saveweb · TripleCamera · Dec 26, 2025 · Jan 4, 2026 · Jan 4, 2026 · Jan 12, 2026
diff --git a/docs/README.md b/docs/README.md
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+# `wikiteam3` Documentation
+Welcome to the (WIP) documentation of `wikiteam3`!
+
+References:
+ -  [WikiTeam wiki](https://github.com/WikiTeam/wikiteam/wiki)
+ -  [WikiTeam](https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/WikiTeam) at the ArchiveTeam Wiki
+ -  [WikiTeam3 tutorial](https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Backups#WikiTeam3) at Miraheze Meta
diff --git a/docs/database-api-xml-relation.md b/docs/database-api-xml-relation.md
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+# Database-API-XML Relation
+
+WIP: Writing this reference requires testing on a **real** MediaWiki instance.
+
+Most of the data is stored in the database. Among them, some are mandatory for rebuilding a wiki.
+
+Without direct access to the database, the API can expose those data.
+
+MediaWiki also developed an XML format that holds those data.
diff --git a/docs/dump_structure.md b/docs/dump_structure.md
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+# Dump Structure
+
+Local directory structure:
+
+```
+<url>-<date>-wikidump
+├── config.json
+├── index.html
+├── SpecialVersion.html
+├── siteinfo.json
+├── all_dumped.mark
+├── uploaded_to_IA.mark
+├── errors.log
+├── <url>-<date>-titles.txt
+├── <url>-<date>-history.xml
+├── <url>-<date>-images.txt
+├── images
+│   └── ...
+├── images_mismatch
+│   └── ...
+└── <url>-<date>-redirects.jsonl
+```
+
+Internet Archive item structure:
+
+```
+wiki-<url>-<date>
+├── <url>-<date>-dumpMeta
+│   ├── config.json
+│   ├── index.html
+│   ├── SpecialVersion.html
+│   ├── siteinfo.json
+│   ├── errors.log
+│   ├── <url>-<date>-titles.txt.zst
+│   ├── <url>-<date>-images.txt.zst
+│   └── <url>-<date>-redirects.jsonl.zst
+├── <url>-<date>-history.xml.zst
+├── <url>-<date>-images.7z
+├── <url>-<date>-images_mismatch.7z
+└── <identifier>_logo.<suffix>
+```
+
+## General
+ -  `config.json`: Dump configuration. Used when [resuming an incomplete dump](https://github.com/saveweb/wikiteam3/blob/v4-main/README.md#resuming-an-incomplete-dump).
+ -  `index.html`: Archive of `index.php` (the main page).
+ -  `SpecialVersion.html`: Archive of `[[Special:Version]]`.
+ -  `siteinfo.json`: Archive of Siteinfo API response.
+ -  `all_dumped.mark`: Marks the end of the dump. Content: `<time>:<msg>`
+ -  `uploaded_to_IA.mark`: Marks the success upload to IA. Content: `<time>: identifier: <identifier>`
+ -  `errors.log`: Errors log. Please check this file after the dump is finished.
+ -  `<identifier>_logo.<suffix>`: Logo. This is downloaded when uploading to IA, and would not be stored locally.
+
+## XML Dump
+ -  `<url>-<date>-titles.txt`: List of titles.
+ -  `<url>-<date>-history.xml`: The XML dump. See [Manual:Importing XML dumps](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Importing_XML_dumps) for importing.
+
+## Image Dump
+ -  `<url>-<date>-images.txt`: Image metadata in TSV (Tab-Separated Values) format.
+ -  `images` (directory): The image dump, i.e. the dump of all uploaded files.
+ -  `<url>-<date>-images.7z`: Compression of the `images` directory.
+ -  `images_mismatch` (directory): Images whose actual size or SHA1 doesn't match API responses. Please contact the webmaster.
+ -  `<url>-<date>-images_mismatch.7z`: Compression of the `images_mismatch` directory.
+
+## Redirects Dump
+ -  `<url>-<date>-redirects.jsonl`: The redirects dump. Each line contains one redirection.
diff --git a/docs/dump_types.md b/docs/dump_types.md
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+# Dump Types
+There are three types of backups that can be made with `wikiteam3dumpgenerator`: **XML dumps**, **image dumps**, and **redirect dumps**.
+
+## XML dump
+An XML dump contains the entire history or the latest revision of all pages. To generate an XML dump, use the `--xml` option.
+
+### Revisions
+You can export all revisions (default) or the current revision only.
+
+| Revisions | Option |
+|-----------|--------|
+| All | *None* |
+| Current | `--curonly` |
+
+### API
+List of export APIs supported by wikiteam3:
+ -  [Special:Export](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Parameters_to_Special:Export) (default)
+     -  First, get the list of page titles to export.
+     -  Then, send POST requests to Special:Export to retrieve all/current revisions of pages in the list. The responses are in XML format.
+ -  [API:Allrevisions](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Allrevisions)
+     -  Send GET requests to `api.php` with `action=query&list=allrevisions` to retrieve all/current revisions of all pages. The responses are then converted from JSON to XML.
+     -  This API is significantly faster because it doesn't rely on the list of titles. You may disable delay between requests (`--delay 0`) if you are using this API.
+ -  [API:Revisions](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Revisions)
+     -  First, get the list of page titles to export.
+     -  Then, send GET requests to `api.php` with `action=query&format=xml&prop=revisions&titles=<title>` to retrieve all/current revisions of pages in the list. The responses are then converted from JSON to XML.
+ -  [API:Query](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Query) (DEVELOPMENT ONLY)
+     -  First, get the list of page titles to export.
+     -  Then, send GET requests to `api.php` with `action=query&titles=<title>&export=1` to retrieve the **current** revision of pages in the list. The exported data is in XML format.
+
+If the list of page titles is needed, wikiteam3 tries [API:Allpages](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Allpages) (1.8+) first. If it fails, wikiteam3 then tries to extract page titles from Special:Allpages.
+
+**Limitations**: XML dumps produced using API:Allrevisions or API:Revisions are missing `<redirect>` tags, because these API don't return redirect information. Wikiteam3 introduced redirect dumps to retrieve redirect information. Unfortunately, currently there is no way to patch XML dumps using redirect information from redirect dumps, so the XML dumps will remain slightly flawed.
+
+Here is a table for comparison. Legend:
+ -  **MW version**: Supported MediaWiki versions. The use of old APIs enables wikiteam3 to create dumps for wikis running older versions of MediaWiki software.
+ -  **Titles**: Requires a list of page titles to export before exporting.
+
+| API | Option | MW version | Titles |
+|-----|--------|------------|--------|
+| Special:Export | *None* | 1.16+ (?) | Yes |
+| API:Allrevisions | `--xmlrevisions` | 1.27+ | No |
+| API:Revisions | `--xmlapiexport` | 1.8+ | Yes |
+| API:Query | `--xmlrevisions_page` | 1.8+ | Yes |
+
+TODO: Figure out the exact version for Special:Export
+
+## Image dump
+An image dump contains all files along with their metadata. It is called an *image* dump for historic reasons. To generate an image dump, use the `--images` option.
+
+It takes three steps for the program to create an image dump:
+1.  Get file names and metadata.
+     -  If the API is available, try [API:Allimages](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Allimages) (MW 1.13+) first. If it fails, use [API:Allpages](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Allpages) (MW 1.8+).
+     -  Otherwise, scrape and parse Special:Imagelist.
+2.  Save file names and metadata at `<url>-<date>-images.txt`. The file format is documented at [`DEV.md`](https://github.com/saveweb/wikiteam3/blob/v4-main/DEV.md).
+3.  Download the files. For each file, the actual size and SHA1 are checked against the API responses:
+     -  If they match, the file would be saved at the `images` directory.
+     -  Otherwise, the file would be saved at the `images_mismatch` directory, and an error message would be written to `errors.log`.
+
+After creating an image dump, please check the `images_mismatch` directory. If files appear in this directory, that would be a problem. The probable cause is that the webmaster has turned on image compression for server responses. Please contact the webmaster.
+
+TODO: File name limitations
+
+## Redirect dump
+A redirect dump contains a list of all redirects. The output file `<url>-<date>-redirects.jsonl` is in JSONL format, each line contains the infomation of one redirect, taken from the response of [API:Allredirects](https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Allredirects).
+
+This feature is introduced in commit [`f901972`](https://github.com/saveweb/wikiteam3/commit/f901972ffc7525001f23cc20368d6437369c8953), due to limitations of some APIs. See section [XML dump](#xml-dump).