Hi, dumps maintainer here.

The database schema for each sql table is linked to from the docs for those files, at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_dumps/What%27s_available_for_download#Available_for_download_from_XML/Sql_dumps_per_project

A description of the xml contents for the stubs/page content files is linked to from the docs for those files as well, see the description in https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_dumps/Dump_format, especially the section "Format of the XML files".

Is it the file naming scheme that is confusing, and in particular the numbering? I can certainly add some information about that.

I have added some information about filenames here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data_dumps/What%27s_available_for_download#XML_files if that is helpful. Please let me know if there is other information missing!

Thanks for the quick response. That looks like it covers most of the questions I had.

I assume the md5sums and sha1sums files are just checksumming the corresponding data files for transmission verification?

In T280554#7019747, @RoySmith wrote:

Thanks for the quick response. That looks like it covers most of the questions I had.

I assume the md5sums and sha1sums files are just checksumming the corresponding data files for transmission verification?

Yes, sometimes downloads are corrupt causing any number of weird errors,and the hashes are a quickie way to check that.

If you have no further questions, I'll close this task. You might also consider subscribing to the xmldatadumps-l mailing list https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xmldatadumps-l as a relatively low traffic list where announcements about dumps are sent, and people familiar with uses of the dumps discuss with each other.