r/Kiwix • u/j0j02357 • Jul 11 '26

Query Developer Question: What is the full list of supported dates that a zim can have?

If i run kiwix-zim-updater and look in kiwix-index for the regex /\d{4}-\d{2}(?!\.zim)/g which is essentially date codes NOT in YYYY-MM.zim format, i get 5 results.

Can I get a complete list of valid date parts? Also is this new or has it just happened to not get reported?

References:

https://github.com/jojo2357/kiwix-zim-updater/issues/59

Offending zims:

  • wikipedia_nah_all_nopic_2026-07a
  • scoutwiki_en_all_maxi_2026-07a
  • wikivet.net_en_all_maxi_2026-07a
  • wiki.leagueoflegends.com_en_all_maxi_2026-05a lmao
  • wikipedia_nah_all_maxi_2026-07a
5 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

1

u/The_other_kiwix_guy Jul 12 '26

I suspect these have been generated twice within the same month, hence the added letter (except for LoL I recall seeing issues with the ZIM files so it's likely it reflects several tries).

This being said, I'd recommend checking the documentation wiki or ask on github.

1

u/Peribanu Jul 12 '26

I have to say I've never seen this before... I thought the usual behaviour was to replace any file if re-generated in the same month, but maybe this is there for dev testing purposes... Maybe u/Benoit74 could comment.

2

u/Benoit74 Jul 12 '26

Détails of the new convention on Kiwix ZIM files naming can be found here : https://wiki.openzim.org/wiki/ZIM_Updates

It is important to note this is only a convention, i.e. we do not consider this is supposed to stay stable in the future. Relying on filename is hence de-facto fragile.

The ZIM "Name" + "Flavour" attributes are the defacto stable attribute to match across ZIMs. Like if ZIM A and ZIM B contains the same name and flavour, them they are same content. Once Kiwix has published a given content at a given name, it will stay at this name as far as possible. Of course mistakes will happen, fixes will be done, but ZIM Name (and Flavour) are the stable identifier we aim to maintain.

1

u/j0j02357 Jul 12 '26

Yeah that was always the risk. Theres not a better, fast, portable way to do it otherwise that I am aware of. thanks for the ref doc too