, and CreateTriggers.sql.

~- This information on installing the MusicBrainz Database was by DaveEvans in response to DebianVMWareDatabase (see original post).
This method has been reported to work on a Macintosh.